If you thought that only liberals and Congress sympathisers have been experiencing a historic meltdown ever since the first batch of five Rafale fighter aircraft touched down at the Ambala airbase, you’re grossly wrong. The honour is shared by the Pakistani military as reported by TFI earlier today, and the latest entrant to the party is the People’s Republic of China, which is currently embroiled in a military standoff with India in Eastern Ladakh. China is an insecure nation, one which has historically aimed at containing India. However, India flourishing, both in terms of its influence around the world and its heightened military prowess has visibly not gone down well with the paper dragon.
CCP propaganda tool and an outsourced pamphlet of the Chinese Foreign Ministry – Global Times yesterday carried an ‘analysis’ of the Rafale fighter jets and arrived at the unsurprising conclusion that its party’s J-20 ‘stealth’ fighter aircraft trumps over the Rafale any day. Mind you, the alleged ‘stealth’ aircraft of the Chinese have so far not been used in any conflict, even as the Rafale jets have proven their mettle in the battlefields of Libya, Syria and other countries.
The Global Times, quoting anonymous foreign ministry officials as ‘defence experts’, said, “Rafale is only a third-plus generation fighter jet, and does not stand much of a chance against a stealth, fourth generation one like the J-20.” It also quoted one Zhang Xuefeng as saying, “In some combat performance areas, the Rafale is superior to the Su-30 MKI fighter jets, which are in service in the Indian air force in large batches, but it is only about one-fourth of a generation more advanced and does not yield a significant qualitative change…Thanks to its AESA radar, advanced weapons and limited stealth technologies, the Rafale is comparable to other third-plus generation fighter jets used by other countries, but it will find it very difficult to confront a stealth-capable fourth generation fighter jet.”
In response to such frivolous claims of the Chinese, which really have no evidence to back them, former Indian Air Chief Marshal, BS Dhanoa took it upon himself to destroy claims made by the paper dragon through its mouthpiece, all in two questions. The questions of course, won’t find any answers, because the former Air Chief Marshal has deflated China’s assertions at the very outset.
First, Dhanoa asked, “If the J-20, also called the Mighty Dragon, is indeed a fifth-generation stealth fighter, then why does it have canards while genuine 5th generation fighters such as the US’ F-22, F-35, and Russian fifth-generation Su-57 don’t?”
Second, he probed the Chinese on the issue of J-20 not being capable of supercruise. He asked, “Why can’t the J-20 supercruise if it is really a 5th generation fighter as its manufacturer Chengdu Aerospace Corporation calls it?”
As per Hindustan Times, canards are fuselage-mounted small, forward wings which are considered to present large angular surfaces that tend to reflect radar signals, reducing the stealth capability of the aircraft. Meanwhile, supercruise is the ability of a fighter jet to fly at speeds above Mach 1 – the speed of sound – without the use of afterburners, the additional combustion component used on some jet engines to increase thrust.
“The Rafale has the supercruise ability and its radar signature is comparable to the best of the fighters in the world,” said Dhanoa according to Hindustan Times.
BS Dhanoa has therefore exposed the Chinese claims of their lousy J-20 fighters being superior to the Rafales which India now has. The Balakot airstrikes in 2019 were spearheaded by the then Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa and the National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval. Dhanoa was also responsible for targeting Pakistani intruders on Drass, Kargil and the Battalik heights during the Kargil War.