The US claims China stole American tech to make a copycat of the F-22 Raptor, known as the J-20 Mighty Dragon. We compare the stealth, accuracy, and radar technology of the two fighter jets.
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00:00 (jet engine roaring)
00:02 The US and China have the two most advanced
00:05 stealth fighter jets in the world,
00:07 the F-22 Raptor and the J-20 Mighty Dragon.
00:11 But which one is better in combat?
00:13 We're going to break down the balance of power.
00:16 Hi, I'm Sam Fellman.
00:17 I'm a defense editor and business insider,
00:19 and I'm a US Navy veteran.
00:21 To think about why we're comparing these jets,
00:22 we need to step back to the Ukraine War.
00:25 The Ukraine War is showing us
00:26 the power of air defense systems.
00:29 Any aircraft that can be radar detected
00:32 within a missile range can be shot down.
00:35 That's large drones, fighters of all kinds.
00:38 Ukraine has lost Su-27 air superiority fighters.
00:42 Russia has lost Su-34 fighter bombers,
00:46 just as two examples.
00:48 So fairly sophisticated jets
00:50 are being shot down by air defenses.
00:53 An air superiority fighter's role
00:55 is to knock out air defenses and enemy fighters
00:58 before they can be spotted.
01:00 So a fifth generation fighter is the answer
01:03 to this problem of pervasive
01:05 and dangerous air defense systems.
01:07 It's designed to fly fast and to go undetected,
01:11 or to be minimally detected
01:13 and to be able to achieve its missions
01:16 of perhaps destroying enemy fighters
01:18 and destroying enemy air defenses
01:21 before it can be detected and engaged.
01:24 The F-22 is the most advanced
01:26 air-to-air fighter ever built.
01:28 We don't really know that much about the J-20.
01:31 It's an enigmatic aircraft.
01:33 We only know a little bit from Chinese sources
01:36 and then from what are essentially guesstimates.
01:38 And so the ranges and much else
01:41 are really best understood as round figures.
01:44 The J-20 is China's answer to the F-22 Raptor.
01:49 US officials have accused China
01:52 of stealing defense technology writ large,
01:55 and they've specifically accused China
01:57 of stealing technology to build the J-20,
02:00 their first stealth fighter.
02:02 It costs north of $100 million.
02:05 Estimates range, there's no credible single figure.
02:09 The J-20 entered service in 2017,
02:13 and China is estimated to have over 200 operational.
02:17 Stealth is the ability to avoid detection.
02:23 It requires precision engineering of the highest order
02:26 on every aspect of the plane.
02:28 Its door access panels, its undercarriage of the fuselage
02:33 and the flat panels on its wings,
02:36 the helmet on the pilot's head.
02:39 Everything that the plane is designed to have
02:42 is few aspects that protrude
02:46 from the stealth exterior as possible
02:48 to minimize the return of radio waves.
02:51 Comparing the stealth of aircraft is really a guessing game,
02:55 but stealth is the most critical factor
02:58 that defines the fifth generation aircraft.
03:00 A fast fifth generation aircraft can be detected,
03:04 can be shot down, just like a fourth generation aircraft.
03:07 And so the advance, the potential inherent
03:11 in the fifth generation aircraft
03:13 is that perhaps it won't be spotted.
03:17 We can certainly ascertain that the J-20
03:19 has stealth features and some similarities with the F-22.
03:24 The F-22 also has a delta wing shape,
03:27 and they both have angled vertical stabilizers.
03:31 The angled vertical stabilizers are one element
03:34 of the plane's design to minimizing its radar signature.
03:38 One of the big differences between the F-22 and the J-20
03:41 is the J-20 has these little wings called canards.
03:45 They're just behind the cockpit and provide more lift.
03:48 (dramatic music)
03:51 Stealth is primarily measured in observable technologies.
03:57 For an aircraft, that means infrared
03:59 as well as radar returns.
04:02 This comes down to either radar absorbing
04:05 or radar transparent materials, think like plastic,
04:08 that are on the aircraft that limit the bounce back
04:12 of radio waves to a receiver.
04:15 It is that that creates the radar return
04:17 an air defense crew is using to scan the skies
04:20 and look for enemy aircraft.
04:23 And so a fifth gen fighter is a fighter designed
04:26 to have a very tiny, easily mistook radar signature,
04:30 much smaller than an aircraft like the F-22
04:33 that's 62 feet long and has a wingspan of 44 feet.
04:37 By some accounts, it may have the radar return
04:39 the size of a marble.
04:40 Infrared sensors could detect a fifth generation fighter,
04:45 but most surface to air missile systems need a radar return
04:48 to lock on to the target.
04:51 The F-22 designed by Lockheed Martin
04:54 is believed to have a very small radar cross section or RCS.
04:59 Another possibility is to have something
05:02 that almost like deadens the radio energy.
05:05 Or if it does send back a wave, it puts the waves together
05:08 so that they're coming from one common angle
05:11 versus having lots of different angles.
05:13 That's one reason that a stealth fighter tends to have
05:16 angles that are all the same across the airplane,
05:19 across different features of the airplane.
