For several days, a rumor has been circulating on Chinese social networks: the new J-35 fighter could be presented, for the first time, at the Zhuhai Air Show, which will be held in mid-November.
The rumor was clearly true, as the People's Liberation Army confirmed the presence of no fewer than seven aircraft at the show, including the J-7 heavy stealth fighter, the J-20 multirole fighter-bomber, and the new Y-16U tanker aircraft. All three will perform flight demonstrations at the event.
However, it is the announcement of the presence of the brand new J-35A stealth fighter, in static demonstration, in Zhuhai, which constitutes the most significant event of this 2024 edition. Everything indicates, in fact, that the J-35A is now very close to entering service within the PLA air force, while its naval version was recently tested aboard the new CV18 Fujian aircraft carrier.
As a result, not only would China become the second country to have two 5th generation combat aircraft in service, but it would also demonstrate, on this occasion, that its aeronautics industry now imposes a technological tempo twice as fast as that applied by Western countries!
In this section:
The 5th generation fighter J-35A, the star of the future Zhuhai air show
If the official presentation of the new stealth fighter from the Chinese Shenyang, the J-35, was long awaited, on the occasion of the Zhuhai air show, to learn more about this new aircraft, it will be a specific version, the J-35A, which will be present on the tarmac of the international airport who is hosting the event.
This J-35A classification alone gives many indications, since it would not be a question here of the naval version, intended to operate on board Chinese aircraft carriers, the development of which began four years ago now, but of a land version, intended for the PLA air forces, the development of which had, until now, never been confirmed by the Chinese armies.
Sharing much with the naval version, if we are to believe the visuals released concerning this aircraft, the J-35A is also derived from the FC-31 demonstrator, a twin-engine medium stealth fighter developed, in demonstrator form, at the end of the 2000s, by Shenyang, initially, for the international market.
Although the FC-31 Gyrfalcon made its first flight in 2012, the program quickly showed some design flaws, particularly in terms of stealth, forcing the Chinese aircraft manufacturer to deeply revise its copy. A second version of the demonstrator made its debut on the international scene at the 2015 Zhuhai Air Show.
However, the aircraft did not seem likely to generate much enthusiasm, either on the international scene or within the PLA, which was then entirely focused on the new J-20 stealth heavy fighter developed by Chengdu, and on the entry into service of a series of modern, but previous-generation aircraft, with the J-10C, the J-11B, the J-15 and the J-16.
It was necessary to wait until 2020, and Chinese Navy arbitration in favor of this aircraft, rather than a navalized version of the J-20, to revive the momentum around this program which was renamed by the press "J-35", in reference to its superficial resemblance to the American F-35.
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Should we consider an aircraft as a firing platform or as an element of a whole, as a system of systems? In the first case, an appearance at a trade fair allows us to judge the quality of the product, a bit like in the 80s. But for the second, this requires a longer analysis, even impossible without access to information on the components, which seems anticipated for the J35.
That is correct. But our bias to systematically underestimate the quality and effectiveness of Chinese systems has not been very successful so far.
Many were also skeptical and sometimes condescending with the J-20 when it was released. In the end, we now know that the aircraft is very effective, that it has a very good radar, that its PL-10 and PL-15 air-to-air missiles are effective, and that it is much stealthier than many had suggested, based on the presence of canards. While in fact, by respecting the alignment of the planes, the canards only slightly degrade frontal stealth.
It therefore seems reasonable to anticipate that the J-35 will also have this high-performance equipment, and that the Chinese have planned to have a global system aligned with the capabilities of their new fighter...