China's J-20 Fleet Grows to 500: Is India Falling Behind?
China's stealth fighter programme has reached a new milestone. According to defence analyst Andreas Rupprecht, writing in The War Zone, China may now have around 500 operational J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighters-a figure that, if accurate, would place it ahead of many previous estimates and potentially ahead of the United States in production scale.
For India, the contrast is stark. The Indian Air Force currently operates no stealth fighters, while the indigenous Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) is still years away from entering service.
NDTV examines what this widening capability gap means for India's defence preparedness, especially after Operation Sindoor highlighted the growing importance of air power in future conflicts. Could emergency options such as the Su-57 bridge the gap? Is the AMCA timeline fast enough? And what happens if a conflict with China breaks out before India's next-generation fighter is ready?
