China’s advanced domestic stealth fighter J-20 has been receiving attention from the outside world. The latest news points out that Chengdu Aircraft Group (Chengfei), a manufacturer of fighter planes, has launched a delivery sprint for the fighter planes at the end of the year, and the J-20 may complete its deployment in the two southeastern theaters of the PLA.
Chengdu Aircraft Group’s official WeChat account released an article on December 10, mentioning that since the fourth quarter, in the face of the severe research and production situation and delivery targets, the workers on the test flight delivery front are speeding up, ensuring quality, completing a number of key test flight tasks, and the relevant delivery targets are at a new high.
According to the article, the company has a huge task to deliver the whole aircraft in the fourth quarter. In the delivery work, the delivery center evaluates the resources and reverse schedule for multiple users and multiple aircraft to be received and installed; meanwhile, multiple “one-to-one” assembly teams are established, and the pre-shift meeting mode is implemented for the first time at the receiving and installation site to ensure the efficient implementation of the daily plan.
According to the Chinese military official account “Privy Council 10” (枢密院十号), the J-20 has been deployed in the eastern theater of operations, although the PLA’s most advanced stealth fighter is not in the fleet on daily patrols.
And according to a Dec. 9 report by Chinese media citing the Dutch flight intelligence network “Emergency Take Off”, the Chinese Air Force’s J-20A, serial number 61162, flew a test flight Dec. 8 at Chengdu Huangtianba, where AVIC’s Chengfei is located. If this is true, it means that the Chinese air force will have a third air brigade equipped or soon to be equipped with the new fighter.
According to the report, the serial number on the aircraft shows that it belongs to the 5th Air Brigade of the Southern Theater. The brigade is currently equipped with the J-10C from Lijiacun Air Base in Guilin.
The other two air brigades equipped with the J-20A are the 1st Air Brigade, which is part of the Northern Theater, and the 9th Air Brigade, which is part of the Eastern Theater.
In addition, the 172nd, and also the 176th Aviation Brigade under the Central Theater Command, which is directly under the Central Military Commission, are also equipped with J-20 fighters.
If the above is true, then the two major PLA southeastern theaters adjacent to the Taiwan Strait are about to be or have been equipped with J-20s.
The J-20 is China’s self-developed all-weather, medium- and long-range, heavy supersonic stealth fighter with excellent air-control combat capability and good ground-to-sea precision strike capability. The maximum surveillance distance of the early warning aircraft is only 120 kilometers to the stealth fighter, and the stealth fighter can launch an attack on the early warning aircraft at a very close distance.
At the Zhuhai Airshow in early October, China officially announced the “Heart of China”, that is, the J-20 switched to the WS-10C “Taihang” domestic engines, which was also the first public display of the J-20 fighter since installed with domestic engines.