China’s J-10B Superior to French Rafale Fighter Jet
Posted: March 19, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: China, France, India, J-10B, Rafale 17 Comments
China’s J-10B fighter jet
China’s mt.sohu.com says in its report on March 14 that China’s fighter jets are wonderful and able to defeat the Rafale fighter jet India will import from France.
The report admits that Rafale is better than China’s J-10 and J-11B but stresses that China has developed J-10B, an improved version of J-10 that is better than Rafale in the following respects:
1. J-10B is as good and Rafale in undetectability;
2. J-10B has better maneuverability as it uses China’s new WS10B turbofan with 135 KN thrust, digital control and vectoring nozzle. It can fly faster and higher than Rafale
3. It is installed with better active phased array radar with 1,000-1,200 modules able to detect and identify a target as small as 3 square meters 160-180 km away and track quite a few targets simultaneously, while Rafale’s CSF-ESDRBC fire control radar is very much backward in being able to track only 8 targets simultaneously.
4. J-10B’s air-to-air missiles PL-12 and PL-13 respectively have the range of 80 and 160 km and a maximum speed of Mach 4 while Rafale’s has only a range of 50 km and speed of Mach 3.
Source: mt.sohu.com “China’s fighter jet very brilliant: J-10 is entirely able to defeat Rafale and make India collapse!” (summary by Chan Kai Yee based on the report in Chinese)
Tiananmen's Tremendous Achievements 
I still believe that only when J-10B gain true combat experience that it could be a truly superior fighter to the Rafale in EVERY aspect. Nearly all aspect is better but Rafale still has actual combat experience which unfortunately is a major point of advertisement in armaments.
Make no mistake, as a Chinese and HK citizen I firmly believe in my motherland’s armament industry but the reality is that the weapon is still unproven until actual combat experience. An example is the development of submarines between WWI and WWII, during this period many interesting theories were developed and being explained by famous engineers and scientists These theories were applied to submarines BUT many of them failed and caused even the deaths of the designers. Only when WWII came and the submarines being used then the engineers could come up with effective designs and use the submarines in war, Experience will reveal the faults of the weapon and thus forcing the manufacturer to improve the fighter.
I am not saying that China should declare war on another country immediate to gain experiences (France did so that their Rafale could gain actual combat experience) or directly intervene in another war. Rather, if there is an opportunity that some other nations would like to purchaase the J-10 and use it in actual war China could but not definitely consider this because I hate war but if there is some conflict that needed to be stopped and China had been asked to assist in terms of armaments then it could consider but not accept it immediately without evaluation of risk and benefits. Not to mention ethnic considerations.
LikeLike
True – The French Airforce Rafale was ordered by the then President Sarkozy to bomb Libya. It terms of combat experience as in a dogfight or against anti aircraft artillery or missiles, there was hardly any engagement. Most of the allied fighter jets were just having a picnic run and dropping bombs at will. Lately, President Putin ordered his airforce to bomb the Syrian Rebels completed 9,000 sorties and tested Russian military hardware with 100% success rate. I am certain China will have close to 100% success rate if decided to do what the Russians did as long as there is no dogfight and anti aircraft artillery. Dogfight and avoiding anti aircraft artillery missiles are completely different testing scenarios.
LikeLike
Iran is buying 150 J10 fighters in adddition to Pakistan and Syria
These countries are frequently involved in combats and will be testing them for China.
LikeLike
What actual combat experience did rafale really have ?.
LikeLike
As mentioned above, Picnic runs of bombardment on Libya during the time of ex President Gadaffi. The Rafale fighter Jets was ordered by the then President Sarkozy of France to bomb Libya. There was no dogfight nor anti aircraft missile.
LikeLike
since libya has no good air force and anti aircraft missile so the bombardment shouldn’t be considered as an experience….any jet fighters could do the same job with no problem
LikeLike
Agreed
LikeLike
The article clearly has several technical errors. The Rafale is not in the same class as J11B, Rafale is a single engine light fighter in the class of J10, while the J11B is a heavy fighter with much more powerful twin engines, which means superior maneuverability and more armaments. So far, there is no fighter jet developed in Europe would match J11, which left only US F-15 as the sole contender.
The Rafale is only a modernized Mirage 2000. It wasn’t even developed with stealth feature in mind, only enough to be Eurofighter Typhoon’s contender. It may look sleek, but it is very much detectable by radars. Even with an attempt to cover it with composite like US ‘stealth’ F-16 Viper, it wouldn’t increase undetectability much.