05:21 It's to try to minimize the amount of surfaces
05:24 that are returning to sort of specific angles
05:27 to make sure that there's this radar absorbing fill
05:31 in any access panel, and that there's also coatings
05:34 on the aircraft more generally
05:36 to try to minimize its signature.
05:38 If even three small screws were to be protruding
05:41 from anywhere in the aircraft,
05:43 those could create a larger radar return
05:46 than the entire rest of the aircraft
05:48 that's been coated and treated
05:50 with the radar absorbing materials.
05:53 Beyond the ability to evade radar detection,
05:59 the most important features are weapons range and accuracy.
06:02 The F-22 has better maneuverability than the J-20.
06:05 The F-22 has superior engines.
06:07 From what we've seen of the few public appearances
06:10 of the J-20, it's fairly unimpressive maneuvers
06:14 compared to other air superiority fighters.
06:17 Maneuverability is not super important
06:20 for modern air-to-air fighters.
06:22 Most air-to-air battles are happening beyond visual range.
06:27 Today's pilots don't need to point at the specific target
06:31 in order to launch a missile,
06:33 and those missiles have long ranges,
06:35 often beyond the pilot's visual range.
06:38 That's meant that the weapons accuracy
06:41 and the weapons range,
06:42 as well as the ability to avoid detection,
06:45 are the critical qualities
06:47 for a modern air superiority fighter.
06:50 The J-20 is a slightly larger aircraft.
06:56 When it comes to payload,
06:58 the J-20 appears to have more internal carrying capacity.
07:02 The J-20 is able to carry the PL-15 air-to-air missile.
07:06 It's a beyond visual range missile
07:08 that can reach targets up to 190 miles away,
07:11 and it has an active radar seeker.
07:14 The F-22 carries two types of missiles.
07:17 One is the AMRAAM.
07:19 That's the Advanced Medium-Range Air Missile.
07:22 This is a mainstay US fighter weapon.
07:26 It's been proven in combat for three decades.
07:28 The AMRAAM costs about $1 million each,
07:31 and it can reach targets about 100 miles away.
07:34 The AIM-9 is another important US air defense weapon.
07:39 It's a shorter-range missile,
07:42 the heat-seeking warhead,
07:44 and it costs about $400,000 each.
07:48 Missiles are the leading threat to aircraft.
07:50 Missiles and radars can detect most enemy aircraft,
07:54 and a fifth-gen aircraft designates
07:57 a type of very state-of-the-art fighter
08:01 that's designed to defeat and fool those systems.
08:04 US fighter engine technology
08:11 has been one of China's top espionage priorities.
08:14 The F-22's engines have been in use for decades
08:18 and are vastly more reliable
08:20 than anything China currently has.
08:23 The Pratt & Whitney engines allow the F-22
08:27 to fly supersonic.
08:30 Why is supercruise important?
08:32 Supercruise is the ability to fly at a supersonic speed
08:36 without using an afterburner.
08:37 An afterburner has two problems.
08:39 One is that it guzzles fuel,
08:42 meaning that it is rapidly depleting
08:45 the amount of fuel that the aircraft carries,
08:48 and that means that a pilot can't fly an afterburner
08:51 for very long.
08:52 Typically, it's just used in short bursts,
08:55 not as a cruise speed.
08:57 The secondary problem is an afterburner
08:59 creates more of an observable tail.
09:02 That tail is detectable both via radar and via infrared
09:07 because of the heat energy it's putting off.
09:10 So a stealth aircraft that has supercruise
09:12 has major fuel and stealth advantages
09:16 over one that does not.
09:18 It appears that the J-20 has a larger
09:21 internal fuel capacity,
09:22 up to 26,000 pounds stored internally.
09:26 Fuel is important,
09:27 but the engines are pretty different from each other.
09:31 China doesn't have reliable engines yet
09:34 that allow the J-20 to supercruise.
09:37 Building jet engines requires
09:39 very advanced design and materials,
09:43 and China has struggled to build engines
09:46 on the really high end that are needed
09:48 for an air superiority fighter,
09:50 both for maneuvering and for supercruise.
09:56 The J-20 is no match for the F-22.
09:59 The US Air Force says the F-22 cannot be matched
10:03 by any known or projected aircraft,
10:06 and there's good reason to believe that's not a boast.
10:09 The F-22 has superior engines that can supercruise,
10:12 therefore moving at a fast speed
10:14 with less ability to be detected,
10:16 and US stealth technology
10:18 is a proven and operational technology.
10:20 The Chinese have advanced air defenses
10:23 and a fifth generation fighter in the J-20,
10:27 but if a F-22 cannot be detected
10:30 before it carries out its missions,
10:32 then those defenses are defanged.
10:35 The J-20 may be an effective air-to-air fighter
10:39 against the US's fourth generation fighters,
10:42 like the F-15 and the F-16.
10:45 The J-20 may not need to match the F-22 to be useful.
10:49 China's goal may be maintaining air superiority
10:52 over its mainland and its surface-to-air missiles,
10:55 and the J-20 fighter giving a shot at doing that.
10:58 Thanks to stealth and superior engines,
11:01 the balance of power goes to the F-22.
11:03 (dramatic music)
11:06 (air whooshing)
11:08 (wind howling)
11:11 [BLANK_AUDIO]