China's new J-35 and 6th-gen stealth fighters emerge. Can these advanced aircraft challenge American air dominance and shift the global power balance?
By Kris Osborn, Warrior
The impact of China’s widely recognized 5th and 6th-generation stealth aircraft explosion remains to be seen, depending upon the performance parameters and production scale of the new jets.
The People’s Liberation Army - Air Force has for years been operating at a considerable deficit compared with the West and its allies, in large measure due to its lack of ocean-launched 5th-gen stealth capability. Until now. Very recently, PLA AF progress in the realm of stealth jet technology has exploded into a new level with the arrival of the carrier-launched J-35 5th-gen aircraft and two new previously unseen 6th-generation stealth aircraft, the J-36 and J-50.
Chinese 6th-Gen Aircraft Appear
The J-36 and J-50 prototype stealth aircraft have only appeared publicly in recent months, and it is not clear how many of them exist as of yet. Perhaps of greater significance, less appears to be known about the J-36 and J-50 performance parameters; they certainly appear stealthy, yet the true margin of difference likely lies amid variables less visible to the eye such as sensing, computing, weapons and range.
The PLA AF now operates a formidable fleet of roughly 300 5th-Gen J-20 aircraft, yet their reach within just the first island chain is likely challenged due to being purely land-launched. China has not operated any F-35C or F-35B ocean-take-off 5th-generation aircraft, until now. The PLA’s J-35, a 5th-generation carrier-launched stealth jet is now operational in small numbers, and it is entirely conceivable that the nascent J-36 triple-engine stealth fighter-bomber hybrid and 6th-gen J-50 could launch from the ocean as well.
China’s “Civil-Military” Fusion
The arrival of these three aircraft raises as many questions as concerns, given that very little is known about their computing, sensing, weapons interfaces and targeting range. An equal if not more significant question seems to relate to production. Simply put, how fast can the PLA produce impactful quantities of these aircraft? How long until the J-35 appears in large enough numbers to rival the hundreds of US F-35s? Will China’s J-36 and J-50 production outpace the US F-47 production pace and scale? The answer to this question is likely to create some measure of concern at the Pentagon, given the well-known and often-discussed PRC “civil-military fusion.” Unlike the defined separations in the United States between the government and private industry, the PRC essentially “merges” the two in a way that massively expedites fast-paced high-volume manufacturing capacity. There is considerable evidence of this throughout China’s military and greater society, as one can clearly observe the pace at which the PLA AF built hundreds of J-20 aircraft. The PLA AF only seemed to operate roughly 100 or less J-20s just five years ago, yet the fleet is now estimated at greater than 300. The PLA Navy pace of warship and aircraft carrier construction has also been extremely fast as well, given rapid arrival of Type 055 Destroyers and the current sea-trails of China’s 3rd carrier the Fujian.
Capability & Fleet Size
There are two distinct elements of this which consists of the performance of the aircraft and the pace and scale at which they will arrive. How far along are the J-36 and J-50? Were the recently captured photos of the J-36 and J-50 early prototypes 6th-gen jets? Or did the photos show more evolved demonstrators closer to operational status? Even if the 6th-gen aircraft are comparable to the Pentagon’s emerging F-47 and F/A-XX, the operative question is whether they can be produced in large numbers quickly. In any kind of a great power conflict, mass and formation reach will prove extremely critical given that 5th-and-6th-gen aircraft can network with one another across long distances.
Kris Osborn is the 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.