Blue Sky "Versatile" J-10 Remains the "Golden Puzzle" in Systematic Warfare

Today’s J-10 fighter jet may no longer be the most advanced aircraft in our country, but with its strong practicality, reliability, and quantity, it remains a very critical "jack of all trades" in the modern combat system.

Let us step into the air combat training ground and appreciate how the J-10 fighter jet collaborates with fourth-generation aircraft and special mission aircraft to conduct system confrontations, steadily enhancing joint operational capabilities.

Scientific training explores new combat methods

Joint combat capability leaps forward

At a certain plateau airport in the southwest, the sky is overcast. Dozens of fighter jets take off in succession, heading to the training airspace to conduct joint training with multiple aircraft types under complex weather conditions. Faced with the rapidly changing battlefield environment, J-10 pilot Xia Yaxi quickly processes the air situation sent by the early warning aircraft, commanding the formation to convert information advantages into battlefield advantages.

Southern Theater Air Force Aviation Brigade Xia Yaxi: We launch missiles and let the early warning aircraft guide them. Traditionally, the early warning aircraft provides us with situational information, and we only use that information for air combat. Now, its situational information is used both for us and for itself; it can also take on the guiding function.

Relying on the battlefield situational information and guidance data provided by the early warning aircraft, the J-10 fighter jet has transformed from a single air combat unit into a strike node within the system, demonstrating extremely high air combat value.

Systematic joint training has become a daily routine for the troops to explore new tactics and methods. The J-10 fighter jet, together with refueling aircraft, can significantly increase operational radius and extend loitering time. The various support departments on the ground are also a key part of the system's operations.

Southern Theater Air Force Aviation Brigade Ran Jingming: If the cloud layers in the air are quite complex, we need to assess whether our refueling aircraft can complete the refueling task at our position, as the clouds have a significant impact on pilots when visually refueling the aircraft. Over the past 28 years, the J-10 has been continuously improved and upgraded, and the pilots flying this warbird are also constantly researching and exploring new tactics and training methods based on the characteristics of future air combat.

28 years of continuous upgrades

Specialized multi-functional victory in system confrontations

28 years ago, the maiden flight of the J-10 fighter jet marked a leap in China's fighter jet development from introduction and imitation to independent research and development. In recent years, new stars have emerged in our skies, with a new generation of fighter jets arrayed in the blue sky, and the J-10, as an "old soldier," has not faded from the battlefield.

What performance characteristics does the J-10 have, and what roles does it play in the air combat system? Let’s take a look at the experts' interpretations.

Modern air combat is not a solo endeavor but a confrontation between systems, requiring cooperation between different types of aircraft. The J-10, as a medium multi-role fighter, is a typical air jack of all trades, capable of effective cooperation with other fighter jets.

Military commentator Zhang Xuefeng: The J-10 is a medium multi-role fighter, primarily focused on air combat and gaining air superiority. When adopting an air combat configuration, it can carry four medium-range air-to-air missiles and two short-range air-to-air missiles, possessing excellent air combat capabilities. It can accurately strike ground and sea targets, especially using anti-radiation missiles to suppress and destroy the opponent's radar and air defense systems, protecting its own air formations during attacks. The latest model of the J-10 series, the J-10C, along with the J-16 and J-20, forms the "three musketeers" of the Air Force fighter jets, effectively cooperating in combat to leverage their respective advantages and achieve victory together.

After the successful development of the J-10 aircraft, China has also successively developed the two-seat version J-10S, as well as improved versions such as J-10A, J-10B, and J-10C, among which the improvements in the J-10B are the most significant. It adopted a pump-jet air intake, upgraded to an advanced phased array radar, and comprehensively upgraded the avionics system, increasing the surprise and concealment of air strikes. The J-10B thrust vectoring variant, equipped with thrust vectoring engines, allows the J-10 to easily perform complex maneuvers such as the Herbst maneuver and the Cobra maneuver.

Military commentator Zhang Xuefeng: The J-10C is an improved version based on the J-10B, with further upgrades to the avionics system. It uses a more advanced active phased array radar, with significantly improved detection range and anti-jamming capabilities compared to the radar of the J-10B, reaching the advanced level of contemporary fighter jets. At the same time, the airborne weapons carried by the J-10 series have also been continuously upgraded, from the semi-active radar-guided PL-11 to the PL-12 with launch-and-forget capability, and then to the PL-15 with double the range, gradually reaching world-leading levels. The short-range dogfight missiles have also been upgraded from PL-8 to the PL-10 with infrared imaging guidance, along with an increasingly rich array of air-to-ground munitions, making the J-10 series fighter jets true multi-role aircraft, capable of engaging in air combat, striking ground and sea targets, and executing missions to suppress enemy air defenses.

J-10 fighter jet: 28 years soaring in the skies

On March 23, 1998, the J-10 fighter jet successfully made its maiden flight. The birth of the J-10 set multiple "firsts" in the history of China's military aircraft development:

It is China's first completely independently designed and developed third-generation advanced fighter jet;

The first aircraft to adopt an internationally advanced digital fly-by-wire control system;

The first triangular wing fighter jet to use a canard layout.

It pioneered the development approach of testing and finalizing simultaneously.

Over the past 28 years, the J-10 has written the legend of China's independently developed fighter jets with the blue sky as its canvas and its flight path as its pen.