By 2011, China's fighter design bureau and defense industrial firms earned a reputation for turning out two types of aircraft: either adaptations of foreign designs subsequently modified by a Chinese design team or models that nearly mirrored the Russian-made Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-30MK series. Though based on 1980s innovations, the aircraft and technology transfer that came with them nonetheless helped move the Chinese air power into the 21st century.
With the first flight of the Chengdu J-20 in January 2011, China's industry—led by the Chengdu (CAC) and Shenyang (SAC) Aerospace Corporations—joined the ranks of nations manufacturing new-generation fighter aircraft. Over the years, the Shenyang enterprise developed a reputation as the facility charged with developing reverse-engineered analogs of the Russian-made Su-27, Su-30MK, and the carrier-capable Su-33. Those designs became the different variants of Shenyang’s J-11B-series, themselves versions of the J-16, and the J-15, which operate from the People’s Liberation Army Navy's (PLAN) Liaoning-class ski-ramp carriers.
Now, the PLAN wants SAC to produce a new aircraft that would fit two specific mission profiles.
Needed: An F-35 Analog
A carrier-capable fighter that weighs significantly less than the J-15 is a key item on the wish-list of the People’s Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLAN AF). The J-15 even weighs more than the Su-33 on which it is based, limiting it to 20 percent of its weapons load if taking off with full internal fuel. Chinese industry sources that have spoken to AIN on condition of anonymity maintained that even a catapult-equipped Liaoning carrier or the CV-17 [Shandong] would have difficulties launching the aircraft while it carried a full set of weaponry.
The other need calls for a smaller stealthy-shaped fighter to supplement the J-20 in the role the U.S.-made F-35 fighter performs as the bottom half of the USAF high/low mix and supporting the larger, heavier F-22A. From China's perspective, in a perfect world that aircraft would also become an export product Chinese industry could sell to nations that in past decades purchased previous-generation Chengdu J-7s (CAC’s reverse-engineered copy of the MiG-21).
In the case of both the PLAN AF carrier force and the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF), the SAC J-35 fills that role. Previously known by several designators (F-60/J- 31/FC-31) and demonstrated as an early FC-31 prototype at the 2014 Air Show China in Zhuhai, the J-35 seen today differs from the FC-31 with a re-designed wing and an extended fuselage to reduce the radar cross-section (RCS).
Initial reactions from cursory examination of the aircraft often suggest a resemblance to a twin-engine F-35. Stacy Bostjanick, the director of the Pentagon’s cybersecurity effort designed to safeguard IT systems of its major contractors, credits an inadequate adherence to proper security procedures as a chief cause for that similarity.
“A lot of the time people [in the defense industry] didn’t understand what the requirements were,” Bostjanick said at an industry event two years ago. “Hence, the reason we have that J-31 over in China that looks very much like our F-35.”
Enter The Dragon
But the first supposedly “fifth-generation” fighter that has drawn the attention of those nations who regard China as a threat has taken the form of the Chengdu J-20, the aircraft the Chinese refer to as Weilong, or Mighty Dragon. First flown in 2011, the J-20 has flown in service since 2017 and its manufacturer has assembled more than 200 to date, surpassing the 187 F-22A models manufactured by Lockheed Martin. As in the case of Shenyang’s J-35, U.S. intelligence indicates that data pilfered by Beijing from U.S. government computer networks inspired the J-20 design.
Chinese industry’s development of its own, home-grown engine designs has made a major difference in the performance of both aircraft, however. Just four days after last year’s Paris Air Show a Chinese video appeared of a J-20 making the first public flight powered with two Xi’an-built Woshan-15 “Emei” engines. The new engine replaces less capable, Russian-designed AL-31F models and will now permit the aircraft to supercruise.
Similarly, the Guizhou engine enterprise has produced the new-generation WS-19 engine, which features an increase to 12 tonnes-force over the nine tonnes produced by the previous WS-13 powerplant. Again, it will allow the aircraft to supercruise and carry an increased weapons load.
The J-35 might also have inked its first export order. In January, Pakistani Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu reportedly stated that the Shenyang aircraft would enter service with the Pakistan Air Force soon. If finalized, the contract would make China only the second country after the U.S. to make a foreign sale of stealthy fighter aircraft.