China’s two new stealth fighters should send shockwaves through Pentagon

Wake up, America. China just flew not one but two new stealth fighter planes. All while America’s next fighter is on hold.  

“They could beat us to the punch,” admitted outgoing Air Force procurement official Andrew Hunter. “It is my sincere hope this got America’s attention,” Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin told Breaking Defense on Jan. 17. 

China released videos of the two new planes in flight on Dec. 26, which so happens to be the birthdate of revolutionary Communist leader Mao Zedong.  

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These two aircraft should send chills across the defense industrial base. China’s rising airpower is the biggest threat in the Pacific since World War II. Losing air dominance over the Pacific to these Chinese fighters simply can’t happen. 

America has taken its lead for granted in stealth fighter design, engines, composites and electronics, yet plainly the Chinese have made serious strides. China isn’t debating defense budgets. They are using the fruits of their espionage and flying new planes from two different design teams. 

What bothers me is that the Air Force saw this coming. In September 2022, four-star Air Force General Mark Kelly, who is now retired, warned the Chinese were “on track” with their sixth-generation stealth warplane designs. Yet President Joe Biden’s Pentagon delayed the new U.S. fighter, a project over 10years in the works. 

A “sixth-generation” fighter is the latest and greatest. In the lingo, the F-15s and F-16s are fourth-generation, while the F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters are fifth-generation. Sixth-generation is “an exponential reduction in signature and exponential acceleration in processing power and sensing,” Kelly explained. 

Here’s how China’s two new planes stack up. 

The Chengdu J-36 is the larger, delta-shaped fighter-bomber. There it was, parading about with two weapons bays open to emphasize internal weapons carriage, a hallmark of stealth. With no vertical control surfaces, the J-36 is not a dogfighter. It is China’s best effort at a true stealth aircraft where the “signature” of its radar reflection, infrared heat emissions, etc. are suppressed and controlled to make it hard to detect.  

Since the J-36 flew with a J-20 fighter as the chase plane, an Australian expert was able to estimate the relative size at 66 to 85 feet in length with a wingspan of about 65 feet. That’s bigger than the 44-foot wingspan of the F-22 Raptor and smaller than the 132-foot for the B-21 Raider stealth bomber.  

I’m telling you, this J-36 is a nasty character and a significant step up from previous Chinese designs. Aviation expert Bill Sweetman estimated the gross take-off weight at 120,000 lbs and its top speed above Mach 1.5. The delta shape is prized for its lifting qualities, so this plane is designed for efficient, long-range cruise. The J-36 could carry a substantial payload over longer distances in the Pacific. 

One intriguing point: the J-36 might be a three-engine plane, and to me, that says the Chinese have not yet mastered advanced engine design, and had to stick in an extra engine for the power. No telling if they’ve figured out how to mask the infrared signature from the engines or manage cooling for the electronics needed to employ AI. The fluttery split elevons on the straight trailing edge hint that the all-aspect signature reduction may not be so great, perhaps leaving the J-36 vulnerable to a missile shot.  

An F-35 Lightning II performs at the 2023 NAF El Centro Air Show at Naval Air Facility El Centro on March 11, 2023, in El Centro, California. (Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

Hopefully.  

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The second aircraft, dubbed the Shenyang J-50, is a twin-engine fighter, but beyond that, the mystery deepens. Glimpses from the test flight video left analysts unsure whether the J-50 is a manned or unmanned plane. The J-50 has a lambda wing shape, probably copied from several experimental U.S. planes and drones. With no vertical tail seen, the shape of the J-50, like the J-36, indicates some advances in carbon composite materials replacing metal in the fuselage, wings and control surfaces.  

What’s the mission of the J-36 and J-50? Killing U.S. combat planes. For all the advances in drone warfare, China still desperately wants advanced aircraft to mix it up with American F-22s, F-35s, and above all, to pose a threat to the new B-21 Raider stealth bomber. In a fierce war where satellites go dark and electronic spectrum warfare debilitates drones, the princeling Chinese fighter pilot sees himself shooting it out from the J-36.  

Of course, the J-36 and J-50 are not yet in production. But don’t rest easy. Western analysts scoffed as China built three aircraft carriers, the stealthy J-20, an air refueling plane, drones and long-range air-to-air missiles. Even more worrying, China practices long-range bomber flights against Guam and sends integrated “gorilla” packages of dozens of fighters into Taiwan’s airspace. Those are signs of an air force training for combat.  

Now for the good news. Waiting in the wings is a sixth-generation fighter the Pentagon calls NGAD: Next-Generation Air Dominance. An NGAD plane flew in great secrecy back in 2020 and the Air Force said they would award a contract last summer, but Biden’s Pentagon team backed off, to the collective shock of the aerospace industry.  

The USAF’s sixth-generation fighter has better stealth, engines and open software architecture, and I’d bet it’s primed to work with drones, too. America’s best aerospace talent is only waiting a “go” signal to build NGAD.  

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Unlike the Navy, which is struggling to increase warship production, the U.S. Air Force has plenty of quick moves to keep ahead of China. The F-35 stealth fighter production line is hot, the B-21 Raider is sailing through flight tests. New, unmanned drones called collaborative combat aircraft will soon assist; Anduril and General Atomics just completed critical design reviews on the first batches with more to come.  

Time for Trump’s team to put aircraft production into afterburner. 

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