China Plans to Fire Lasers from its 5th-Gen Stealthy J-20

 By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior Maven

The Chinese military is prioritizing laser weapons development for aircraft integration on its 5th-generation stealthy J-20 Mighty Dragon, yet there seems to be little information available regarding just how mature and combat-ready they may be. 

As far back as 2022, a Chinese government-backed newspaper floated the idea that the People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-20 might fire laser weapons to incinerate opposing aircraft and ground targets.

J-20 Laser Weapons

While the story in the Global Times from 2022 mentions little to no specifics regarding the maturity of such a plan and does not offer any detail on testing, prototyping or development, the paper does refer to efforts to arm fighter jets with a “laser pod.” It certainly seems realistic that the PLA Air Force would be working on this in an effort to keep pace with the US Air Force.

Lasers are a great tool for aerial interception, as weapons able to travel at the speed of light, there is no time delay. However laser weapons require a large amount of energy to be effective and that is the issue that must be addressed for it to be mounted on an aircraft.

Questions regarding progress with integrating laser weapons onto fighter jets are largely centered around the need for scalable, transportable sources of mobile power. Should sufficient power to generate scalable power for laser weapons exist in a small enough form factor to integrate onto a fighter jet, then J-20 fired lasers are indeed realistic. How soon is the operative question, as the US Air Force Research Laboratory has been making rapid progress on this issue for many years.

Ground testing has taken place with great success and the thinking had been to start air-fired lasers from a larger aircraft such as a C-130. The idea of starting with a cargo plane for its first set of flights would help the AFRL to experiment with and refine the technology until it gets to the point wherein a laser powerful enough to have an impact could be integrated into a lighter weight stealth fighter.

Also, could a laser weapon integrate into a 5th-generation stealth fighter jet without compromising its stealth characteristics? The laser and its power source would likely need to emerge from an internal weapons bay to ensure that no protruding structures generated a strong radar return signal to enemy defenses. Interestingly, the Chinese Global Times paper says the PLA Air Force has been working on an external “laser pod.” While adding a pod of this kind makes sense in the case of a non-stealthy 4th-generation aircraft such as the Chinese J-10, it would seem difficult to add a pod like this to 5th-generation aircraft without potentially compromising its stealth properties.