As an imitation but surpassing the original, why can the reputation of my country's J-16 fighter surpass the Russian Su-35 fighter?Even after the advent of the J-20, not only was it not eliminated, but it became more important, why is this?
The J-16 fighter is one of the main models of China's fighter jets, known as "Sister Pomegranate" by many military fans, and is a heavy two-seater, twin-engine, multi-purpose four-and-a-half-generation fighter developed by Shen Fei.
In fact, in a strict sense, the statement that the J-16 imitates the Su-35 is actually incorrect, and there is indeed an indirect connection between the two, but it is not a direct imitation.
In the last century, a Soviet fighter shocked the world as soon as it was unveiled, with its superb maneuverability and combat effectiveness, won the name of "Barron's Sea scalpel", and also made the world's first "Pugachev Cobra" maneuver at the Paris Air Show, becoming one of the most dazzling military products at the end of the Soviet Union, and this fighter is the famous Su-27.
Friends who have learned the relevant history should know that the domestic model of the Su-27 is the J-11, and later the J-11 has derived a number of series of models, one of which is the J-11BS, and the fighter model developed by Shen Fei on the basis of the J-11BS is the J-16, which successfully made its first flight in Shenyang in 2011, was officially announced in 2013, and entered service in 2016 and was named "Qianlong".
The Su-35 fighter of Soviet Russia is actually derived from the Su-27 fighter model, and there is also a generation of equally famous fighters, that is, the Su-30.
Therefore, in fact, the J-16 and the Su-35 are not directly copied from each other, but are based on the Su-27 fighter. Although both sides are fundamentally a fourth-generation and a half-generation fighter, there are still some differences in performance parameters.
After sorting out this layer of relationship, we can find out why the international community often compares the J-16 with the Su-35, because in fact, the division is from the same family, and after two generations of development, there has been a difference.
In terms of technical form, although the J-16 and the Su-35 are both four-and-a-half-generation fighters, their positioning is not exactly the same, and the most conspicuous difference is that the Su-35 still maintains the single-seat design of the Su-27, while the J-16 is a two-seat fighter.
It is not difficult to see from this point that in fact, the Su-35 still maintains the core concept of air superiority fighters, and the development path is relatively pure.
The J-16 opens up a new path on this basis, capable of achieving different effects on the battlefield. Therefore, although the technical origin still exists, in fact, the two have produced obvious differences in positioning, which cannot be regarded as a refined track.
As the world's most famous four-and-a-half-generation fighters, the two are strong competitors to the title of "Ultimate Flanker".
In recent years, the comparison of the two fighters in the international military academic circles has also quietly changed. As a latecomer, the J-16's reputation has gradually surpassed that of the Su-35 and is favored by the world's leading academic circles.
This is because the J-16 has this advantage that the Su-35 does not have, and will play an extremely important role on the future battlefield, and even the fifth-generation aircraft may not be able to do it.
China's J-16 fighter imitates the Russian Su-35, why does the imitation version surpass the original?Many of these advantages may not even be able to be achieved by fifth-generation aircraft, which can be described as far ahead.
The J-16, which has been in service for 7 years at a Zhuhai air show, has long been a frequent visitor to various air shows, and it is almost the same to see, but the J-16 is once again eye-catching, and it is even more bright than the J-20.
It turned out that many people found that the J-16 unveiled at the Zhuhai Air Show was impressively painted with a string of numbers, 1104. These four simple numbers have made many people discover unusual factors.
People familiar with the matter pointed out that this series of numbers refers to the fact that this J-16 is the 4th of the 11th batch produced in China, that is, China has produced at least 11 batches of J-16.
According to international practice, a batch of fighters is generally produced according to the standard of a battalion, that is, China already has at least more than 300 J-16s.
The mainstream view is generally that the J-16 should officially start mass production after entering service in 2016, and the production speed should be between 40-50 aircraft per year, and this production speed will continue to rise with the increase of production lines, the compression of production costs, the improvement of production processes and the improvement of production processes.
China's current production speed has not been disclosed to the public, and it is obvious that it will not be less.
And the news that China has at least 300 more J-16 fighters also makes many people puzzled, because even after cost compression, the cost of a J-16 fighter is also about 80 million US dollars, you must know that this ** is about the same as the level of the fifth generation aircraft.
Since our country already has the J-20, why choose to continue to produce the J-16?And the reason behind this is the reason why the J-16's reputation surpasses that of its competitor Su-35, that is, the electronic warfare capability of the modern and information-based battlefield in the future, and the importance of mastering electromagnetic power in modern warfare is self-evident.
