It’s unveiled that at least 150 J-20s have been deployed to monitor Taiwan Strait, and deployment of upgraded J-20Cs will be accelerated, as images of J-20 of renowned “Wang Hai Brigade” in the Eastern Theater were released by CCTV.
According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post on June 26, the People’s Liberation Army has deployed the most advanced stealth fighters in the air force units monitoring Taiwan and East China Seas. Chinese observers believe that this is a warning to the United States’ Japan and South Korea allies in the relevant regions.
An anonymous People’s Liberation Army source said that this deployment shows that China has delivered at least 4 aviation brigades with a total of 150 J-20 fighters. This includes two training bases in Inner Mongolia and Hebei, and two aviation brigades in the eastern and northern theaters of China.
In addition, in the next five years, China will accelerate the deployment of the upgraded J-20C. It is possible that each theater will have at least one or two J-20C brigades to defend the five strategic directions of the northern, southern, western, eastern and central theaters.
According to the report, since one aviation brigade requires at least 36 fighters, the Chinese Air Force will need more than 300 J-20s in the future. However, this progress depends on the delivery of the home-made WS-10C engines, as well as the latest development of the WS-15 engines tailored for the J-20.
The report stated that China has stopped using the Russian-made AL-31F engines and replaced them with upgraded self-made WS-10C engines. Although the WS-15 is more powerful, its research and development have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the use of WS-10C is only a stopgap measure.
China’s CCTV said on June 25 that the “Strong Army Pioneer Flying Brigade” located in Anshan, Liaoning, flew J-20 fighter jets in training and preparations. This is the second Chinese Air Force combat unit changing to the J-20 after the Wang Hai Brigade in Wuhu equipped with the J-20 in 2019.
On June 27, China CCTV released more images of Wang Hai Brigade’s J-20 fighters, claiming that the elite brigade has successively completed major tasks such as air rights protection on the Diaoyu Islands and normal control of the East China Sea air defense identification zone.
