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China's J-16 fighter crosses swords with Egypt's Rafale jet in first flight day of joint drill_我的网站

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A Chinese J-16 fighter Photo: VCGChinese state media on Monday released footage from the first day of flight training held Saturday during the China-Egypt Eagles of Civilization 2026 joint training exercise, showing PLA J-16s engaging in air combat drills against Egyptian MiG-29 and Rafale fighters. A Chinese expert said this is the first joint exercise featuring both the J-16 and the Rafale, reflecting strong mutual trust and a high level of coordination between the two air forces.
The first day's training focused on one-on-one air combat between different aircraft types. As fighters from both air forces took off in succession, pilots engaged in intense confrontations under realistic combat scenarios, the CCTV News military channel reported.
Before the flight training, Chinese and Egyptian pilots delivered briefings on their respective aircraft capabilities. The two sides then held in-depth discussions on the exercise subjects, clarifying flight safety rules, airspace regulations, takeoff and landing procedures and emergency response plans, said the report.
"The China-Egypt joint air training is progressing from basic one-on-one and two-on-two air combat to more systematic joint operations. As mutual understanding between pilots grows, they can more effectively exchange tactical concepts and operational techniques, which helps enhance the technical and tactical proficiency of both sides," Shen Hao, a member of a PLA Air Force unit, was quoted as saying by the PLA Air Force in a press release on Monday.
Egypt's Ministry of Defense spokesperson posted on social media platform X on Saturday that the joint training between China and Egypt had commenced, releasing images of the participating aircraft - Egypt's MiG-29 and Rafale fighters, and China's J-16 fighter.
An Egyptian MiG-29 fighter (above) and a Rafale fighter Photo: X account of Egypt's Ministry of Defense spokesperson

An Egyptian MiG-29 fighter (above) and a Rafale fighter Photo: X account of Egypt's Ministry of Defense spokesperson CCTV footage on Monday also showed the three aircraft types in action.
Wang Yanan, editor-in-chief of the Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge magazine, told the Global Times on Monday that this joint exercise marks the first time China has deployed the J-16 and the first time Egypt's Rafale fighters have participated, a development worth noting. It reflects a relatively high level of mutual trust between the two militaries and a substantial standard of joint training.
Apart from the French military, India and Egypt are some of its main users. This presents a rare opportunity for China to gain familiarity with the Rafale in a joint training setting. As a flagship product of Dassault Aviation, the Rafale represents a major design philosophy of advanced European aerospace equipment, Wang said.
Although the J-16, deployed by China for this long-range training mission in Egypt, evolved from the original Soviet-era platform, it has been completely transformed and now plays a key role within China's aviation system. Capable of carrying a variety of munitions, it can perform electronic warfare, ground strikes and long-range air-to-air combat, making it a highly versatile platform, Wang explained.
Song Zhongping, a Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times previously that the J-16 heavy fighter jets' first participation in the China-Egypt joint air force training exercise marks an upgrade from 2025's deployment of medium-sized J-10Cs in the drill, reflecting broader and more advanced overseas training by the PLA Air Force.
The two aircraft belong to the same generation, but the Rafale's overall combat capabilities may not be as comprehensive as those of the J-16, which has been continuously upgraded as part of China's aviation system development, Wang said.
Wang noted that the main objectives are to enhance mutual trust and familiarity with each other's equipment, understanding flight performance, medium- and close-range maneuverability and basic weapon configurations.
Moreover, as the Rafale is also deployed in countries neighboring China, understanding its performance characteristics through joint training holds practical significance for the country, Wang added.
"The Egyptian pilots' rigorous training discipline, close coordination and solid technical skills left a deep impression on us. Through mutual learning and close exchanges during the exercise, we not only strengthened our bonds but also improved our technical and tactical capabilities together. Joint training with foreign forces has provided a valuable platform for our pilots to sharpen their skills," Ning Yiming, a member of a PLA Air Force unit, was quoted by the PLA Air Force as saying.
