The J-20 is a stealth fighter independently developed by my country. It has advanced performance and has always been considered to be the most advanced competitor to the F22. The F35 is an international cooperation joint strike fighter. It has been full of controversy since its introduction. The development cost has been seriously overrun and the weight is overweight. It has long been regarded as a low-end fighter partner with the F22. It is a "fat power" that mainly focuses on ground attack. "If you want to ask, can the J-20 beat the F35? In the eyes of many people, they would naturally choose the J-20 to win without even thinking about it, but is this really the case? Let’s compare them in detail today.

Can the J-20 beat the F35?

Let’s start with the stealth capability that the fourth-generation aircraft most relies on. The J-20’s appearance design conforms to the edge-parallel principle of reducing radar wave reflection. The fuselage cover adopts a large number of sawtooth designs, even down to the edges of the canards, main wings and vertical tails. Carefully modified. Although the F35 also uses a large number of sawtooth designs, its wing details are not perfectly processed and are not as meticulous as the J-20. This is undoubtedly a big minus point.

The details of the J-20 are very carefully made

The F35 still has a thick-line design, which is roughly equivalent to the level of the J-20 verification aircraft.

In terms of the fuselage manufacturing process, the F35 has an original "picture frame" design, and the skin treatment truly reflects the level of an established aviation power. Apart from the difference in the level of photographers, the manufacturing process of the J-20 is actually similar to that of the F35. This is reflected by people who have watched the J-20 and F35 fighters at close range at the scene, and it is worthy of acceptance. However, the F35 has a large number of "bulges" on its body, which will obviously affect its stealth performance. Of course, the J-20 also has canards that inherently increase the frontal radar reflection area, but through special design and the use of supramolecular materials, its impact on stealth is very small. In this round, the two are tied.

The F35 is indeed made with precision

The J-20 fuselage craftsmanship is also a work of art

In terms of invisible coatings, the F22, which is more expensive than the J-20 and F35, has made huge progress and no longer needs to live in a special air-conditioned room. However, the media has reported that the stealth paint near the F35 canopy has bulged or even detached, indicating that it is not perfect yet. The J-20 uses a large number of specially designed supramolecular materials in the "corners" and interior of the fuselage to achieve strong stealth performance and durability. Generally speaking, the stealth performance of the J-20 not only exceeds that of the F35, but also exceeds that of the F22. It is the fighter jet with the smallest frontal radar reflection area in the world today. Of course, compared to fighters such as the B2 and F117, which consider stealth performance more than maneuverability, there may still be some gaps.

The J-20’s stealth performance ranks first among fighter jets, surpassing the F22

Secondly, from the perspective of supersonic performance, the J-20 has once again widened the gap with the F35. Although the F35 is equipped with the small bypass ratio military turbofan engine with the largest thrust in the world today, its maximum flight speed is only Mach 1.6 due to its bloated fuselage, which is not even as good as most second- and third-generation aircraft. Atypical "supersonic cycles" are possible only under very special conditions. Although the J-20's current standard turbofan 15 has not been available and can only use the improved turbofan 10A, thanks to its excellent aerodynamic design, its maximum flight speed has exceeded Mach 2.0, and it can carry out supersonic cruise. But the cruising speed is currently not as good as the F22.

The current J-20 can cruise at supersonic speeds

However, the J-20 has a supersonic performance that neither the F22 nor the F35 can match, that is, it has strong maneuverability under supersonic flight conditions. In the past, once the flying speed of supersonic aircraft exceeded Mach 1, their maneuverability would drop sharply. Some even turned into a "rocket" and could only go straight forward. However, the J-20 can still maintain considerable maneuverability under such circumstances. With considerable maneuverability, it can crush other fighters. No wonder the J-20 pilot once publicly stated in an interview that "it dominates the world as soon as it enters supersonic speed."

