Over the Indian Ocean, four brand-new J-20As flew side by side to the south, followed by a Y-20A without any logo about 20 kilometers behind, followed by a KJ-2000 with the Chinese Air Force logo on the main wing and the Chinese and Pakistani flags on the vertical tail.

This is a very peculiar formation.

The J-20A formation commander was Lieutenant Colonel Zhan Pengfei, one of the first J-20 pilots in the Chinese Air Force and the first aviation regiment to be equipped with J-20A.

Like the other three pilots, Zhan Pengfei didn't know exactly what he was doing.

In the early hours of the morning, Zhan Pengfei received an order to lead a four-plane squadron from the air base on the outskirts of Nanjing, and arrived at the airfield near the port of Gwadar in Pakistan before dawn after two air refuelings. After resting for only four hours, Zhan Pengfei received an order directly from the General Staff Headquarters to lead the four-plane squadron to set off. After flying over the Arabian Sea for half an hour, Zhan Pengfei figured out that their mission was to escort a transport plane that also passed through the Gwadar port airport to Diego Garcia, and obeyed the command of the AWACS aircraft throughout the whole process.

What to do in Diego Garcia?

Zhan Pengfei was very surprised, because Diego Garcia is the territory of the US military, more than 3,000 kilometers away from the port of Gwadar. Without the assistance of an external fuel tank, the J-20A could not return to the port of Gwadar and had to land at the US military airfield in Diego Garcia.

Landing is not a problem, the point is that the US military will let four J-20As take off again?

It is important to know that the J-20A is the only fifth-generation heavy air supremacy fighter that can compete with the F-22A, and it is the biggest threat to the F-22A.

Compared to the J-20, the J-20A has undergone a wide range of improvements.

First of all, the Type 35S engine, introduced through the Su-117, was replaced with a domestic engine with a greater thrust.

Because when Russia exported the Su-35 to China, it played a trick and equipped with an engine improved from the AL-31, but it was only given the number "117S", which was very different from the 117S engine developed for the T-50, so shortly after the introduction of the Su-35, China accelerated the development of a new engine. The new generation of small-channel military engine numbered WS-30 has not only increased the maximum military thrust and maximum afterburner thrust by 22 percent and 13 percent compared with the 117S, but also reduced the fuel consumption rate by more than 15 percent, increased the service life to 2,000 hours, extended the overhaul interval to 1,000 hours, and improved the reliability several times.

Thanks to the WS-30, which had a maximum afterburner thrust of 166 kN, the J-20A was completely reborn.

By increasing the use of composite materials, increasing the integration of electronic devices and improving manufacturing processes, the empty weight of the J-20A is reduced by about 1,000 kilograms compared to the J-20. Combined with improved engine performance, as well as an advanced aerodynamic layout, the J-20A's maneuverability caught up with the F-22A.

According to the simulated confrontation tests conducted by the Chinese Air Force, the J-20A's combat capabilities are almost the same as those of the F-22A.

If you really want to talk about the gap, it is mainly reflected in the stealth design, that is, the J-20 did not pursue all-round stealth from the beginning, and only emphasized the forward stealth capability, so the J-20A is more suitable for performing offensive air defense tasks, and the multi-purpose capabilities such as performing strike missions are not as good as those of the F-22A.

This is also exactly the orientation of the J-20A, that is, the main task requirements.

In the Chinese Air Force, the J-20A is a typical heavy air superiority fighter, the first task of which is to seize air supremacy and defeat the enemy's air superiority fighters. Other missions, such as ground strikes, are undertaken by a large number of medium or fourth-generation fighters such as the J-31, J-13, J-11 and J-10.

The opponent of the J-20A is the F-22A of the US military.

In addition to the engines, the J-20A also upgraded the electronics with the fire control radar as the core, and installed the No. 15 and No. 16 high-speed data communication systems.

These improvements have made the J-20A a leader in the fifth generation fighter.

Last year, after the J-20A was officially equipped with the Chinese Air Force, the US Air Force exclaimed that the F-22A had encountered a challenge that had never been seen since its birth.

For a while, many people thought that even the F-22A was no match for the J-20A.

Although the main purpose of the US Air Force's weakness is to obtain appropriations from Congress to purchase more F-22As to replace the F-15 series fighters, which are already seriously overaged, the US military will definitely try to get a few J-20As long as there is an opportunity, and learn more about this fighter.

Zhan Pengfei was a little worried, and even suspected that this was a trap to get the U.S. military to get the J-20A.

It's just that the order was given directly from the General Staff, with the approval of the Chief of the General Staff. Unless the chief of the General Staff is treasonous, Zhan Pengfei's speculation is unfounded.

Obviously, Zhan Pengfei did not believe that the Chief of the General Staff would commit treason.

This may be a secret military visit or military exchange, and there is a big man on the transport plane, maybe it is Yang Fanglie himself.

With this idea, Zhan Pengfei did not dare to be careless.

For Zhan Pengfei, Yang Fanglie is not only the chief of the general staff, but also his Bole.

Zhan Pengfei is only 31 years old, and his service experience is less than eight years. In the Chinese Air Force, which follows the rules, it is not easy to become a lieutenant colonel at the age of 31.

An incident happened two years ago that made Zhan Pengfei know Yang Fanglie and changed Zhan Pengfei's fate.

