Top Gun Dual: Japan's F-15 vs. China's J-20 Stealth Fighter (Who Dies?)

Kyle Mizokami

Security, Asia

Let's stack them up.

Key point: It is a good thing Japan is getting the F-35 as the F-15 is good, but not stealthy.

As tensions between China and Japan have increased, there have been more encounters between Chinese and Japanese military aircraft. People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Su-27s have been spotted near Japanese aircraft in the East China Sea, prompting Japanese F-15s based in Okinawa to scramble.

These encounters appear to be the new normal, and may continue for the foreseeable future—indeed, into a time when China’s J-20 “Soaring Dragon” fighter becomes operational. China’s first fifth generation fighter, the J-20 is expected to enter service by the end of the decade.

At the same time, Japan is still flying the F-15J Eagle fighter. Although an excellent fighter, Japan’s Ministry of Defense had expected to replace it with the F-22 Raptor by now. Unfortunately for Japan, the now-infamous Obey Amendment passed by the U.S. Congress prohibited the Raptor’s export, and Japan has been stuck without a true F-15 replacement.

Japan took delivery of its first F-15J in 1981. The fighter was manufactured under license by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and was largely identical to American-owned jets with the exception of  its electronic countermeasures suite and radar warning equipment, which the U.S. government declined to sell. The aircraft were initially armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and the semi-active radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow—later replaced with the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. An M61 nose-mounted 20-millimeter gatling gun rounds out the F-15J’s armament.

Japan has taken delivery of 223 F-15Js, with eight lost to accidents.

The F-15J has been in service for a long time. Japan initiated an upgrade program in the early 2000s that saw a new infra-red guided missiles (AAM-3 and AAM-5), improved engines, improved AN/APG-63 (V)1 mechanically-scanned pulse-doppler radars and the ability to carry AAM-4B radar-guided missiles added to the jet. Improved electronic countermeasures and a nose-mounted infra-red search and track (IRST) sensor were also added to bring the fighter up to date. However, the upgrade is expensive and is only being applied to fewer than ten aircraft per year. Only about half of Japan’s F-15Js have received the upgrades.