{"id":1378,"date":"2018-01-12T22:31:37","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T20:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=1378"},"modified":"2018-01-12T22:31:37","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T20:31:37","slug":"new-j-16-fighters-enter-chinas-air-fleet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=1378","title":{"rendered":"New J-16 Fighters Enter China\u2019s Air Fleet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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China\u2019s J-16 fighter jets are quietly being introduced to the People\u2019s Liberation Army Air Force at a faster rate than the country\u2019s new fifth-generation J-20, though the latter has garnered much more international attention<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Chinese<\/a>

\u00a9 AP Photo\/ Ng Han Guan, File<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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At least two new squadrons of\u00a0J-16 fighter jets have been added or are in\u00a0the process of\u00a0converting to\u00a0J-16 squadrons, Defense News reported Wednesday, citing images recently published by\u00a0the Chinese Ministry of\u00a0National Defense. With the additions, the PLAAF has at\u00a0least three J-16 units in\u00a0its arsenal: the 172nd, the 173rd and the 98th brigades, Defense News noted.<\/p>\n

The J-16 is an indigenously built fighter modeled after\u00a0Russia’s multi-role Su-30 Flanker fighter jet, which aviation experts consider to\u00a0fare favorably against\u00a0the US F-15 Strike Eagle. China’s air force and navy also operate the Su-30. The J-16 is more advanced that the J-11 (which is itself modeled on\u00a0the closely related Su-27) in\u00a0the sense that it is well-suited for\u00a0ground strike missions as\u00a0well as\u00a0air-to-air combat.<\/p>\n

\n
\"In<\/div>\n
\u00a9 AP PHOTO\/ JIN DANHUA\/XINHUA<\/div>\n
J-20 and PAK FA: Chinese Air Force Wants Closer Ties With Russian Colleagues<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

J-16s entered the PLAAF in\u00a0small numbers in\u00a02015, Defense News notes, adding that wider introduction was postponed in\u00a0order to\u00a0better develop the electronically scanned array radar for\u00a0the aircraft.<\/p>\n

The PLAAF commissioned the first J-20 last September, but\u00a0experts expect integration of\u00a0the fifth-generation aircraft to\u00a0be “very long and painful,” as\u00a0it has been with\u00a0the US Air Force’s F-35. “The process of\u00a0fifth-gen fighters’ introduction to\u00a0the US Air Force was very long and painful,” said Vasily Kashin, a fellow at\u00a0the Center for\u00a0Comprehensive European and International Studies in\u00a0Moscow, when the J-20 made its public debut. “There’s no reason to\u00a0think China would be different,” Kashin said.<\/p>\n

\n
\"F-35<\/div>\n
\u00a9 FLICKR\/ US AIR FORCE\/MASTER SGT. DONALD R. ALLEN<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n
China Dismisses Allegations of US F-35 Stealth Fighter Data Theft<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

China has also been developing an even newer aircraft than\u00a0the J-20. In 2012, China’s J-31 prototype made its first public flight at\u00a0the Zhuhai airshow. “I think they’ll eventually be on\u00a0par with\u00a0our fifth-gen jets\u00a0\u2014 as\u00a0they should be, because industrial espionage is alive and well,” a senior US fighter pilot familiar with\u00a0the F-35 told USNI News in\u00a02014.<\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong>\u00a0sputniknews.com<\/a> -12 January 2018<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s J-16 fighter jets are quietly being introduced to the People\u2019s Liberation Army Air Force at a faster rate than the country\u2019s new fifth-generation J-20, though the latter has garnered much more international attention....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,36,19,173,174,33,1,7,31,178,6,32,177,18],"tags":[511,1486,1488,1492,1493,303,1491,481,510,1490,205,1489,1487,1485],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1378"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1380,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1378\/revisions\/1380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}