BEIJING – China’s new indigenously developed multi-role stealth fighter jetJ-10C, capable of striking precisely both land and maritime targets, wereput into active combat duty today, the military said.
The third-generation supersonic fighter jets are equipped with an advancedavionics system and multiple advanced armament, making it capable ofprecisely striking both land and maritime targets within medium and closerange, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) said in a statement.
China had in February commissioned its the latest J-20 stealth fighter intoits air force’s combat service. The J-20 is China’s fourth-generationmedium and long-range fighter jet. The Chinese supersonic fighter jet hadmade its debut in July last year, when the PLA marked its 90th anniversary,at Zhurihe military training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The fighter will enrich the air force’s offensive and defensive system andimprove its capability to fulfil duties and missions, the statement said.Shen Jinke, a spokesperson for the PLAAF, said that the air force willadvance training and war readiness, and sharpen its striking, defensive,and air delivery capabilities. It will also firmly safeguard China’sairspace security and national strategic interests in the new era, Shen wasquoted as saying by the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Taiwan’s state-owned news agency the Central News Agency (CNA) had earlierreported that the J-10C is more streamlined than the J-10 B to reduce drag.Hong Kong military analyst Leung Kwok-leung said that the J-10C has stealthcapabilities entirely different from existing stealth warplanes.
The J-10C fuselage absorbs radar waves and weakens its signals, as aresult, the waves do not bounce back to the radar, making the planestealth, the state-run Global Times said quoting the CNA report today. Itis a brand new stealth technology, it said.
The news of induction of the new warplane came at a time when Chinesemilitary held its biggest ever military exercises and parade in thedisputed South China Sea last week. The naval hardware seen at the parade,inspected by Chinese President Xi Jinping, showcased achievements made bythe People’s Liberation Army Navy, including nuclear submarines in itsmodernisation drive, military observers said.
A researcher at the PLA Naval Military Studies Research Institute, SeniorCaptain Cao Weidong said that the Navy received a large number of newweapons with advanced capabilities over the past five years and newhardware features a higher information capability and optimised jointoperation system and thus can better carry out sophisticated jointoperations.
Cui Yiliang, editor-in-chief of Modern Ships magazine, said the Navy showedalmost all of its new hardware delivered during the past 10 years. It isnow capable of conducting every naval operation, from strategic strike toamphibious assault, he said. “The nuclear-powered ballistic missilesubmarines involved in the parade are of the latest generation and havemany improvements compared with their predecessors.
The new nuclear-powered attack submarines are reportedly capable oflaunching cruise missiles,” he said Wu Peixin, a defence industry analystin Beijing, said the PLA Navy has been steadily and rapidly catching upwith the US Navy in terms of technological and operational capabilities ofits hardware.