The Navy’s intelligence shop judges that China’s new J-20 prototype will be both stealthy and have supercruise capability, and is “likely designed to counter US F-22 and F-35 capabilities.” These comments came in response to press requests for an analysis of the many photos of China’s new airplane that have begun circulating on the Internet. “The Chinese know the importance of developing an indigenous commercial and military aircraft design industry,” and have indicated they plan to design a “next generation fighter that will have signature-reduction and supercruise performance capabilities to compete with Western fighters,” stated the Navy intel analysts. The J-20 in the photos “appears to be this aircraft,” they said. Given the developmental status of the J-20, “we don’t expect it to be operationally fielded for some time,” they continued, but “the employment of this fighter in numbers will be both a qualitative and quantitative improvement” for the Chinese air force. (See also our previous J-20 coverage: Underestimating China and China Joins the Stealth Club)
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.
