{"id":304782,"date":"2025-03-09T07:55:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T07:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=304782"},"modified":"2025-03-10T08:12:01","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T08:12:01","slug":"chinas-6th-gen-warplanes-set-to-outgun-usaf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=304782","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s 6th Gen Warplanes Set To Outgun USAF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Corbley \u2013 AntiWar.com March 7, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

It was December 26th, 2024 \u2013 Chairman Mao\u2019s Birthday \u2013 when a pair of unmarked, unidentified warplane screamed across the skies above Chengdu, a city that hosts the factory of the Chengdu Aerospace Corporation that is known to be currently working on a new fighter jet.<\/p>\n

Tentatively being called the J-36 and J-XX, (no official names exist) these are believed to be 6th generation warplanes, or at least \u201cnext generation\u201d. What generation is China on that these would be from the \u201cnext?\u201d The current J-20 is generally referred to as having the speed, stealth, integration, payload, and maneuverability of a 5th generation fighter jet \u2013 equivalent to the US Air Force\u2019s F-35.<\/p>\n

In that case, one might call these 6th generation, although US strategists admit<\/a> that China tends to favor greater incrementalism in its military development, compared to the Air Force, which prefers to produce larger advances across longer time spans, and so maybe it\u2019s more appropriate to call it 5.5th generation.<\/p>\n

Either way, with the F-35 already being the most expensive conventional weapon system ever produced for the Pentagon while still suffering several technical and performance issues, the chance is greater than not that the US has officially fallen behind in combat aircraft technology.<\/p>\n

Although perhaps not, since no information on the J-36 or J-XX is officially available. What is available comes from observations mostly, by a group referred to as the \u201cPLA watching community\u201d. Some of these folks are more assertive than others. Journalist and PLA watcher Rick Joe takes a middle ground, calling the J-36 and J-XX \u201cgenuine competition\u201d vis-\u00e0-vis<\/span> the Pentagon, while also admitting that the PLA watching community\u2019s predictions of the appearance and nature of these two aircraft have been remarkably on point.<\/p>\n

Joe describes<\/a> these aircraft as something more than a \u201cfighter\u201d or a \u201cbomber\u201d and more like a \u201chigh performance, weaponized command platform,\u201d or an \u201caerial destroyer,\u201d referencing naval warship classification.<\/p>\n

Joe lists the \u201ccredible\u201d descriptions of the aircraft as one with \u201csignificantly greater combat radius, superior and omnidirectional signature reduction, significantly greater power generation with sensor and [energy weapon] capabilities,\u201d and possessing of a larger internal weapons bay long enough to potentially host the long-range air-to-air PLA missile known as the PL-17.<\/p>\n

Another writer, Rathindra Kuruwita, cites sources<\/a> which claim the operational range of the J-36 and J-XX will be 1,800 miles, allowing it to reach the US outposts of Guam and Diego Garcia in the Pacific. Kuruwita reports that Chinese analysis of the F-35 finds that it is too small to accommodate the power demand associated with integrated warfighting, and as such the J-36 contains three engines in its tailless, diamond shape platform<\/a> that\u2019s much larger than the American plane which should make room for additional fuel to generate these power demands.<\/p>\n

It is designed, he writes at\u00a0The Diplomat,\u00a0<\/em>to act as the central node in a system of unmanned capabilities like squadrons of combat drones hundreds of kilometers in advance of the aircraft, as well as high-powered radar, jamming and cyber weapons, and direct energy weapons.<\/p>\n

None of this has been demonstrated to observers, but is assumed based on statements and planning documents of what a future combat aircraft would look like, one which would be larger and heavier than modern craft \u2013 to which the double-wheel landing gear visible on the J-36 testifies.<\/p>\n

The War Zone\u00a0<\/em>speculates<\/a> that these would possess a significant weapons payload for both air-to-air and air-to-ground, but less than a bomber<\/p>\n

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\uf1e8\uf1f3\uf6f8JH-XX & J-36 : China continues to impress us every year, total air supremacy is just a matter of time. pic.twitter.com\/JKdzD2dPA8<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 N.p (@n_p505) December 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n