In that year, Zhan Pengfei's unit was the first to receive J-20A and was responsible for the troop acceptance test flight, and Zhan Pengfei was fortunate to participate in the test flight work and became the first batch of J-20A pilots. During the test of the maximum flight envelope, the J-20A piloted by Zhan Pengfei stopped and entered a spiral stall. According to the regulations, Zhan Pengfei should immediately parachute to escape. Instead of doing this, he restarted one of the engines in thirty seconds and flew back to the airport with a single engine, landing smoothly onto the runway. This accident allowed engineers to discover several serious defects in the J-20A and WS-30, and immediately made large-scale improvements, and Zhan Pengfei was also awarded personal special merit and was personally commended by Yang Fanglie. Half a year later, Zhan Pengfei was promoted to lieutenant colonel and promoted to the commander of the fighter regiment of the synthetic aviation division.

For Zhan Pengfei, Yang Fanglie has the grace of knowing it.

If there is no commendation from Yang Fanglie, according to the regulations of the Air Force, even if Zhan Pengfei has made meritorious contributions to protecting national property, he will be punished for failing to parachute according to the regulations.

Thinking of the experience of the past two years, Zhan Pengfei couldn't help but sigh.

At this time, an air situation message from an AWACS aircraft appeared on the integrated information screen, and a suspicious target was identified as a yellow icon representing the threat.

Zhan Pengfei was a little surprised, what is the threat over the Arabian Sea?

The biggest threat comes from the Indian Air Force, but the most advanced fighter of the Indian Air Force is the Su-30MKI, as well as a batch of Rafale received at the beginning of the year. Both of these fighters are typical of the fourth and a half generations, have no stealth capabilities, and can be detected by AWACS aircraft at a distance of several hundred kilometers.

The screen clearly shows that about 600 kilometers to the east, there are two Su-30MKI of the Indian Air Force.

If it is a fighter of the Indian Air Force, it is not a "suspicious target".

Is it possible that the radar of the KJ-2000 is malfunctioning?

Zhan Pengfei was a little skeptical, because judging from the pattern on the vertical tail, this was an early warning aircraft used to demonstrate the performance of the Pakistan Air Force. Perhaps Pakistan has the intention of buying large AWACS aircraft, so the Chinese Air Force sent a KJ-2000 to do a performance demonstration.

If the AWACS aircraft has been deployed in Pakistan for too long, it is reasonable that there will be some glitches.

Zhan Pengfei didn't care, but just let the fighter's fire control computer start recording the information of suspicious targets, and calculate and process them with the highest priority.

Half a minute later, the air situation information was updated, and the icon of the suspicious target turned bright yellow.

This suggests that the threat is growing.

What's going on?

"Hole two, hole three, hole four, end the automatic flight state." Zhan Pengfei frowned, he sensed the threat that was approaching.

If the suspected target is a fighter, it is only possible that it is a stealth fighter, and most likely an F-22A.

The U.S. military was preparing to conduct exercises in Diego Garcia, and sent 20 F-22As over without using the F-35 series fighters, which were prone to malfunction.

In this vicinity, there is only the F-22A, a stealth fighter.

Soon, the AWACS aircraft again updated the air situation information, and also drew a continuous route map of the suspicious target. Although the lack of distance parameters made it impossible to accurately calculate the flight speed of a suspicious target, based on the angular velocity of the suspicious target, as well as the minimum detection range of the KJ-2000 for stealth fighters, it was possible to determine that the minimum flight speed of the suspected target at an altitude of five thousand meters exceeded three hundred kilometers per hour.

What is this concept?

No bird in the world can fly at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour at this altitude, and even the fastest peregrine falcon can dive at a speed of only 300 kilometers per hour.

Perhaps, it was atmospheric interference.

Zhan Pengfei stared at the screen, waiting for the AWACS aircraft to update the air situation information again.

This time, it wasn't just the data that was sent.

"Hole, hole, find an enemy plane, go to intercept it. Emphasized, this is not a drill. ”

"Dong Mi understands, and asks for the order to fire." Zhan Pengfei became nervous. The information on the screen indicates that the suspicious target is climbing at a speed of hundreds of meters per second. Definitely not a bird, nor atmospheric interference, but a stealth fighter that is approaching at high speed and seizing the advantageous altitude.

The point is, this is not a drill!

"The order is confirmed, and it is possible to preemptively open fire. Repeat it once to preemptively fire. ”

"Understood!" Zhan Pengfei has pushed the throttle stick to the end. "Attention of all aircraft, enemy aircraft are approaching, ready for battle. Emphasized, this is not a drill. ”

Zhan Pengfei knew that their situation was extremely disadvantaged.

For escort of transport aircraft, the J-20A can only fly at a speed of eight hundred and forty kilometers per hour, so it takes two minutes to increase the flight speed of the fighter. If enemy aircraft are in close proximity, four J-20As will be attacked before they reach the ideal speed for conducting air combat.

What's worse is that Zhan Pengfei is not at all clear about the distance from the enemy aircraft.

The KJ-2000 has a head-on detection range of only one hundred and fifty kilometers against the F-22A, while the KJ-2000 is a hundred kilometers behind the J-20A. By the time KJ-2000 confirmed that it was an F-22A, the J-20A was only fifty kilometers away from the enemy aircraft, and the F-22A's radar could detect the J-22A within sixty kilometers. A difference of ten kilometers is enough for the F-22A to lock onto the J-20A and then launch medium-range air-to-air missiles.

If the F-22A is piloted by an experienced pilot, he will launch the missile before locking on to the J-20A, and only use the radar to lock on to the J-20A when the missile is about to enter the self-guidance stage, providing the necessary fire control data for the missile, and the J-20A will not even have a chance to counterattack.

When training against fourth-generation fighters such as the J-11 and J-10, Zhan Pengfei often used this trick.

"Dut...... Honk...... Toot ......"

The radar warning plane sounded, not a long sound, indicating that only the search signal from the radar of the enemy plane had been intercepted, and the lock signal had not been intercepted.