The opening ceremony of the joint training was held on Friday. Commanders from both sides delivered speeches, reviewing the history of air force exchanges between the two countries and the achievements of the first joint exercise in 2025. They outlined the objectives of this year's training and expressed hopes that participating personnel would seize the opportunity to learn from each other, build mutual trust and carry forward their traditional friendship, PLA Air Force said.
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B | The cell phones, tablets, and laptops left behind by veterans who died by suicide may offer insight that could help prevent future military suicides, according to a nonprofit dedicated to analyzing the data from the devices.Stop Soldier Suicide collects the technology as part of its initiative, "The Black Box Project," which is named after the black boxes found on planes that help determine the cause of aviation incidents."If we could gather novel data from those that have died by suicide, we might be able to recreate the last year of life," Stop Soldier Suicide CEO Chris Ford told ABC News.Veterans are 57% more at risk for suicide than non-military adults and around 6,000 veterans die by suicide each year, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs."I think we can prevent needless suffering and a ton of loss of life," Ford said.That kind of loss is something David McDaniel, whose son Connor died by suicide at the age of 26, knows all too well.Connor McDaniel joined the Army after high school, and, according to David, he appeared upbeat during his deployment to Afghanistan, where he was assigned to protect local villages from the Taliban."Some of his Army buddies told me that he was making them laugh while they were being shelled in Afghanistan," David McDaniel told ABC News.But it wasn't long after Connor came home that David McDaniel says he sensed a shift in his son's behavior to include "more anger, a lot of frustration, a lot of gloominess."On Sept. 1, 2021, David says his son entered a wooded area with a firearm."I start screaming his name as I'm walking up the field. And just then the police, the sheriff's department shows up and they tell me to come back down," McDaniel said.He followed their direction, but on the car ride home, an officer called him and said Connor was dead after he fired upon sheriff's deputies and the deputies returned fire and killed him.Connor's death was determined to be a suicide. The district attorney's office concluded that the officers' actions were justified.While grappling with his son's death, David McDaniel was immediately drawn to the Black Box Project, which uses forensic software to unlock and comb through service members' devices provided by their loved ones to review their activity in the weeks leading up to their suicides.McDaniel works in the tech field and says if the project can find repeated patterns in online searches, they may be able to help others to prevent suicides.For instance, McDaniel says his son searched for SGLI, Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance, before his death. If a veteran were to make a similar search and look up "suicide" in the future, for example, McDaniel suggests it could trigger an ad for Stop Soldier Suicide to pop up and provide resources in the search results.Ford says the nonprofit uses machine learning, a subfield of artificial intelligence, to analyze texts and notes in order to determine sentiment or emotional tone, such as anger or desperation. He says they can also track phone usage of the deceased veterans to monitor their past sleep cycles and trace their past geo-locations."Machines can go through computations a lot faster than humans, and they can find signals that we often miss," Ford said.Since launching the Black Box Project in April 2020, Stop Soldier Suicide has received over 100 devices, Ford said. So far, he says they're seeing three patterns before most of these suicides: more anger, different sleep patterns, and social isolation.Ford's team includes Ph.D.s in clinical psychology and suicide researchers. A scientific advisory committee helps steer where and what to look for on the devices.The findings are still preliminary, according to the nonprofit, but one goal is to help the organization decide where, when, and how to target their own mental health resources, like adding more hotline staff at certain hours and ensuring calls are picked up overnight.When asked about privacy concerns of collecting data, Ford said it's something they think about daily."We don't resell the data. We don't push it out to others. We use it for our own research purposes so that we can best understand risk and then give those devices back to those families intact," Ford said.Current privacy laws do not carry on past death, meaning the next of kin typically gains new authority.Petra Oxford-Jackson, whose veteran husband Anthony died by suicide, says she gave his phone to the organization with the possibility it could save even one life."I truly believe he would have been okay with it, and it's a hard thing for a survivor to give up something so personal as his cell phone," Oxford-Jackson told ABC News.The Black Box Project received $3 million in funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this year.If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.。