Legacy fighters strike back: J-10C shows how 4.5-gen jets can outgun stealth aircraft with the right kill chain
August 5, 2025
In a strategic shift that’s reshaping modern aerial combat, China and Pakistan are demonstrating how legacy 4.5-generation fighters, long considered outmatched by stealth aircraft, can challenge even the most advanced warplanes through integrated warfare tactics and missile innovation, linked together in a ‘klil chain’.
While attention often fixates on 5th and 6th-generation fighter jet platforms like the F-35 or China’s J-35, recent developments reveal a more nuanced reality: Global air power still depends on older-generation aircraft.
Bolstered by smart networked systems, advanced missiles, and airborne warning and control (AWACS) support, even these older fighter jets are proving they remain highly effective and far from obsolete.
Chinese J-10C takes down stealth aircraft in war game
The South China Morning Post, citing a recent episode of the state-run CCTV documentary “Forging Ahead”, noted that China showcased what it described as a breakthrough in air combat: a decade-old Chengdu J-10C fighter successfully shooting down a stealth aircraft during a training exercise.
The mission, backed by KJ-500A AWACS and electronic warfare assets, used cooperative targeting and radar-guided missiles to defeat a more advanced foe.
According to the programme, AWACS planes identified the stealth aircraft’s position, enabling the J-10C to launch a medium-to-long-range radar-guided missile. When the target temporarily slipped out of detection range, airborne sensors “opened the eyes” of the missile mid-flight, guiding it into its terminal homing phase and ultimately securing the kill.
“This is our first successful combat result against a more advanced generation fighter,” a J-10C pilot, Major Xiao Nan, was quoted as saying. “Without networked support, there was virtually no chance. With systematic support, the J-10C is still very much in its prime.”
Pakistan’s Indian Dassault Rafale kill echoes the same playbook
The concept of networked warfare isn’t unique to China. Pakistan recently employed similar methods during a confrontation with India, when its Chinese-supplied J-10Cs claimed to have downed at least one French-made Rafale fighter.
Unnamed Pakistani officials said the success hinged on integrating the fighters into a data-driven “kill chain” supported by both air and ground-based sensors.
Key to this was Pakistan’s locally developed Data Link 17 system, which connected J-10Cs to Chinese ZDK-03 AWACS and Swedish surveillance planes. By flying with their radars switched off and using shared feeds, Pakistani pilots remained undetected and fired long-range PL-15 missiles, some travelling up to 200 km, beyond the effective response range of the Indian aircraft.
Indian officials admitted they struggled to implement a similar system due to interoperability issues between their fleet’s diverse aircraft sourced from multiple countries.
Kill chain tactics are shaping the future of warfare
Increasingly, it is no longer equipment that decides the fate of a war. Emerging as critically important is the need for connected, long-range intelligence that can make even older fighter jets formidable opponents.
This is where the kill chain comes in. Traditionally, ‘kill chain’ refers to the sequence of steps involved in identifying and responding to a threat: Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage, Assess (or F2T2EA).
But as conflicts today cut across air, land, sea, cyber, and space, that process needs to be faster, more connected, and less reliant on one central location.
An example of this took place in June 2025 during Operation Midnight Hammer, when US B‑2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped massive ordnance penetrator bunker-buster bombs on Iran’s Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities.
These were supported by Tomahawk missiles launched from a submarine targeting Isfahan. The mission demonstrated how rapid, coordinated action across domains can directly alter strategic outcomes.
Investment in kill chain technology is high. The United States Air Force’s Shadow Operations Center-Nellis recently tested an AI-powered kill chain called SHAPE to accelerate decision-making and distributed C2. The prospect of generative AI paired with connected physical forces is a prime example of the fundamental shift in future warfare.
Older fighter jets? No problem with modern kill chain
It’s a case of the hare and the tortoise; future aerial battles will be won not by brawn but by brain. Nations stuck with older or generationally aged aircraft can still get the upper hand when such assets are paired with all the benefits the digital world brings.
Chinese pilot Wang Yuqian summed it up: “It’s not impossible to beat new models with old ones. Future warfare will be a battle between entire systems.”
According to AVIC designer Wang Yongqing, the J-35A is capable of targeting low-observable threats, sharing target data across platforms, and even guiding ground-based weapons using its own radar-demonstrating a shift toward multi-domain integration.
“The J-35A can lock onto targets, share target data with other weapon systems like surface-to-air missiles, and even guide those weapons,” Wang said, underscoring the PLA’s doctrine of ‘system of systems’ warfare.
