Chinese fighter 'has changed power balance'

I don't know a whole lot about warfare, but from what I have seen, quality seems to very rarely beat out quantity in practical warfare. The US seemed to do so well in WWII because of their "cheapo" assembly line tanks and assembly line Liberty Ships. If China said they could crank out 1,000 cheapo fighters in a day that would be a hell of a lot scarier to me than 1 J20 a day. The cheapo stuff very often is much more cost effective than fighter jets costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The cheapest known jet is about $1 million dollars.

Would you rather face 250 basic jet planes equipped with great radar and one decent air-to-air missle in combat or one single J20? I think I'd rather face a single J20. You could of course retreat easily from a large cloud of 600mph medium altitude jets, but that kind of defeats the point.

What a load of crap.
How the hell does that guy in the article know the J20 is superior to the F35?
Is he privy to secret Chinese information?
Because unless I'm mistaken, the Chinese have not released any data on the capabilities of their new jet.

Unless I'm getting my wires crossed, that Goon guy is the idiot on the Ausairpower site who has been from the get go against the F35 and trying to advocate the F22, which the US is not exporting.

It doesn't really matter what aircraft a small country like Australia can buy.
Because we can only buy a small number of them anyway, especially what todays new jets cost.
Whereas the Chinese will build hundreds, well over 1,000 fighter jets.
Australia will be overwhelmed(on it's own).

And anyway, the Chinese have not opened up air bases near Australia. Until they do, I don't see why some people are panicking. Sure they can use mid air refueling tankers, but we have the JORN radar network which allows us to monitor the air and oceans to our north for a significant distance.

A good investment by our government would be an air defence network. Such as THAAD and MEADS.
Since we can't afford nor man hundreds of fighter jets, the next best option is an umbrella network of surface to air missiles.
This idiot Goon wants to talk about changing the balance of power? Well, this is one sure way to do it.

reply to post by I.T.S.U.


What I noticed was the engine area. ITs standard and does not employ the thrust vectoring technology we have in our advanced fighters.

Again, taking a nice car designed for racing, and putting in a 4 cyclinder.

reply to post by Xcathdra


Yes I noticed that too. It might not be a lack of ability though. It depends what the intent of the aircraft is. If its intended role is as a means to throw anti ship missiles/glide bombs its probably not worth the weight and complexity. F-35 doesn't have thrust vectoring either. Its not required for the role.

The main area of advantage that the western fighters have (for the moment) is probably in sensor fit. If your upgraded F-15 with an AESA can track the J-20 at the same range as its old mechanically scanned radar can track you then its still an even fight.

I'd love to know whats its avionics fit is. Reading JDW a while back there was a discussion about the Chinese equivalent of the AMRAAM, apparently it has a dual mode (active and passive) homing capability. Surprisingly advanced. It appears they funded a russian design bureau to continue a cancelled russian missile project. Obviously the russians are more 'flexible' in their defence export rules...makes you wonder what else.

........and so it starts. Its nice to see some members in Congress have a spinal cord. This should have occured decades ago. China takes us to task over economics and tells us if we push the currency issue, they will use their nuclear option on our currency.

literally - If we hold them to the same rules the rest of the world lives by in foreign trade, they will go after us econmically.

Ahead of Hu visit Senators push China trade legislation

As Washington prepares to roll out the red carpet for President Hu Jintao's state visit, three Democratic senators have introduced legislation aimed at punishing China for what they call a repeated failure to correct the value of its currency, which they say creates a negative impact on U.S. trade.

Senators Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., unveiled the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act of 2011 Monday. The legislation would tighten the reins on Treasury Department decisions to cite a country for unfair currency manipulation, give more power to stiffen penalties on an offending country's exports and allows for prohibitions on companies headquartered in offending countries receiving federal government contracts.

"China's currency manipulation is like a boot on the throat of our economic recovery," Schumer said in a statement. "We are sending a clear message to the Chinese government: if you refuse to play by the same rules as everyone else, we will force you to."

I don't see how anyone could be surprised that China has produced a capable stealth fighter. They've got more money than God to dump into research/espionage/development, they've advanced by leaps & bounds as a technological & manufacturing power & have years of Russian aviation technology to pull from.

We've been spending the past 20 years throwing them piles of cash, begging them to become a world power & now they are. What do world powers do? They develop advanced militaries to protect & preserve that power & to intimidate lesser countries to bend to their will. We've done it for years now it's their turn.

reply to post by ethancoop
in a way i hope China does become the mighty Dragon, the US does need a bit of humbling, all of a sudden china has the j20 a air craft carrier put the 2 together and have it show up at pearl harbor, just to say "Oh yes you USA ,see what we can do, hehehehe right under nose you we knock on your door".