By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
(Washington DC) For many years, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAN) has been flying hundreds of single-seat J-10 fighter jets, aircraft which emerged roughly 20 years ago as a potential F-15 and F-16 rival.
J-10 Takes Flight
While emerging many years after the F-16, it certainly seems possible that China developed and deployed the aircraft in large numbers as part of a key effort to rival U.S. Air Force 4th-generation jets.
With a reported range of 1,150 nautical miles and speeds of Mach 2, according to both U.S. and Chinese news reports, the J-10 may have arrived as a slightly more modern or more capable challenge to the 1980s-era US F-15 and F-16.
However, not so fast, as the U.S. Air Force has upgraded and improved the F-15 and F-16 in extremely impactful ways for many years with new radar, sensors, EW systems, weapons, and avionics, among other things. In fact, an F-16 modernization and Service Life Extension Plan (SLEP) has extended the airframes into the future with thousands more operational miles and flight hours, as part of a clear Air Force plan to fly the jet into the 2040s.
Interestingly, years ago a Congressional report on U.S.-China economic and security issues specifically mentioned that upgrades to U.S. 4th-generation aircraft were extremely significant to ensure U.S. Air Force jets remained competitive with and even superior to Chinese 4th-gen planes such as the J-10, J-11, and J-16. A recent report in the Chinese government-backed Global Times newspaper says the PLA’s carrier-capable J-15 is receiving the WS-10 Chinese-built engine.
“The WS-10 Taihang is a series of turbofan engines with high thrust and high thrust-to-weight ratio independently developed by China, and they have been used by a number of China’s warplanes including the J-10, J-11, J-16 and J-20 fighter jets, but carrier-based J-15s used to use Russian Al-31F engines,” a Global Times report from Nov. 2022 states.
The F-16 as a Moving Target of Technology
The Air Force upgrades to the F-16 have been longstanding and quite substantial, as the Fighting Falcon has in recent years been receiving F-35 technologies such as a new Active Electronically Scanned Radar capable of tracking 20 targets at one time and as many as 12 different structural modifications. In 2019, Air Force weapons developers told WarriorMaven that the F-16 was in the process of getting upgrades to its upper wing skin and fittings, upper and lower bulkhead, and canopy sill longeron. These upgrades, service officials said at the time, extend the service life of the F-16 from 8,000 flight hours up to 12,000 flight hours.
In 2019, an Air Force official told WarriorMaven that the SLEP program consists of 12 structural modifications and an existing Time Compliance Technical Order. The Air Force is upgrading 372 F-16 aircraft from the existing mechanically scanned radar (APG-68) to an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) (APG-83).
“This upgrade provides greater bandwidth, speed, & agility enabling F-16s to detect, track, & identify a greater number of targets, faster and at longer ranges,” the official told Warrior Maven in 2019.
At this time several years ago, Lockheed F-16 developers said the F-16 was also getting new computers, software, targeting technology and cockpit displays to ensure it remained cutting edge and capable against cutting edge 4th-generation threats. As part of this effort, Lockheed even engineered a new “v” variant of the F-16 which continues to generate allied interest around the world with added missile warning systems, EW, and helmet-mounted cueing technology.
Also, the US Air Force F-16 has integrated cutting-edge “collision avoidance” technology into the F-16, computer-enabled technology, which can take over and “fly” the aircraft to avoid collisions in the event that a pilot is incapacitated or injured. Years ago, former Air Force acquisition military deputy Gen. Arnold Bunch told Warrior that this collision avoidance has already saved lives if, for example, a pilot pulls too many “Gs” and becomes unconscious.
The most recent development with the F-16, according to multiple news reports including CNN, say the Ukrainians are now being trained on US Air Force F-16s, something which could prove extremely impactful if not decisive in Ukraine’s war for air supremacy against Russia.
The specific extent to which an upgraded US Air Force F-16 can rival or out-match a Chinese J-10- may not be fully known, however, the integration of 5th-gen-like F-35 technologies with new computing, sensing, and targeting might seem to position the F-16 quite well against a Chinese J-10.
Author Expertise and Biography
Kris Osborn is President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