Electronic warfare has become a mode of warfare that kills people without seeing blood, but also makes people invisible and intangible, and it has a bearing on the trend of the battlefield situation.
It can even be said that if the enemy's radio spectrum can be mastered in a war, then it means that the war has already been won in half. The J-16D, a derivative of the J-16, symbolizes this vital force on the battlefield of the future.
At the 2021 Zhuhai Air Show, the J-16D was unveiled in front of the world for the first time.
As a two-seat heavy fighter different from the single-seat Su-35, the rear pilot seat is the electronic warfare control operator, who will be responsible for controlling a large number of information-based combat equipment carried by the J-16D.
Four different electromagnetic pods enable the J-16D to have the capabilities of active jamming, cluster protection, and multi-system reconnaissance, and can take into account three electromagnetic combat modes for offensive active jamming, defensive active jamming, and long-range and wide-range reconnaissance. Offensive active jamming, as the name suggests, is to take the initiative to suppress the opponent's air targets in the electromagnetic battlefield and provide adaptive communication jamming capabilities.
The strategic role of defensive active jamming is even more significant, covering the entire air power cluster, with an estimated effective radius of hundreds of kilometers, which is equivalent to opening up the entire stealth.
As an imitation, why can the J-16 beat the original fighter and become another ace fighter that does not lose to the J-20?It's obviously only a fourth-and-a-half-generation fighter, but it has many capabilities that fifth-generation aircraft don't have, how on earth did it?
In addition to being an electronic warfare aircraft that can provide powerful auxiliary capabilities for friendly forces on the modern information-based electromagnetic battlefield, the J-16D derivative version of the J-16D will evolve again in the future, and the opportunity for this evolution lies in the continuous development of the UAV field in recent times.
Various situations on the battlefield of Russia and Ukraine have proved that drones have great achievements in the future battlefield, and China is one of the world's leading countries in this field.
Attack 11 twin-tailed scorpion, rainbow pterosaur and other UAVs have a high reputation in the international community, and the two-seat design of the J-16D can enable it to obtain the ability to cooperate with the UAV, and the backseat pilot can not only control the electronic pod and other equipment for electromagnetic combat.
It is more able to command UAVs through relevant modular design, and use the UAV group as a medium-range wingman group of J-16D, such as some ultra-low-altitude penetration, approaching reconnaissance and other tasks with extremely high risk coefficients, which can be handed over to UAVs with lower costs and no personnel, and even can directly carry out suicide attacks.
Don't forget that as mentioned earlier, the J-16 itself is one of the main fighter models in our country, and the reason why it has not been discontinued is because it can form an echelon configuration as a wingman of the J-20, and it can also do some additional tasks, such as fuel, ammunition, etc.
The J-16, with a maximum load of 12 tons, is called a "bomb truck", and the amount of ammunition it can carry has come to an extremely terrifying number. After the J-20 air superiority fighter gained air supremacy, it directly bombed ground and sea targets indiscriminately.
The J-20 is an assassin hidden in the shadows, ready to give the opponent a fatal blow at any time, while the J-16 is a muscular warrior, and the J-16D provides electromagnetic combat capabilities, plus a swarm of drones as a medium-range wingman, an air power system that can perform a variety of tasks in various environments is formed, and this is the reason why the J-16's reputation in the world can lead the Su-35 so much.
Although they are from the same school, they have gone through different paths after two generations of development. The Su-35 maintains the design language of a fixed air superiority fighter, while the J-16 has taken into account the electronic warfare capabilities of the future information-based battlefield, which is a rather critical capability.
In fact, the United States, which is also one of the main research countries of electronic warfare aircraft, conducted a test. The American EA 18G electronic fighter in the face of the fifth-generation aircraft F 22 Raptor fighter, the air confrontation did not fall behind at all, and even through the powerful electronic jamming ability directly poked the eyes of the F 22, let itself disappear above the radar of the F 22, and in the end the result of this simulated confrontation surprised everyone, and the high F 22 was directly shot down by the simulation.
The combat effectiveness of the EA 18G is really amazing, and it also makes people deeply understand how amazing the combat effectiveness after the installation of electronic pods even though it is only four and a half generations.
What's more, the United States has a cost disadvantage in producing an electronic warfare aircraft, with a unit price of 1Around 200 million US dollars, the unit price of the J-16D is not expensive.
In such a situation, people's evaluation of the J-16 and the Su-35 will naturally change, and the excellent multi-faceted ability is the reason for the J-16's word-of-mouth victory.