Stealth F-35 vs. J-20 Fighter War Summed Up in 2 Words: Quantity Wins

Andrew Latham

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Key Points and Summary: While the U.S. F-35 and F-22 may be qualitatively superior, China’s ability to mass-produce its J-20 stealth fighter presents a grave quantitative threat.

-China’s “offset strategy with Chinese characteristics” focuses on overwhelming the limited number of American fifth-generation jets with a massive fleet of J-20s.

-This industrial might could allow the PLAAF to achieve air superiority through sheer numbers, saturating and neutralizing the technological advantages of the smaller U.S. force in a potential Indo-Pacific conflict and forcing a fundamental shift in American air combat doctrine.

China’s J-20 Has the Numbers vs. F-35

The battle for air superiority has evolved from a fighter-versus-fighter struggle to one based on quality versus quantity even if one accepts that in a one-on-one dogfight between the F-35s of the US Air Force (USAF) and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s (PLAAF’s) J-20s, the former will come out on top.

However, that is not the fight that the USAF is likely to find itself in.

Simply put, the USAF’s global deployments and limited stock of fifth-generation fighters (the F-35 and F-22) severely limit the number of such fighters the USAF can deploy to any given theater. If, as appears likely, Beijing should prove capable of mass-producing its J-20, the PLAAF will be free to throw the overwhelming weight of its burgeoning fighter arsenal at the relatively limited stock of US fifth-generation fighters, not only tipping the balance in a specific battle, but potentially shifting the broader geopolitical dynamics of the Indo-Pacific in China’s favor.