To confront US allies China needs 1,200 J-10B fighters: Russian

To confront US allies China needs 1,200 J-10B fighters: Russian media

• Staff Reporter
 
• 2014-10-12
 
• 09:05 (GMT+8)

A J-10 fighter lands on the runway. (Internet photo)

China will need to produce about 1,200 fourth-generation fighters to be able to confront the air forces of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, if the three nations are successful in their bids to acquire advanced American fighters, in any potential conflict, according to the Moscow-based Russian Military Analysis on Oct. 9.

Even though Taiwan maintains close economic ties with mainland China, the Russian-language newspaper said that the Taiwanese government under the leadership of Ma Ying-jeou has not given up its intention of purchasing advanced fighters from the United States such as the F-16C/D and even the F-35. Japan and South Korea, two major American allies in the region, are also upgrading their air forces as well by introducing new American-built jets.

China is speeding up the development of its fifth-generation stealth fighters such as the J-20 and the J-31, however, the country has still been unable to design domestic engines for the aircraft. Until it does, the People's Liberation Army will need to rely on the J-10 and the J-10B to confront the air forces of Taiwan, South Korea and Japan in the event of a conflict.

Originally, the J-10 was designed to compete against fighters like the French-built Rafale, the European-built Typhoon and the Russian-built MiG-29K. Equipped with AL-31 engines introduced from Russia, the thrust of the J-10 is more powerful than the American-built F-16C and the Typhoon, however, the combat radius of the J-10 is only 800 kilometers, which is a major weakness when compared with its US and European counterparts the newspaper said.

Equipped with the active electronically scanned array radar system on the domestic fighter, the J-10B fighter was developed by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group as an upgraded version of the J-10. The company said it has decided to produce at least 1,200 J-10 fighters with active electronically scanned array radars over the next 10 years. Under the coordination of early warning aircraft like the KJ-2000 and the ZDK-03, the J-10B could be a very deadly threat to nations using American-built fighters in the Far East.