When American media comment on China's strength, they always flamboyantly say, compare the strength of the two countries first, and then give you a blow with a small compliment. In short, it is beyond praise.
The US Air Force is secretly developing the corresponding model of China's "Thunderbolt-15" long-range air-to-air missile. The new air-to-air missile developed by the US Air Force, numbered AIM-260 "Joint Air Tactical Missile", has a longer range than the current AIM- 120 medium-range missile of the US military, and the range may reach about 300 kilometers. The increased range may even threaten the J-20 fighter equipped with long-range missiles to some extent.
As we all know, the American media has always been happy to blame us for "China's copying the United States". Su -27 fighters, pterosaur drones and even J -3 1 fighters all revealed the taste of "plagiarism". The secret development of this missile by the United States was largely "forced" by China's "Thunderbolt-15". US Air Force officials admitted that the flight performance of two J-20 fighters at Zhuhai Air Show showed that four "Thunderbolt-15" missiles were fully loaded after the belly weapon cabin was opened, which was the key factor to promote the development of AIM-260 missiles by the US Air Force and Navy.
This makes many outsiders feel that the United States, which has always led the world, has become a chaser this time. This is not the first time that the United States has been threatened. The original AIM-9X missile in the United States was originally the leader of the fourth-generation combat missile. However, when the United States fully understood the performance of China's "Thunderbolt-10E", it improved AIM-9X and equipped it with a larger solid rocket engine, just to catch up with the range of "Thunderbolt-10E".
China experts said that this does not mean who copied who. Previously, the American media thought that "Chinese and Russian weapons copied from the United States" was definitely a "paranoid attack", so the new weapons of the United States could not be said to be "copied from China".