August 25, 2026<\/p>\n
BEIJING \u2013 The first-ever combat exercise between China\u2019s J-16 heavyweight fighter jets and the French-made Rafale fighters took place on Sunday, according to the People\u2019s Liberation Army Air Force.<\/p>\n
In video footage published by the PLA Air Force on Monday, Chinese pilots were seen operating their J-16s to engage with the Egyptian Air Force\u2019s Rafale fighters.<\/p>\n
In a clip apparently filmed by the rear-seat pilot of a J-16 jet, a Rafale can be seen performing maneuvers, with the two aircraft flying at a relatively close distance at that moment.<\/p>\n
This marked the first time any Chinese fighter plane has participated in combat drills with the Rafale, the most well-known French military aircraft and a major offering by Dassault Aviation.<\/p>\n
The J-16 is a heavyweight, multirole fighter designed and developed by Aviation Industry Corp of China. It is widely regarded as one of China\u2019s best combat aircraft, capable of carrying more firepower than medium-weight models such as the J-10 series.<\/p>\n
According to the PLA Air Force, Sunday marked the first flight training day of the China-Egypt \u201cEagles of Civilization 2026\u201d joint training exercise, with the scheduled drill being one-on-one aerial combat.<\/p>\n
As fighter jets from both air forces took off in succession, pilots from both sides engaged in intense maneuvers under combat-realistic conditions, according to the Chinese side.<\/p>\n
Prior to the flight training, pilots from both sides delivered briefings on the characteristics of their respective participating aircraft. They then held in-depth discussions on the joint training scenarios, clarifying flight safety and airspace control rules, takeoff and landing procedures, and emergency response protocols, the PLA Air Force said.<\/p>\n
The \u201cEagles of Civilization 2026\u201d exercise is the second joint training event between the Chinese and Egyptian air forces. The PLA Air Force has sent a combined force of fighter jets, tanker aircraft, combat support aircraft, and helicopters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 25, 2026 BEIJING \u2013 The first-ever combat exercise between China\u2019s J-16 heavyweight fighter jets and the French-made…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13060],"tags":[4664,2240],"class_list":["post-69537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dassault-aviation","tag-dassault","tag-dassault-aviation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}