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The Telegraph
The Telegraph
17 Jan 2025
David Axe


China is developing a huge ‘air cruiser’. America will struggle to catch up

China’s new Chengdu J-36, one of two new warplane demonstrators that appeared in public for the first time over factory airfields on Dec. 26, is being described by many observers as a “sixth-generation fighter.” That is, an advancement over Chengdu’s fifth-generation J-20 – and a fast, manoeuvrable plane designed to engage other fast, manoeuvrable planes in direct combat.

But the moniker is wrong, according to Bill Sweetman, a veteran aerospace reporter who now contributes to The Strategist, a project of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. At first glance, the J-36 – which appeared over Chengdu alongside a J-20, helpfully providing scale – seems to be huge, with nearly 2,200 square feet of wing area. The US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-22 stealth fighter boasts just 850 square feet of wing.

Big enough to accommodate three afterburning jet engines, multiple large weapons bays and apertures for an array of sophisticated sensors and radios, the J-36 may be less a fighter than an “airborne cruiser” whose intended roles are much broader than mere air-superiority. 

“If J-36s can fly supersonically without using afterburning, as the prototype’s shape suggests they will, each will be able to get into and out of battle faster and more safely than conventional fighters and bombers, which cruise subsonically,” Sweetman noted. “A high degree of stealth will greatly help J-36s in penetrating defences. Supersonic cruise would also mean each J-36 could fly more missions in a given period.”