Key Points and Summary- Chinese state media has claimed that a 4th-generation J-10C fighter “shot down” a top-tier 5th-generation J-20 stealth fighter in a recent military exercise.
-However, this was not a simple dogfight victory.
China J-20 Mighty Dragon Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-The J-10C pilot successfully engaged the J-20 only by using “dependent targeting”—receiving crucial sensor data from other friendly aircraft via datalink after his own radar lost the stealthy target.
-The event highlights China’s focus on advanced networked warfare, demonstrating how it can use integrated systems to make its entire fleet, including legacy jets, significantly more lethal and competitive.
How China’s J-20 Mighty Dragon Was Beaten
WARSAW, POLAND – An India-based news publication is claiming that one of the most famous fighter aircraft ever built in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the 5th-generation heavyweight twin-engine stealthy Chengdu J-20, was “downed” by one of the same company’s airframes, a 4th-generation middleweight J-10C single-engine fighter.
The incident was not an actual shoot-down but occurred during a war games drill that took place earlier this month.
The J-20 was built to evade radar detection and launch ordnance at long distances. Therefore, it should have been challenging for the J-10C model to detect and develop a firing solution first.
The J-20 should have seen the older-generation jet well before it was visible on the J-10’s radar and been in a position for a first shot.
J-10CE Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
J-10 Fighter From China. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
J-10. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The India-based Eurasian Times story was secondary reporting from Chinese media that had carried details of the exercise as soon as they became known.
The story was carried in the government-run English-language Global Times, which was in turn also referencing reporting from the PRC’s state-controlled China Central Television (CCTV) network.
The actual air combat maneuvering (ACM) training exercise was initially reported by the China Bugle, in an official media account from the PRC People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) news media center on Thursday, July 31.
The report was a “sneak preview” of a documentary film on the J-10C and its pilot that was scheduled to be aired on Friday, August 1.
Dependent Targeting Takes Down J-20 Fighter
The J-10 “shot down” took place against the J-20 when the two aircraft went into a head-to-head engagement against one another.
The smaller, but one-generation-older, aircraft “won” the face-off between the two, despite the larger aeroplane being the stealthier platform.
This report appeared in the China Bugle, detailing the air-to-air encounter.
The details of the training exercise were released in the Friday, August 1 documentary as planned.
The story on the military channel of CCTV reported details from the pilot of the J-10C on how he “shot down” the stealth aircraft. In the course of the broadcast, the channel reported the account from the pilot of the J-10C, relating his details of how he “won” against the more advanced J-20.
J-20. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
During the confrontational exercise—one that involved multiple types of aircraft currently operated by the PLAAF—the J-10C pilot Xiao Nan reportedly discovered that his aircraft could no longer detect the opposing target after he launched a missile.
He then requested that another friendly unit scan for any enemy aircraft, as he suspected the target he could not see might be a stealth platform.
The other possibility he considered at the time was that his radar was jammed by his opponent, according to the CCTV report.
The missile he launched eventually found its target, marking that first time that a J-10C had successfully “shot down” an opposing stealth aircraft in the class of the J-20.
Part of what made this intercept successful was that the pilot was able to utilize a variant on dependent targeting.
This maneuver involves using off-board sensors to provide information or detect changes in a target and then transmitting this information to the shooter via datalink.
J-20 Fighter Screenshot from X. Image Credit: X.
Don’t Get Inside the Callbox
This is the first time his unit had achieved combat results against a higher-generation warplane during an exercise, Xiao was quoted as saying in the CCTV report. He emphasized that without the support of the “system,” other aircraft, and the sensors he utilized, there would be no chance to defeat a stealth aircraft.
But by utilizing the off-board system support, the J-10C is still “in its prime” and up to the task of taking on more advanced fighters.
Western pilots who read the accounts and spoke to National Security Journal also pointed out that in a nose-to-nose encounter, the smaller aircraft is always going to have an initial advantage in maneuverability “if the the larger stealthy aircraft is not able to take him out BVR [beyond visual range].”
“The larger aeroplane cannot afford to get ‘stuck inside the callbox’ against a more nimble opponent,” said one former fighter pilot. “That puts the more advanced fighter – stealthy or not – at a disadvantage.”
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
More Military
‘Captain, We Have Been Hit’: A Tiny Nuclear Submarine ‘Sank’ $4.5 Billion Navy Aircraft Carrier
America’s F-35 Stealth Fighter Simply Summed Up In Just 1 Word
China’s New J-35 Stealth Fighter Simply Summed Up In Just 1 Word
The U.S. Navy Is Now ‘Cannibalizing’ Its Own Fighter Jets and Submarines
Operation Black Buck: How Avro Vulcan Bombers Broke Range Records in the Falklands War
Beep
August 7, 2025 at 6:28 pm
That just means whoever was piloting the J-20 seriously sucked at their job.
Some guy
August 8, 2025 at 6:15 am
Saab pioneered aircraft data sharing.
Good demonstration how good it truly is.
Know the facts first
August 8, 2025 at 10:42 am
Well we need to know if the planes were handicapped too. Years back it was a big deal supposedly when the French plane ” shot down” a f22 raptor, until that is the details came out. The f22 had its reflectors on so the other planes could see it on radar. They handicapped the f22 for training purposes. Everyone was looking like idiots laughing and saying the f22 is a joke blah blah blah, not knowing it was set up to be seen, limited in its weapons used, limited in the speed it was allowed to use. The drill was set up for dog fighting plane vs plane. The f22 wasn’t built for that but rather beyond visual range and radar range (enemies) kills.
It’s hilarious how almost every news agency reporting failed to include the entire article but rather edited the end where the French pilot said the f22 was so dominate all day that not one type of plane there picked it up on radar and one f22 virtually killed every plane in the sky(11) on one drill. The Americans “let us” see the plane during dog fight drill if not that wouldn’t have ben fair either. Without knowing where it wad the f22 could have came behind any of us and got the kill. Even not being built for dog fighting it was still 3 on 1 and he got two of us before I got the kill. Iran had to lie and pretend it shot down f35s during the bombing a few months back. Pathetic
Cabezon
August 10, 2025 at 3:54 pm
Why do these so called journalist always try to hype up China’s military? I see articles like this all the time, praising China for their pseudo planes. I wish that they would dig deeper to see the truth, while China has some strong technology ( stolen of course) they’re really not what they are being hyped up to be military wise.