The Western Theater Air Force of China released an article on March 11, reporting that two pilots from a brigade of the theater won the “Golden Helmet”, which is the first news that J-16 fighter jets have won the “Gold Helmet” title in the third and half generation fighter group.
The “Golden Helmet”, along with the “Red Sword”, “Blue Shield” and “Golden Dart”, are known as the four major military training brands of the Chinese Air Force. The core content of the competition is air combat confrontation. At the end of each year, top pilots from the five theaters of the PLA gather in the northwest desert to compete for the single-digit awards of “Golden Helmet”, which is considered the highest honor for fighter pilots in the Chinese Air Force.
The J-16 is a new generation of twin-engine, two-seat multipurpose fighter produced by Shenyang Aviation Company, which is a new type of fighter with “third-and-a-half generation” characteristics based on the J-11 series of fighters, with a substantial increase in combat effectiveness over the J-11 and J-11B/BS.
