Lightweight Fighter Jet, Five-Star Review?

In recent years, lightweight fighter jets have gained increasing favor among the air forces of many countries due to their outstanding cost-effectiveness and strong adaptability to various missions, showing a steady upward trend in the global military trade market.

So, in a highly contested combat environment, can lightweight fighter jets take on the main role in air combat? What will be their future development direction?

Various Types of Lightweight Fighter Jets

Data image: The Swedish JAS-39E "Gripen" fighter jet equipped with an artificial intelligence system (Source: China Defense News)

Military observer Zhang Xuefeng introduced that, except for a few models, the maximum takeoff weight of lightweight fighter jets usually does not exceed 15 tons, and they can generally be divided into two categories, which have different performance and characteristics.

Zhang Xuefeng:

The first category consists of specially designed lightweight fighter jets. For example, Sweden's "Gripen" fighter jet, the "Falcon" fighter jet jointly developed by China and Pakistan, and India's LCA fighter jet, etc. These types of fighter jets typically possess supersonic flight capabilities, are equipped with relatively advanced fire control radars and onboard weapons, and can engage in medium-range air combat with high maneuverability.

The second category includes lightweight fighter jets developed based on advanced trainer aircraft. For instance, South Korea's FA-50 fighter jet is an improved version of the T-50 trainer aircraft, and Russia's Yak-130 advanced trainer and Italy's M-346 advanced trainer also have corresponding fighter jet variants. These lightweight fighter jets modified from trainer aircraft usually have some limitations in performance, such as some models lacking supersonic flight capabilities or having weaker medium-range air combat capabilities.

Why Lightweight Fighter Jets Are Highly Praised

Data image: India's "Tejas" LCA fighter jet (Source: China Defense News)

Zhang Xuefeng believes that in the fiercely competitive air equipment market, the reason lightweight fighter jets can secure a place is mainly due to their high cost-effectiveness, which better meets the defense needs of medium and small countries.

Zhang Xuefeng:

First, countries that equip lightweight fighter jets are mostly medium and small nations, whose land area is not very large, and they do not have high requirements for the combat radius of fighter jets.

Second, the main aerial threats or combat opponents faced by these countries are often not strong, and some even primarily use fighter jets to combat illegal armed groups, so their requirements for payload capacity and air combat capabilities are not particularly high.

Third, if some countries start by developing medium or heavy fighter jets, the technical difficulty is relatively high, so they may choose to begin with lightweight fighter jets, which have a relatively lower technical threshold.

Finally, and most crucially, these countries often do not have sufficient funds to procure more advanced medium or heavy fighter jets. Under similar technical conditions, the price advantage of lightweight fighter jets is very obvious.

Development Trends of Lightweight Fighter Jets

Data image: The M-346FA lightweight fighter jet developed by Italy's Leonardo Company (Source: China Defense News)

In Zhang Xuefeng's view, the shortcomings of lightweight fighter jets mainly lie in their small payload capacity, short combat radius, and the general lack of stealth capabilities in current models. Therefore, some countries may choose to procure a certain number of medium or heavy fighter jets to form a "high-low mix" with lightweight fighter jets. Additionally, with the development of stealth technology, lightweight fighter jets face new challenges as well as new development opportunities.

Zhang Xuefeng:

Stealth fighter jets typically place weapons in internal bays, but due to the size limitations of lightweight fighter jets, it is difficult to design such bays.

In the future, if lightweight fighter jets are to develop towards stealth capabilities, there may be two approaches: first, redefine or elevate the classification standards of "lightweight fighter jets," for example, classifying fighter jets around 20 tons as still being lightweight fighter jets. Second, develop unmanned lightweight stealth fighter jets, removing the cockpit can free up more space for fuel or mission equipment; these unmanned lightweight fighter jets could serve as collaborative combat platforms for medium or heavy fighter jets or as air companions for manned fighter jets.

Reporter: Hu Chengcheng