According to a report by U.S. publication "Military Watch" on October 10, Chinese state media stated that a J-16 fighter jet intercepted two foreign stealth fighters during a combat patrol in 2024 and successfully forced them out of China's coastal airspace.

It is worth noting that Chinese pilots revealed in a defense documentary: since that mission, the aircraft has never appeared again.

This statement reveals key information. In the East Asian airspace, apart from China's stealth fighters, only the U.S. military has fifth-generation fighters, namely the F-22 and F-35.

The F-35, as a regular deployed fighter for the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, has high activity frequency and is unlikely to disappear completely due to a single encounter.

In contrast, the F-22 is deployed with extreme caution, has short duration, low frequency, and strong confidentiality. If locked by the J-16, the U.S. may indeed choose to terminate flight activities in that direction to avoid leakage of stealth data.

Therefore, based on deployment characteristics and subsequent reactions, the stealth fighter forced away by the J-16 is highly likely to be the F-22 fighter.

This speculation is also indirectly supported by U.S. media, which published an article focusing on the performance comparison between the F-22 and J-16 in close-range dogfights, pointing out that the F-22 might be at a disadvantage due to factors such as the absence of a helmet-mounted sight, high operational load, and outdated situational awareness capabilities.

Chinese Aircraft

According to U.S. media, the encounter between the J-16 and F-22 in 2024 was a rare confrontation between the world's two strongest fighter jets.

The F-22's greatest advantage lies in its thrust vectoring engine and extreme maneuverability, especially in short-range dogfights, where it can suppress opponents with unique flight maneuvers.

However, the article also emphasized an extremely embarrassing fact: the F-22 is currently the only fifth-generation fighter without a helmet-mounted sight.

This means that although the AIM-9X missile it carries has a high off-axis attack capability, the pilot cannot aim and fire like the J-16, where the pilot can shoot wherever they look, achieving eye-to-weapon accuracy.

The article's final conclusion is very direct: if the J-16 carries the PL-10 missile, combined with a helmet-mounted sight and a dual-seat configuration, and enters visual combat with the F-22, the F-22 would likely be outperformed in both performance and operation, leading to a one-sided battle outcome.

American Aircraft

The J-16, as the main heavy fighter in service with the People's Liberation Army Air Force, has obvious advantages.

In terms of maneuverability, although the J-16 does not have thrust vectoring technology, it inherits the excellent aerodynamic design of the Su-27, while using a large amount of composite materials in its structure to enhance strength and reduce weight, allowing it to still maintain a high level of turning capability.

In terms of perception capabilities, the J-16 is equipped with an active phased array radar, infrared search and track system, and an YJ electro-optical pod, enabling it to maintain strong target lock-on and tracking capabilities even in multi-target environments.

The most critical aspect is that the J-16 is equipped with the PL-10 air-to-air missile and a helmet-mounted sight, giving the pilot a high off-axis attack capability in close-range combat, allowing him to launch missiles without aligning the nose with the target, significantly increasing reaction time and winning chances.

Additionally, the J-16's dual-seat design is a major advantage: the weapons officer in the rear seat can focus on fire control and sensor operations, relieving the pilot's workload under high G conditions, improving collaborative efficiency.

In air combat scenarios where the distance to the enemy is close, targets are frequently switched, and multiple targets are engaged, this division of labor and cooperation system often turns the tide at critical moments. Therefore, regardless of fire control systems, weapon carriage, operational structure, or situational awareness capabilities, the J-16 is fully capable of overcoming the F-22 in a dogfight from a technical standpoint.

American Aircraft

Although the F-22 was long regarded as the king of air combat, it also has significant technological legacy and design limitations.

The most fatal one is the lack of a helmet-mounted sight, which forces the pilot to turn the nose to complete target acquisition, making it easy to lose the initiative in high-speed dogfights.

Moreover, the F-22 is a single-seat design, requiring the pilot to independently handle flight control, situational assessment, and fire control decisions during high-G flights, resulting in an extremely heavy operational burden.

The assistance of the rear-seat weapons officer on the J-16 can create a suppression effect at critical moments.

Furthermore, the F-22's sensors and mission systems have not been upgraded for a long time, and its infrared search system, electro-optical pod, and data link capabilities have already fallen behind modern fighter standards, lacking the ability to integrate against the PL-10 plus helmet-mounted sight system.

Additionally, to ensure stealth performance, the F-22 has serious limitations in carrying auxiliary weapons and external pods. Once forced into close-range combat, its missile carrying capacity is limited, and its combat endurance is poor, effectively rendering stealth useless without carrying many missiles.

The concept of fifth-generation fighters is long-range detection and first strike, so the advantage of generation difference is not significant once forced into visual combat.

Original text: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7559813258052371007/

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