Compared with the American F-22 and F-35, the J-20 has obvious advantages in radar and air-to-air missiles, and the J-20 is not only equipped with an active phased array radar made of gallium nitride with a larger diameter.
At the same time, the performance advantages of the air-to-air missiles carried by the J-20 are obvious. China's PL-10E short-range air-to-air missile not only has a maximum range of 40 kilometers, which is close to the range of medium-range missiles, but also has a comprehensive capability that surpasses similar products in Europe and the United States.
In addition, the PL-15 long-range air-to-air missile for China's own use can reach a maximum range of 200 km to 300 km, while the maximum range of the current most advanced AIM-120D medium- and long-range missile in the United States is only about 160 km. The strike range of China's J-20 medium and long-range air combat is 80~100 kilometers farther than that of the US F-35 fighter.
China's J-20 has obvious advantages in terms of detection and attack by the enemy first, and these key characteristics will become a key factor in future air combat.
However, the US F-35 can not only carry a variety of air-to-air, air-to-ground and air-to-ship weapons, but also carry the "Mako" hypersonic missile being developed by the US military.
In April 2024, the U.S. Lockheed Martin Corporation released the newly developed "Mako" new multi-purpose hypersonic missile, Lockheed Martin said that the "Mako" hypersonic missile is a multi-purpose, high-survivability missile system, and the price is reasonable, and it will soon be in service.
At the same time, Lockheed Martin said that the missile has a speed of at least Mach 5 and a range of 300-350 kilometers. It is compatible with any aircraft with a 30-inch pylon, including the F-35, F-22, F-16, F-15, F-18 and Navy P-8, and can be built into the internal bomb bay of the F-35 fighter. The American F-35A can carry a total of 6 "Mako" missiles in the internal bomb bay and on the external pylons.
The F-35 fighter is not only capable of carrying a large number of "Mako" missiles, but also can carry them in its internal bomb bay, thus maintaining the stealth status of the fighter.
According to the information that has been made public so far, the weapons carried by the J-20 are mainly air-to-air missiles, and do not include hypersonic ground-to-ground and anti-ship missiles. The main reason for this is that due to the different positioning, China currently positions the J-20 for air combat purposes, mainly performing air combat missions.
The Chinese military's ground and anti-ship missions are mainly completed by the J-16 and H-6. At present, China's air-launched hypersonic missile platforms are mainly H-6.
The U.S. military positions the F-35 as a multi-role fighter, so the F-35 can carry many types of weapons and perform a variety of combat missions.
However, China is more than 10 years ahead of the US military in the field of hypersonic missiles, and China has been heavily equipped with a variety of hypersonic missiles such as the DF-17 and YJ-21. The range, speed, and penetration capability of these missiles are clearly ahead of the US military's "Mako" missiles.
The speed of the "Mako" is about Mach 5, which can only be barely classified into the category of high-speed sonic missiles. In terms of speed, it is only slightly ahead of China's YJ-12 supersonic missile, but the range is significantly inferior.
As China continues to make breakthroughs in missile miniaturization and hypersonic missiles in recent years, it can also develop hypersonic missiles that can be carried by J-16, J-20 and J-35 fighters if needed.
However, there is still uncertainty about whether the "Mako" hypersonic missile of the United States can be successfully developed on schedule, after all, many of the US military's hypersonic missile projects have been significantly delayed and test failures.