‘Super Flankers’ United: Chinese J-16 and Russian Su-35 Fighters Jointly Escort Bomber Patrol

<p >The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force and the Russian Air Force completed a joint patrol mission over the Western Pacific on November 30, with the services deploying their respective primary bomber classes the H-6 and Tu-95 and a range of supporting assets. The air patrol took the aircraft over the Sea of Japan and the East China Sea, before the aircraft proceeded to fly over the Pacific Ocean. The two countries have <a href=" >conducted</a> multiple <a href=" >joint bomber patrols</a> since the late 2010s, with a major landmark in their evolution occurring in June when two H-6s and two Tu-95s deployed beyond the Pacific for <a href=" >operations</a> off the coast of Alaska. A particularly notable feature of the latest exercise, however, was the deployment of two rival fighter classes, the Chinese J-16 and the Russian Su-35, to escort bombers for parts of their patrol. The J-16 has increasingly <a href=" >formed the backbone</a> of China’s fighter fleet, with over <a href=" >350 of the aircraft </a>estimated to be in service, while Russia’s smaller <a href=" target="_blank">fleet of over 120 Su-35s</a>, although concentrated in Eastern Europe, has also seen units deployed near Kaliningrad in the Russian Far East. </p><p ><img src=" title="Russian Air Force Su-35 Fighter"></p><p >The J-16 and Su-35 have a common lineage, with both being heavily enhanced derivatives of the Soviet Union’s most capable class of air superiority fighter the <a href=" Flaker</a>. Both have been dubbed ‘Super Flankers,’ and in very different ways revolutionised the design’s performance. Both inherited the Flanker’s very long range, high manoeuvrability at all speeds, and ability to carry a very large radar and high missile payload, with the fighters outperforming all Western competitors in all these metrics. The Su-35 benefits from integration of more powerful AL-41F-1S engine, providing a higher climb rate, higher cruising speed, and allowing for shorter takeoffs, with the engine’s thrust vectoring capabilities facilitating a particularly impressive flight performance at low speeds. The J-16 is a significantly more capable fighter by all other metrics, however, with its airframe making higher use of more advanced composite materials, while its avionics, radar and missiles are all significantly more sophisticated. The advanced capabilities of the J-16 were considered a primary factor in Russia’s failure to market large numbers of Su-35s to China. </p><p ><img src=" title="Chinese PLA Air Force J-16 Fighter"></p><p >The J-16 and Su-35 are optimised to different kinds of aerial warfare, and like all post-Soviet Russian fighters the Su-35 was designed to fight behind a network of ground based air defences, and complement large arsenals of S-400s and other systems to jointly tackle enemy fighters. The Russian aircraft <a href=" target="_blank">deploy thee radars</a>, rather than a single one as is the norm for fighter aircraft, with two L-band radars in its wing roots intended to provide detection capabilities against stealth aircraft over long distances. The J-16 by contrast was not developed for an asymmetric kind of defensive warfare, and was designed to be fully capable of going head to head with the most advanced fighters in an enemy fleet. The Chinese fighter notably deploys the world’s <a href=" >longest ranged</a> class of air to air missile, known as the PL-XX, with J-16s <a href=" >first seen carrying</a> the missiles in December 2023. The J-16 has demonstrated an ability to hold its own against high performing fifth generation fighters during simulated combat in China, albeit at a slight disadvantage, with its main radar’s combination of size and sophistication leading many experts to speculate that it is the most powerful deployed by any fighter in the world. The J-16 has benefitted considerably from the integration of technologies developed for the <a href=" target="_blank">J-20 fifth generation fighter</a>, which is currently considered in a league of its own alongside the American F-35 in terms of sophistication. </p>