【Military Subplane】Author: Lele.
After the U.S. Air Force purchased its last F-16 in 2005, Loma's F-16 production line began to serve overseas customers wholeheartedly. In view of the sharp decline in F-16 orders, Loma made every effort to expand the international market, starting with the F-16IN for India, and finally officially launched the F-16V program in 2012. Originally, the F-16V brought together multiple users, including the U.S. Air Force, but then withdrew one by one, leaving only the last one to hold on. As of the beginning of this month, all 141 F-16s of the first F-16 user have been upgraded to the F-16V level, and the first all-new F-16V has also rolled off the assembly line in November last year. As the only third-generation semi-medium aircraft in the world to use a single large-scale push, the confrontation between the J-10C and F-16V is naturally particularly eye-catching.
The F-16 family has a long history of service.
Although the F-16V uses a very later number, it itself is only after the F-16E F, and technically follows the overall configuration of the F-16E F, and the core upgrade project is actually only one - an APG-83 active phased array radar. Claimed to use part of the F-22A and F-35 technology, with the APG-80 radar as the prototype, with 5 working modes such as air-to-air search and synthetic aperture, and a fairly stable architecture, the AN APG-83 is the absolute core of the F-16V, and it is also its advanced combat power**. And in order to meet the terrifying power and cooling needs of active phased array radar, the engine naturally had to be upgraded to provide more surging power;The supporting airborne avionics architecture and artificial interaction system also have to be replaced with new modelsThe airborne ** paired with the radar is about to become the latest series;Since so much has been made, the fighter cannot be retired in two years, so the fuselage also needs to be upgraded to extend the service life to increase the service period. In a word, the key to the performance of the F-16V is the AN APG-83 radar, and all the upgrade projects are carried out around the radar.
The F-16 is well developed.
In contrast, the technical route of the J-10C is a little simpler. The early J-10A is essentially a positioning of a high-altitude and high-speed interceptor, which no longer meets the needs of the times, and the J-10B is the first domestic attempt to develop a third-generation and a half-generation fighter, but in the context of immature power and avionics systems, the effect is not outstanding. J-10C is a three-generation semi-mature model based on the two, fully stimulating the potential, also equipped with active phased array radar and advanced avionics, especially after receiving the blessing of turbofan-10B, the last shortcoming of J-10C no longer exists, worthy of replacing the American-made F-16, becoming the next generation of the Pakistan Air Force's main force. At the same time, the J-10C has also changed its previous auxiliary status in China and has become the main force of air supremacy with the J-16, and even after the J-20 is mass-produced, it is still one of the three giants of the domestic air force.
The J-10C was created on the basis of the J-10B.
If you want to compare the J-10C and F-16V, it can only be said that both are the extreme models of single-engine high-push fighters at the current stage, and there is no absolute superiority or inferiority, but because of the slight difference in their emphasis. The F-16V is the absolute foreign trade model, with a total of 405 upgrade orders and 136 new orders, and the number of the latter is likely to increase further. For most F-16V users, this American-made fighter is the main equipment, and it must be able to handle air and ground operations, so Loma has also targeted and strengthened the multi-purpose performance of the F-16V, for which it has paid the price of air combat performance attenuation. The J-10C is a complete air supremacy fighter in China, although it also has certain multi-purpose attributes, but at the moment when the J-16 and J-7A are in service in large quantities, it is impossible for the J-10C to directly participate in large-scale ground and sea attacks in actual combat. In addition, the F-16V uses a large number of mature components, and its stability is still stronger than that of the J-10C.
Ground attack is only a secondary mission for the J-10C.
Without taking into account external influences, the F-16V and J-10C have their own merits, but the reality is that other influences must be taken into account. As a domestically produced model, AVIC knows every part of the J-10C well, and it is easy to upgrade and replace, and it can improve its combat effectiveness through long-term software updates. Most of the users of the F-16V are not outstanding players in the aviation industry, and they are often in a situation where they know what they are doing but do not know why, which is a big weakness. Secondly, the domestic air force has not only completed the entry of the J-10C into the ranks in recent years, but also launched strong auxiliary equipment such as Y-20 oil and Air Police-500A. There are almost no F-16V users in the world who can form a similar level of auxiliary system, and the confrontation with the J-10C is naturally a steady decline. Not to mention, the domestic preparation for the J-10C is a complete version of the Thunderbolt-15, Thunderbolt-10 and other top airborne **, compared with the F-16V supporting the export castration version, it also has performance advantages.
Not many players can get the Air Police-500A alone.
The most important thing, of course, is that the batch installation of the J-20A has been realized in China, and the J-10C is actually only in a secondary position. Loma's propaganda for the F-16V, while at all his might, is not bold enough to claim that it can fight a real stealth fighter. In fact, there has been a clear differentiation of global air power, China and the United States can produce stealth fighters in parallel with the country is in the first echelon, the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries that have purchased F-35 belong to the second echelon, and the existence of the stealth threshold has not yet stepped on, so it can only be counted further down (Russia can theoretically be classified as the first echelon, but the difficult birth of the Su-57 makes it still in the third echelon). The F-16V and the J-10C are indeed comparable, but the domestic air force will never use the J-20A in actual combat, and will use the J-10C to fight the F-16V alone.
The mass production of the J-20A has changed too much.
In a word, the Chinese Air Force is no longer the poor and weak it used to be, and in the more than 10 years since the F-16V was proposed, developed, and landed, the domestic Air Force has realized the transformation to a fourth-generation aircraft. Since the production of J-20A has reached the figure of 200 aircraft, it is no longer meaningful to compare non-stealth fighters alone, only the air power with the same large number of stealth fighters and advanced auxiliary combat systems is qualified to become the opponent of the domestic air force, and the others are really not worthy.