Saturday, January 8, 2011

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: New J-20 Chinese Stealth Fighter Poses Major Challenge To US Military

Defense War News Updates: DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: New J-20 Chinese Stealth Fighter Poses Major Challenge To US Military
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - January 8, 2011: China’s new stealth fighter, the J-20, which was rolled out recently to much fanfare, could pose a terrifying threat to US military dominance in the air, according to experts.

“It’s probably leaps and bounds above where we are, and that’s terrifying,” decorated Navy fighter pilot Matthew ‘Whiz’ Buckley, told Fox News.

Buckley is also a Top Gun graduate of the Navy Fighter Weapons School and flew 44 missions over Iraq.

The only real challenge to the J-20 on the US side is the F-22, developed by Lockheed Martin, but in 2009 production of this aircraft was capped by congress at 18, and instead the air force relies on its cheaper F-35s.

However, even the F-22 is bested by the Chinese Chengdu J-20, which can reportedly evade radar and exceed the F-22 in speed and agility.

“From what we can see, I conclude that this aircraft does have great potential to be superior in some respects to the American F-22, and could be decisively superior to the F-35,” said Richard Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian Military Affairs at the Washington think tank, the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

Fisher told Fox News that the US would likely see China rolling out their new aircraft in serious numbers by the end of the decade, adding that the Chinese military has begun an extensive pilot training program, while the US has decreased flight time for new pilots, focusing instead on simulators.

“We used be number one at having the leading technology,” said Buckley. “Now, we’re kind of in catch-up mode, where we’ve never really been before.”


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