More than 10 years ago, when Pakistan began to contact China and proposed to jointly develop the JF-20 fighter, it was scoffed at by many people.

Joint development?

To put it bluntly, it is procurement, or rather the purchase of a production license for the J-10C, and then under a different name, it becomes a Pakistani fighter.

At the time, the Indian news media ridiculed it.

Say what?

Pakistan has spent huge sums of money on a fighter jet that is about to become obsolete.

In addition, Pakistan's pin of all its national defense construction on one country will have an extremely fatal impact on national security.

Anyway, I just don't think about this deal.

Is the JF-20 about to become obsolete?

From the point of view of development, there is really nothing wrong with saying this, after all, the era of fifth-generation aircraft has arrived, and fourth-generation aircraft will soon become obsolete.

The problem is that the fourth-generation aircraft will definitely not be completely phased out overnight.

In the 80s of the last century, when the fourth-generation aircraft represented by F-15 and Su-27 began to enter service, third-generation aircraft such as F-4 and Mig-23 would definitely be eliminated, but until the arrival of fifth-generation aircraft represented by F-22A and J-20, there are still many third-generation aircraft in service in countries around the world.

Why?

Any kind of fighter has its service life, and the more advanced the fighter, the more expensive it is.

It is natural that all of the most advanced fighters are the best for an air force, but no air force can afford to raise so many advanced fighters.

If nothing else, the US military is the same.

At the time of the arrival of the F-22A and F-35A, the U.S. military still had a large number of F-15s and F-16s.

It is true that the JF-20 will become obsolete, but it will not be phased out immediately.

You know, this is not the Cold War.

In fact, even during the Cold War, the replacement time of fighter aircraft was about 25 to 30 years.

From the perspective of the post-Cold War period, most of the late-generation fourth-generation aircraft will be used until after 2030, and some can even be used until 2040.

It can be seen that the JF-20 will not be eliminated immediately.

Of course, for the Pakistani Air Force, the JF-20 is a sane choice.

Why?

In the short term, Pakistan is unlikely to acquire fifth-generation fighters, so it will have to consider finding a replacement for the fighter jets it procured nearly 20 years ago.

Within the range of options, the JF-20 is the most ideal.

Of course, in the long run, after having a fifth-generation fighter, the JF-20 will still be able to take a back seat and act as the second main force of the Air Force.

In addition, there is a crucial reason.

That is, to establish a complete combat system.

Prior to that, the problems of the Pakistani Air Force were the same as those of the Indian Air Force, that is, the origin of combat platforms was too complicated.

At that time, in the Pakistani Air Force, there were not only American F-16s, JF-17s jointly developed with Huaxia, but also a large number of "Phantoms" from France.

With such a complicated equipment system, it is a big trouble when establishing a combat system.

If nothing else, it's hard to keep the chain of command smooth.

In fact, it was in that year that the Pakistan Air Force recognized the importance of the system.

Why?

In that year, the Pakistan Air Force and the Huaxia Air Force held a month-long joint confrontation exercise.

What is different from previous years is that for the first time, the participating units of China appeared in the form of "combat groups."

What is a "battle group"?

Actually, this is just a conceptual designation, and the correct name is "Air Force Tactical Composite Brigade".

In this unit, there are not only heavy air supremacy fighter squadrons, medium multirole fighter squadrons, but also support squadrons mainly composed of early warning planes, and strike squadrons specially responsible for air defense suppression.

To put it simply, this force is an air force capable of fighting independently.

In strength, it surpasses the air power of a small country.

Even if you are at war with a powerful country, you can still take charge of it alone.

Only a few such troops are needed to be able to fight a large-scale local war.

This confrontation exercise gave the Pakistan Air Force its first taste of the power of systematic operations.

Why?

In the absence of obvious superiority in troops, let alone fifth-generation aircraft, the Huaxia Air Force's combat group gave the Pakistan Air Force a taste of defeat in an almost crushing manner.

In the all-out confrontation, the Pakistani troops participating in the exercise were beaten so that they could not find the north at all.

Are the fighters used by the Huaxia Air Force combat group all advanced?

The heavy air supremacy fighter is the J-11B, the medium multirole fighter is the J-10B, the AWACS aircraft is the KJ-500, and only 4 J-16ADGs are used.

It can be seen that it is not advanced at all.

In fact, in order to take care of the Pakistan Air Force, the Huaxia Air Force also deliberately kept a hand.

In the official combat group, the heavy air supremacy fighter is the J-20, the medium multi-role fighter is the J-10C, the early warning aircraft is the KJ-2000 or KJ-3000, and the J-16ADG has at least 8 and a maximum of 12, in addition to special air command aircraft, electronic reconnaissance aircraft and refueling aircraft.

If necessary, several large high-altitude long-endurance UAVs will be added.

It was after this exercise that the Pakistan Air Force strengthened its idea of establishing an air combat system, and the first thing it did was to find a replacement for the F-16.

It's just that negotiations on the introduction of the JF-20 are proceeding slowly.

The main thing is that the Pakistan Air Force first wanted a fifth-generation fighter instead of a fourth-generation fighter, and several years of time were wasted on this.

By the time the negotiations were completed, the J-10D was already available.

Of course, the JF-20 project remained, but the target was changed to the J-10D.

That is, after the introduction of J-10D and the start of production of JF-20, the Pakistan Air Force began to eliminate other fighters, and began to build a combat system with Huaxia fighter as the core, supplemented by ZDK-05 and JF-20EP, and gradually improved and gradually promoted the construction work.

Otherwise, the Pakistani Air Force would not be so strong.

Of course, in the eyes of the outside world, this battle is more propaganda for the JF-20, or for the weapons and equipment produced in China.

Why?

The F-35AI was shot down by HQ-9B and JF-20 fighter jets exported to Pakistan by Huaxia, and the ZDK-05, an early warning aircraft also from Huaxia, played a crucial role.

To put it simply, it was Huaxia's air combat system that defeated the F-35AI.

As for the Pakistan Air Force, it has become a supporting role.

Faced with the fact that no one can deny, the Western media did not trumpet the Chinese weapon, but aimed the finger at the Indian Air Force.

Why?

It was the incompetence of the Indian Air Force, the inferiority of the Indian Air Force, that caused such a heavy defeat.

The implication is not that the F-35AI is not good enough, but that the Indian Air Force will not use this fighter, otherwise it will definitely be another result.

While this argument itself is not wrong, it is clearly suspicious of diverting attention.

To put it bluntly, when the Western news media were propagating, they were obviously avoiding China's weapons system and did not want to excessively publicize the advanced nature of China's weapons and equipment.