Beginning in the new century, that is, in 2000, our army as a whole has entered a stage of rapid development, and has been rapidly improved in all fields. So, in this issue, let's take a look at how much the overall strength of our army has improved from 2001 to 2024!
Let's start with the Air Force. At the beginning of this century, the most advanced equipment developed by our air force was the J-8 series fighters, and a large number of J-6 and J-7 series fighters were still in service, and the overall technical level was still at the level of the Soviet period and even the early Soviet Union. At that time, the most advanced fighters in our Air Force were the Su-27 fighters imported from Russia, which were not only too few in number, but also not comprehensive in performance. At the end of 2000, the first batch of Su-30s to be delivered had to be used by the HNA first, because the navy did not have much good sea-making equipment at that time.
Now, just over 20 years later, our Air Force has grown into a modern air force through hard work. The most advanced J-20 fighter in our Air Force has been in service in large quantities, and it is very likely that it has surpassed the United States F-22 in number, becoming the twin-engine heavy fifth-generation aircraft with the largest number in service in the world. And it is especially worth noting that after several years of development, the J-20 has developed a very advanced and improved version, and there is even a two-seat version of the J-20 that does not even have a United States. Many analysts have pointed out that the technical level of the J-20 is likely to have greatly surpassed the F-35, and it is not far behind the most advanced F-22 in service in the US military.
In addition to the J-20, our Air Force also has a large number of advanced fourth-generation aircraft, including J-10 fighters, J-16 fighters, etc. Among them, the J-10 fighter has been successfully exported and has been recognized by the international market. In addition, more than 20 years ago, our air force had many shortcomings in the fields of auxiliary special aircraft, such as early warning aircraft, air tankers, and large transport aircraft. Now, these shortcomings have been made up by our Air Force one by one.
Let's take a look at the Navy. Around 2000, the first batch of 136 and 137 modern-class destroyers imported by our navy from Russia were put into service, which was also the largest and most advanced destroyer of our navy at that time. The Russian-made anti-ship missiles equipped with this type of destroyer have finally enabled our navy to theoretically possess the capability to strike at the opponent's large mission ships for the first time in theory. However, in addition to these modern classes, the remaining more advanced destroyers of our Navy are the 112 and 113 two 4,000-ton destroyers, and the 167 ships of more than 5,000 tons, in addition to a large number of 051 series, such a fleet, not to mention compared with the United States Navy, even compared with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, there is a large gap.
Now, after more than 20 years of development, our navy has commissioned two 60,000-ton large aircraft carriers, the Shandong and the Liaoning. In addition, the sea trials of the most advanced 80,000-ton large aircraft carrier Fujian are also in full swing, and today's Chinese Navy can be said to be the world's second largest aircraft carrier navy, second only to the United States Navy!
In addition to aircraft carriers, our Navy also has a 10,000-ton large destroyer Type 055 destroyer, which is called an epoch-making destroyer, equipped with a 112-unit vertical haircut, a very modern dual-band phased array radar, and the overall performance is even stronger than the Burke-class destroyers in service in United States!
And on the side of the army, the progress of our army is also very great! More than 20 years ago, although the scale of our army was quite large, the tanks in Dalian were all Type 59 main battle tanks developed and produced in the 50s of the last century. Today, our army's tanks are basically based on the second-and-a-half-generation Type 96 and the third-generation Type 99, and the degree of modernization of the tank unit has been greatly improved.
In addition, what is even more noteworthy is that more than 20 years ago, our army did not have special helicopter gunships, and some only used Z-9 or Russian-made Mi-17 modified helicopter gunships. Now, our army has already used the Wuzhi-10 armed helicopters and Wuzhi-19 armed helicopters developed by ourselves, and there are at least several hundred armed helicopters.
Finally, let's take a look at the Rocket Army, in 2001, the Rocket Army was still called the Second Artillery Corps, and it was not until 2015 that the Rocket Army was officially established. Since its establishment, the strength of our rocket force has been continuously enhanced, and it is a strategic support for the mainland's status as a great power and an important cornerstone for safeguarding the dignity of the motherland.
With regard to the training of ballistic missile units, the training level of our missile units has been continuously strengthened, and they are seeking to have all-weather combat capability under various complex conditions.
In terms of equipment, new types of equipment of our missile units are constantly emerging, and there are many kinds of equipment that have already been unveiled in the open, and there are even many good things that even United States cannot develop. For example, anti-ship ballistic missiles, which are called "rule changers," and hypersonic missiles that are capable of striking large surface ships with lightning speed, are all good things that our military did not have more than 20 years ago.
To sum up, it can be seen that after more than 20 years of development, our army has made great progress in all fields, and this is really gratifying. However, it should be pointed out that although after more than 20 years of hard work and development, the gap between Chinese and US military strength has been narrowing, but this should still be viewed rationally. As the de facto number one military power in the world, the United States still has advantages in some military fields. For example, United States has the world's only stealth bomber B-2 bomber, United States's next-generation new stealth bomber B-21 has also come out, and United States also has a very powerful 100,000-ton nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and there are as many as 11 ships, which also makes the navies of the rest of the world daunting. In addition, the US military also has super-large strategic transport planes, advanced air tankers, and other weapons and equipment, and we still need to catch up in many of these areas.
End of this issue.