LikeLike
Not sure, but I believe that the J11B do not have state of the art radar absorbent material and 5th generation equipment of the J11D, China’s most potent fighter aircraft. According to the US military expert, the J11D is very comparable to the Russian SU-35S and dubbing it an extremely dangerous foe to any US fighter including the F35 & F22 being a short range tactical fighter. The J11B may not even be as good as the J10B
LikeLike
Eventhough the J11B is not as sophisticated as J11D, it easily outmatched the Rafale. The J11B was upgraded to meet SU30MKK specifications, and even the J11 and its base template SU-27 outclassed the light fighter Rafale. Perhaps the Rafale could outperform MiG29, but it could by no way outperform J11/SU-27 family.
LikeLike
By comparison you are absolutely correct that the J-11airframe is based on the Su-27. The airframe of the J-11B is slightly lighter with greater use of composite materials than J-11A powered by the WS10A. Originally the WS10 had technical problems where the Russian engines lasted 400 hrs and the Chinese WS10 only 30 hours before servicing. The J-11B used this Taihang engines but encountered problems and grounded for an extended period of time due to poor operational reliability. The problems were only solved in 2009 when the WS10A was proved mature enough to power the Block 02 aircraft.
In comparison, the airframe composite, fly by wire control system, glass cockpit, heavier imaging infrared air to air missiles, scanned array radar, etc are outdated compared to the J-11D. As a variant, I don’t think it’s as simple as swap the old for new equipment. For instance
The J-11D uses more composite materials in it’s wings and tail than J-11B, capable of firing more advanced missiles, new radar and air refuelling system with similar arrangement used on the J-15 and incorporate technologies for the J-16 fighter jet.
The Rafale would have been updated with new avionics and equipment. In comparison, the J-11B will remain as J-11B. Example, the PLAAF has variants J-11A (95), J-11B and J-11BS (110+) The PLANAF has 48 J-11B and J-11BS. The J-11D is unknown but most potent fighter.
Also, the latest J-10B should be superior to the J-11B and the J-10 would be outdated. During the Singapore air show, the J-10, for the first time has been promoted for sale. This is not surprising because the composite materials and avionics used on the J-10B would be superior to the J-10
LikeLike
Sorry but the Rafale is a TWIN-engine plane. As to carrying load, Rafale can carry 150% in addition of his weight … Basically taking off with 250% is clean configuration weight; that’s the only fighter in the world with such capacity. And no, it’s not a modernized Mirage 2000. And yes it has many stealth features, ranging from coating, electronic warfare and jet engines offering no direct visibility from the front…
LikeLike
Just like any other things made in India, it’s all about cosmetic. In terms of technical, they really can’t innovative. When I inspected a TATA truck, it has a nice modern-looking body, but when I looked at the interior and the engines, I was really dumbstrucked. It still used 1960/1970s technology with all its weakness. They did not copy it like China, they were taught to build it, yet they still couldn’t master it. I’m really puzzled, with all the transfer of technology from Japan and Germany, and recent purchase of British Land Rover and Jaguar, the Indian can’t even make a descent car. I would not be surprised if they can’t manufacture their Brahmos missiles themselves, which means they would have only limited number from their last joint production with Russia. If we study Indian history, in their millenia of civilization, unlike China, they never really invented anything technical at all.
LikeLike
[…] Source: China’s J-10B Superior to French Rafale Fighter Jet […]
LikeLike
Fighters jets export version are often inferior version of the ones operated by the home country. China reverse engineer and improve everything they imported from Russia and it is now very hard sell for Russia trying to convince China to buy their jets.
India on the other hand does not have the technical ability to re-engineer their imported jets, what worse is they have to rely completely on import to service the jets meaning in times of war it is very difficult for India to keep enough of its jets in service.
LikeLike
True – India lacks the technical capacity to reengineer advance fighter jets, bombers, heavy transporters, submarines and require US expertise to advance their aircraft carriers. India is far behind China’s military doctrine of R & D. And the French airforce will have to service the Rafale. So far China only exposed the J-10B with an advanced version of WS-10B turbofan. The J-10C fighter jet that is under development will soon be completed and even more advanced than the J-10B, and the heavy fighter bomber J-11D are all superior to the Rafale and Typhoon (India was deciding with the Rafale). It is strange why India was deciding between the Rafale and Typhoon knowing that Russian and Chinese Jets will be superior to both.
China has already closed the gap with Russia on fighter Jets or as soon as the SU-35 reverse engineered. However, China still lack behind Russia in heavy transporters, engines and long range bombers.
LikeLike
Looks like India has gone backwards again. Firstly, they don’t have enough squadrons due to lack of advanced fighter jets and when the French Rafale jets are delivered, it’s outdated. Sadly, the Indian Airforce has already collapsed. The IAF may have to negotiate on the SU-35 to have any chance of countering China or even Pakistan.
LikeLike