The American magazine Military Watch, which has been paying attention to the trend of Zhuhai Air Show, wrote that according to the details of the new batch of J-16 fighters participating in the air show, the China Air Force has installed more than 300 top J-16 heavy fighters in just a few years, which means that the PLA has the largest modern fighter fleet in the world.
Zhuhai Air Show is one of the most anticipated military defense exhibitions in China. A series of weapons and equipment exhibited at the air show can let the outside world know about the modernization of China's army and the trend of new foreign trade weapons, among which two new batches of J- 16 landed at the air show. When some netizens took photos, they found that there was a clear manufacturing number on the air inlet of J- 106 fuselage-105. Obviously, this shows that this is a new aircraft launched by Shen Fei in the batch of 1 1, which shows to the outside world that the PLA Air Force has received the batch of 1 1.
J- 16 fighter is the most advanced heavy conventional multi-role fighter in PLA. Its design originated from J- 1 1BH. Tracing back to the source, in fact, the original lineage of J- 16 fighter can be traced back to Russian Su Huoyi flanker fighter, which is also known as Soviet 27, 30 and 35 fighters, and also comes from Russia and other countries.
However, the comprehensive performance of the wing protection fighter developed by China has surpassed that of the original Russian fighter, which is mainly due to the remarkable progress of China's aviation industry, enabling China to install more advanced domestic equipment and radar avionics equipment. For J- 16, J- 15, J- 1 1 and other winged fighters. The technical level has reached the level of similar equipment in the west, and even slightly ahead in some fields. However, Russia's avionics fire control technology has not made great progress, and most of them are still "living on their laurels". Therefore, in terms of comprehensive performance, there is a big gap between Russian original Su Huoyi and China's advanced fighters, especially the original Su -35, which is much worse than J- 16 in hardware indicators, and even is not an opponent of J- 10C medium-sized fighters in air combat exercises.
China's ability to reintegrate flanker fighters shows China's advantages in aviation, especially in the field of advanced military aviation technology.
According to the analysis of public information in the past, the number of fighters in each production batch of J- 16 is between 24 and 30. According to the batch data of J- 1 1 disclosed at the air show, it is conservatively estimated that the total number of J- 16 in active service of the PLA has reached about 300, which shows that the production speed of China's heavy conventional fighters far exceeds that of any heavy fighter in the world. There is no doubt that the holding scale of 300 fighters ranks first in the world. The output of J- 16 in recent years is twice that of Su -30, Su -34 and Su -35 fighters produced in Russia for decades, and the output of J- 16 is three times that of Su -35.
Apart from Russia, the only country that produces conventional heavy-duty multi-role fighters is the United States. The F- 15 fighter has been produced in the United States for more than 50 years, and it is still a fighter with a long history, and the latest improved models F- 15QA and F- 15EX are produced at a rate less than 10 every year. Moreover, the heavy fighter team of the US Air Force only has more than 200 F- 15 (excluding F- 15e), which is far from the heavy fighter team of the China Air Force in scale, and 54 F- 15C/D fighters are about to retire.
○ 16 represents that the design level of conventional heavy fighter in China has reached a very high level. Compared with the Su-35 of the Russian flanker family, the J/KOOC-0/6 is a more effective fighter, with a brand-new composite material to strengthen the airframe structure, a brand-new forward-looking system and digital fire control, plus AESA radar and infrared search devices comparable to stealth aircraft, as well as PL/KOOC-0/5 and PL/KOOC-0/7 series missiles. It can be seen that although J- 16 is a four-and-a-half-generation fighter, most of its interiors adopt the technology of five-generation fighters, which means that J- 16 has a very strong technical advantage compared with conventional fighters except stealth.
The American media commented on the J- 16 fighter, saying that this fighter has almost no rivals in the world after being equipped with the PL 17 missile, which aims to eliminate bombers and other large aircraft 500 kilometers away. The aircraft also inherits the high mobility, speed and altitude limitation of the flanker, and its system-centered combat capability and wider data link capability are equivalent to China's J-20 fifth-generation fighter.
The fleet size of 300 J- 16 fighters means that there are many more heavyweight fighters in active service in China than in other countries, which is of special significance. Because this fighter plays a central role in the western border, East China Sea, South China Sea and Taiwan Province Strait, J- 16 is superior to most fighters of China's potential rivals, such as American F- 15, F- 16 and Japanese F-2 and F-F 15J. J- 16 is probably the last four-and-a-half-generation aircraft in China that is producing more than 300 aircraft, because China is focusing on the production and research and development of its fifth-and sixth-generation aircraft.