J-20 Stealth Fighters Escort Chinese War Dead Home From South Korea

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force has deployed J-20 fifth generation fighter aircraft to escort the remains of fallen soldiers from the Korean War back to the country from South Korea. The remains were carried by a Y-20 strategic transport, with the deployment of J-20s for escort duties being highly symbolic and drawing widespread allusions in the country to the armed forces’ progress made since the war was fought in the 1950s. J-20s began to fly such escort missions 2022, replacing the J-11B fourth generation fighter in this role. The transition to use the J-20 had provided further grounds for Chinese commentators to widely remark on the fighter’s importance in the context of the historical memory of the Korean War, during which Chinese air units had relied on Soviet-supplied MiG-15 fighters to provide superiority over American and other Western air power. The J-20 is the first Chinese fighter class that places the country on a fully peer level with its American and Russian counterparts, with its development representing a watershed moment for the standing of China’s defence sector.

The J-20’s first flight in January 2011 was a primary factor leading Japan and South Korea to accelerate plans to procure their own fifth generation fighters, with both having no options for comparably advanced NATO-compatible fighters other than the F-35. The Chinese combat jet is currently widely considered the most capable in the world in terms of its air-to-air performance, as while the F-35 and the newer Chinese J-35 are similarly sophisticated, the J-20 has a far superior flight performance, carries a much larger radar and missile payload, and boasts a significantly longer range. As the two Koreas remain officially in a state of civil war, and China’s treaty ally North Korea remains officially at war with the United States, the concentration of J-20 deployments within operational range of the Korean Peninsula has had a significant impact on the balance of power in the theatre.