Dassault Rafale✈vs J20 Chengdu✈

        

    Even in this nuclear-rich world, every country wants to keep the world's most advanced fighter aircraft. Between Dassault Rafale and Chengdu J-20. Who do you think is better ?

Dassault Rafale:

    

    The Dassault Rafale is a twin-engine, canard delta wing, multirole fighter aircraft designed and built by French Dassault Aviation. The Rafale literally known as the gust of wind is equipped with a wide range of weapons. It is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions. 

J20 Chengdu:

    The Chengdu J-20, on the other hand is a single-seat, twinjet, all-weather, stealth, fifth-generation fighter aircraft developed for the People's Liberation Army Air Force by China's Chengdu Aerospace Corporation. Also known as the Mighty Dragon, the J-20 is designed as an air superiority fighter with precision strike capability.

    Comparison:

Parameters	Dassault Rafale	J20 Chengdu
Top Speed	2,130 Km/h	2,223 Km/h
Range	3,700 Km	3,400 km
Weight	9,979 Kg	19,390 Kg
Program Cost	US$62.7 billion	US$4.4 billion
Manufacturer	Dassault Aviation	Chengdu Aircraft  Industry Group
Engine type	Snecma M88,Turbo fan	Xian WS-15, Turbo fan
Service Ceiling	15,240 m	18,000 m
Max takeoff Weight	24.5t(54,000 lbs)	34t/37t
Generation	4.5th gen	5th gen

    The Indian air force is all set to induct the first batch of Dassault rafale aircraft on 29th of July at the Ambala air force station with the induction into the 17 squadron rafale becomes one of the most advanced aircraft operated by the Indian air force but since the rafale is the most advanced aircraft of the Indian air force. It is only fair to compare it with the j20. which is considered china's most advanced aerial platform the rafale is a French twin-engine delta wing multi-role fighter aircraft and is considered to be of the 4.5 generation while j20 is a single seat twin-engine all-weather stealth fifth generation aircraft produced in china. The range of the j20 is not available or credible information is not available in the public domain while for rafale the range is around 3700 kilometers the max speed of rafale is about 2130 kilometers per hour while j20 has a max speed of 2223 kilometers per hour the service ceiling for the rafale is around 15 240 meters while for the j20 is around 18 000 meters. 

Now let's compare the avionics and radar of these two aircraft china has not made the details of j-20s radar public, but if reports are to be believed the Chinese aircraft use an active electronically scanned array radar system a similar technology is used in the rafale as well and this is considered to be one of the most advanced radar technologies available in the world right now, but does that make both aircraft equal not really how avionics and other technologies are incorporated into the aircraft makes a huge difference one of the key technological advantages of rafale is this electronic warfare suit spectra. This protects the aircrafts from ground and airborne threats various methods of detection decoying jamming and highly reprogrammable system capable of analyzing multiple threats makes it very difficult to detect and shoot down a rafale. we are told that 30 of the total cost of producing a rafale goes into spectra on the other hand j20's radar is equipped with chin mounted optic infrared surge and track sensor which gives the pilot a 360 degree view of the battlefield.  

The Chinese also claim that the pilot can access information from Chinese satellites from this fighter aircraft with the limited information available in the public domain. It can be concluded that both aircraft have very capable radar and avionics on board since they are multi-role aircraft they can undertake missions like air-to-air & air-to-ground in-depth strike anti-ship and nuclear deterrence missions and for this they come with an array of weapons and technologies the two main weapons that India will be getting with rafale are the scalp and a meteor while scalp is an air-to-ground missile. Meteor is a beyond visual range air-to-air missile once again very little credible information is available about j-20s firepower but in case of an aerial combat these two aircrafts are likely to use their beyond visual range missiles in India's case it is a meteor and in china's j-20s case it is said to be the pl-15 air-to-air missile and here is how these two missiles match up against each other the pl-15 missile has a range exceeding 200 kilometers while the meteor exceeds a range of 150 kilometers pl 15 has a maximum speed of 49 kilometers per hour while rafale's meteor has a speed of 4248 kilometers per hour there is a huge difference between these two air-to-air missiles. 

 The pl-15 missile is designed to take down big targets like an air-to-air refueller or an airbag. Which is an early warning system while the meteor is capable of taking even smaller targets like a cruise missile or a UAV even though in terms of speed and range meteor lags this advantage gives it an extra edge. china has claimed that j20 is a 5^th  generation aircraft with stealth capabilities in layman's language stealth capability means that the design of an aircraft makes it difficult for an enemy radar to pick it up does that mean that the j20 has an advantage over rafale on this front to understand this we need to look at two different aspects according to reports the design of the j20 is highly influenced by another fifth generation aircraft the f-22 raptor which is used by the united states there are reports that in 2009 during an exercise a rafale was able to track and target an f-22 at the same time the Indian air force has claimed that his su-30 MKIs were able to track j-20s along the Chinese border during its sorties now rafale doesn't have stealth technology it is a 4.5 generation fighter plane but it has been designed in such a way that the radar cross-section of this aircraft is much less compared to the other aircraft operational in the world right now coupled with spectra rafale still has a good chance against the stealth technology of the Chinese j-20 while comparing these two aircraft it is very important to understand the operational history of these two fighter plates the rafale has proven its capabilities in many battlefields including in Libya Iraq Afghanistan and many other African countries where the French air force has been deployed but on the other hand the j-20 does not have any operational history that proves the capabilities of the Chinese claim to have the Quinn spoke with several experts to understand the key differences between these two aircraft and a common theme that emerged from this conversation was the fact that j20's capabilities are merely on paper yes the Chinese have managed to develop a fifth generation airframe but the fact that the Indian air force fighters can pick them on their radar shows that the claims aren't true as they claim to be it is highly possible that the j20 is not a fifth generation aircraft at all at the same time India's new purchase the rafale is a 4.5 generation and a highly capable aircraft which has proven itself on several battlefields considering these fact it is possible that the rafale is as good as a j-20 even though that is claimed to be a fifth generation fighter aircraft