By Kris Osborn, Warrior
(Washington DC)
China has a long and documented history of mirroring, copying or simply “stealing” US military weapons specs, designs and technologies, as it is something which dates back decades. As far back as 2014, Congressional reports cite numerous press stories suggesting that indeed Chinese cyber intrusions resulted in the theft of US F-35 designs. Sure enough, China’s J-20 and early prototypes of what was called the PLA’s J-31 carrier launched stealth fighter reveal distinct configuration similarities with the US F-35 and F-22.
Within this established context, it is not likely to surprise anyone that China’s recently emerging 6th-generation airframes reveal similarities with US industry renderings of 6th-Gen aircraft.
Looking at China’s recently revealed 6th-generation airframes, one appears profoundly similar to US renderings, and another appears as if it could be an entirely new design.
Hybrid Bomber-Fighter?
Could China have built an unprecedented 6th-gen hybrid-type stealth fighter-bomber? There is certainly no shortage of speculation following the social media appearance of what looks like a Chinese 6th-generation attack aircraft.
Images of the aircraft’s design surfaced on social media showing glimpses of the shape, structure and underneath areas of a new stealth aircraft being escorted by a Chengdu Air Corporation PLA Air Force J-20 stealth fighter.
Interestingly, there were two Chinese 6th-generation aircraft models captured on social media, described by Forbes magazine as a Chengdu design escorted by a J-20 and a “Shenyang type” flying alongside a “Sukhoi Su-27 clone.”
Shenyang Aircraft
The Shenyang aircraft, according to mysterious photographs emerging on social media, appeared similar to previously released defense industry renderings of the US Next-Generation Air Dominance 6th-gen aircraft. The Shenyang aircraft also looks like 6th-generation images of a new Chinese aircraft released by Chinese state-owned Global Times newspaper. This 6th-gen rendering, published by the Global Times several years ago, was written about in Warrior Maven in an essay in February of 2023. This image of a 6th-gen fighter published in the Chinese paper looked very similar to previously published defense industry renderings of the US Air Force’s 6th-gen NGAD. The actual configuration of the USAF NGAD fighter is not known or released for security reasons, yet demonstrators of the USAF secret aircraft were flown more than a year ago. Its not exactly clear that the “Shenyang Type” 6th gen aircraft emerged from the PLA Air Force’s previously released image of a 6th-gen stealth fighter, yet the mysterious new aircraft does look like the rendering published in 2023.
Chengdu Model
The Chengdu aircraft appears to have a similar blended wing-body horizontal stealthy configuration, yet observers are raising questions about whether the Chengdu is a new hybrid 6th-gen fighter-bomber.
Very little is likely known about the propulsion, mission systems, weapons, computing, thermal management and materials of the fighter-bomber-like Chengdu model, yet the shape of the new aircraft raises critical questions to the naked eye. The most immediate feature most are likely to recognize is the tailless, finless, fully horizontal blended wing-body closely resembles earlier US defense industry renderings of 6th-gen aircraft. The Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance platform is a bit of a paradoxical mystery because it has already been flown, yet the program is now lingering in a haze of uncertainty regarding its future existence.
US 6th-Gen vs PLA 6th-gen
The tailless triangular stealthy shape of US 6th-gen renderings indicates that perhaps aerial maneuverability, drag, vectoring and speed technologies have now broken through to paradigm-changing levels. Can a stealth fighter maneuver without vertical tail and fin structures? Since the NGAD was widely discussed as an F-22 replacement, the discussion has centered upon a high-speed, stealthy air-supremacy fighter… yet the images show a fully horizontal tailless airframe. Could the US Air Force have built a stealthy, high-speed maneuverable fighter jet with bomber-like stealth capabilities? This would seem to be a distinct possibility.
Can the same be said of China’s new aircraft? Is it intended to function as a breakthrough kind of high-speed, lethal stealth fighter jet? Or could it perhaps be a hybrid aircraft intended to operate like a stealthy “tactical bomber,” something suggested in several interesting news reports in 1945 such as one from Kyle Mizokami. Mizokami points out that the Chengdu model does appear large and built with significant internal weapons bays for a wide range of missions, and it is also large with a rounded, well-sized fuselage. This would seem to indicate that perhaps the aircraft could function in a high-altitude bombing capacity.
Fighter-Bomber Hybrid
This raises the pressing and significant question as to whether this new Chinese 6th-generation aircraft is a “hybrid” of some kind, meaning it can function as both a stealth bomber and a high-speed maneuverable stealth fighter. These missions would seem somewhat at odds to a degree, as one is high-speed maneuvering air supremacy and one is high-altitude stealth bombing, yet the new Chengdu platform manages to look like both a fighter and a bomber simultaneously.
It is almost entirely horizontal, something which suggests it is maximizing stealth, as the absence of vertical structure minimizes the kinds of protruding angled shapes likely to generate a clear radar return signal. In this respect, the platform appears similar to a US Air Force B-2 or B-21 bomber, the stealthiest planes in the US force. A B-2 or B-21 bomber is designed to appear as though it is a small bird to enemy radar, yet the new Chengdu model also appears as a fighter jet, so there is likely much to be learned about this new aircraft.
President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a highly qualified expert in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University