Once it enters supersonic speed, the world is dominated by the J-20

Of course, two American companies are currently developing sixth-generation aircraft engines. One of the rigid rules is that they must be able to fit into the belly of the F35. This means that the F35 will be equipped with sixth-generation aircraft engines in the future, and supersonic cruise will no longer be a problem, but The J-20 will also be equipped with a turbofan 15 in the future, which will bring its supersonic flight capabilities and maneuverability to a higher level. By then, it is estimated that it will still be ahead of the F35.

The design of the F35 lives up to its world’s most powerful engine

After talking about supersonic performance, let’s talk about mobility. In everyone's impression, the F35 is a "dumb guy" with basically no mobility. However, judging from the public performances of this fighter at air shows, it is still much more flexible than ordinary third-generation aircraft. of. Of course, compared with canard aircraft like the J-20, the maneuverability of the F35 is still not worth mentioning. In the future, when the J-20 is equipped with vector nozzles as standard, the gap between the two sides will be further widened. Unfortunately, in the future stealth air combat, the maneuverability of the aircraft will become less and less important. Fifth-generation aircraft like the Su-57 that pursue extreme maneuverability have fallen into misunderstandings. There are lessons to be learned from the past.

The role of aircraft maneuverability is increasingly declining

What we talked about earlier is where the J-20 is stronger than the F35. Of course, the J-20 also has many disadvantages that are not as good as the F35. For example, in terms of super information situation awareness, F35 is undoubtedly the best in the world today, such as the familiar EODAS, EOTS and new helmets. In fact, during the development process of the J-20, it was once pushed over and started all over again because the design team made up its mind to catch up after learning about the F35's super information situation awareness capabilities. However, there are still some gaps in the J-20's situational awareness capabilities compared to the F35. For example, the F35's ETOS has multiple front and rear viewing angles, while the J-20's ETOS only has a forward viewing angle.

ETOS for F35

J-20 ETOS

In modern air combat, super information situational awareness capabilities are becoming more and more important, and have even risen to the most important position among the four fourth-generation aircraft, the Invincible Aji. It's like playing a game with a God's perspective. While other aircraft are still groping in the fog, you have already taken control of the overall situation and have insight into every detail. You are the first to discover, launch and shoot down the enemy first. When the enemy is shot down, you are even Without knowing where the missiles came from, such a battle would be impossible for the enemy to fight, which would affect morale and lead to the overall collapse.

Launching first before the enemy is not just talk

In addition, super information situational awareness capabilities also involve space-ground coordination, unmanned wingmen and systematic operations. In the past, fighter pilots could not imagine that they could command rocket launchers on the ground. However, the F35 has already achieved this small goal in 2018. , each F35 is equivalent to a small early warning aircraft and command aircraft, and the changes it brings to the future air combat model are subversive. Of course, our J-20 also has the capability in this area, and may still be better in some aspects. However, as a latecomer and imitator, we are still modest and let the F35 take the lead in this round. However, it must be said that the super information situational awareness capabilities of the J-20 and F35 far exceed that of the F22.

Both the J-20 and F35 have stronger information combat capabilities than the F22

In fact, the biggest advantage of the F35 is not its super information situational awareness capability, but its terrifying production capacity. The quality of the fourth-generation aircraft is very important, but the quantity is equally important. As of August 3, 555 F35s have been delivered, while the J-20 is only 50 in full. The difference between the two is exactly 10 times, which means that in the future, the F35 will be 20 No matter where you are, you may be surrounded by 10 times the enemy. This kind of pressure is huge.

The overwhelming F35 is the most terrifying thing

Overall, the J-20 and F35 are two equally advanced fighters. Compared with the F35, the J-20's advantages are its supersonic combat capabilities, mobility and stealth capabilities. Especially the combination of supersonic speed and stealth will unleash immeasurable combat effectiveness. The advantage of the F35 is its super information perception capability and production quantity, especially the quantity advantage, which allows the F35 to besiege the J-20 in "swarm" mode. The J-20 needs to figure out how to deal with it as early as possible in order to find itself in future air battles. of foothold.

The performance of the J-20 is equivalent to that of the F35 and exceeds that of the F22, but the difference in quantity is large.