China backs Mighty Dragon over our F-35s

China wants the world to believe it has nothing to fear from Australia’s recently acquired F-35 stealth strike fighters.

A Chinese Chengdu J-20 fighter jet. Picture: Supplied

China wants the world to believe it has nothing to fear from Australia’s recently acquired F-35 stealth strike fighters, claiming the aircraft can be outflown by its new Chengdu J-20 fighters and detected by its radar systems.

The country’s state-sponsored Global Times has published a report that discussed Australia and other US allies acquiring the new jets. The report claimed the new J-20 would gain “overwhelming superiority over the F-35 in the future”.

The J-20 or “Mighty Dragon”, China’s fifth-generation multi-role stealth fighter, is believed to have been designed in response to the US F-35s and F-22 fighters and carries similar hi-tech systems such as equipment allowing pilots to access information supplied by platforms such as ­satellites and drones.

While the technical specifi­cations of the aircraft have been a closely guarded secret, the Chinese announced last year the fighters had been commissioned into air force combat service and in November allowed the planes to be featured at the country’s ­biennial airshow.

Last week, in what appeared to be a reaction to moves by US ­allies in the Asia-Pacific region including Australia and South Korea to start taking delivery of F-35s, the Global Times quoted a Beijing-based military analyst as saying China would be “no sitting duck in a clash” between the jets.

Mighty Dragon vs F-35 Lightning.

Analyst Wei Dongzu said the J-20 had been in service with the People’s Liberation Army’s air force since early last year and its range and weapons payload were considered “better than the F-35’s, enabling it to achieve its main mission of gaining superiority in a 21st-century battlefield”.

“Moreover, the J-20 has room for improvement. An upgraded version of the J-20 will have overwhelming superiority to the F-35 in the future,’’ Mr Wei said in the January 15 article.

He also said China’s passive radars and meter-wave radars could detect stealth aircraft and guide anti-aircraft missiles to ­destroy them.

Australian defence analyst Malcolm Davis described the ­article as “posturing”, saying he believed the F-35s were superior to the J-20 in terms of stealth technology. He said the F-35 was better at data integration and had the ability to bring together multiple sources of information and to act as a node in the network to share information around.

“In a traditional one-on-one dogfight between the F-35 and the J-20, it’s hard to know but the F-35 has the advantage in stealth and in battlefield awareness. The J-20 is faster and has longer range and large payload,’’ he said.

Dr Davis, who is a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the question was not a simple one: “The bottom line is I think they are premature in saying it is superior but we can’t afford to be glib about it.”