China’s other secret stealth jet has a ‘mystery’ tunnel. It may be a 6G Navy carrier fighter
The supersonic stealth bomber demonstrator China revealed to the world on December 26 had company. On the same day Chinese authorities allowed photos and videos of the Chengdu J-36 medium bomber to circulate online, they also permitted the release of imagery showing a much smaller radar-evading warplane demonstrator, the Shenyang J-XX.
It’s apparent the J-36 is meant to prove technologies for what could become a powerful regional bomber, a new type of warplane without foreign equivalents: an “airborne cruiser,” as veteran aviation journalist Bill Sweetman has dubbed it.
By contrast, the J-XX may be a proof-of-concept for a new carrier-borne stealth fighter that could operate from the Chinese navy’s new Fujian flattop and any future sister vessels. The J-XX-based fighter may be an analogue to the F/A-XX stealth fighter the US Navy is developing for its own carriers.
The J-XX is a twin-engine, tailless manned aircraft with some obvious nods toward carrier compatibility. “The tell-tale features may be the large pitch control surfaces and the location of the break line on the trailing edge,” Sweetman wrote. “The first provides the pitch control authority needed for carrier landings and the second accommodates a wing fold.”
Credit: China Military / Chinese People's Liberation Army
Many carrier aircraft have wing-folding mechanisms. With its wings folded upward, a plane takes up less space on deck, on a lift or in the hangar. Every square foot is precious even aboard the biggest carriers.
The biggest clue that the J-XX is destined for naval use is also the most obvious. The J-XX is a product of the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. “Shenyang has been responsible for both of China’s carrier fighters – the Sukhoi-derived J-15 family and the new J-35 – and therefore owns China’s expertise in this specialised and challenging area,” Sweetman pointed out.
Whatever the J-XX’s intended role, it’s a long way from front-line use. The demonstrator appears to lack internal weapons bays and appeared over the Shenyang factory airfield on Dec. 26 with what Sweetman described as “a narrow tunnel” between the twin engines – “a very unusual design feature.”
Too narrow for weapons, the tunnel “is a mystery,” Sweetman conceded, “because it seems to make little sense in terms of aerodynamics, signatures or vehicle packaging: it would appear more logical to fill the space in and use it for fuel.” The J-XX’s canopy might also need work. It seems to sit too low for a pilot to have a clear view of the carrier deck while landing.
It could take a while for the J-XX to evolve into a combat-ready warplane. But the Chinese navy is in no hurry. It’s still testing Shenyang’s J-35, a more conventional carrier-borne stealth fighter that shares some design elements with the US Navy’s already operational Lockheed Martin F-35C.
The J-35 may finally be ready for operational use shortly after Fujian, the Chinese navy’s first purely domestic carrier, commissions potentially later this year. But it will be years before the first J-35-equipped wing resolves the many challenges that come with flying delicate stealth fighters from a carrier’s crowded, salty, pitching flight deck.
The J-35 might walk so the J-XX – or whatever the J-XX eventually becomes – can run. By then, the US Navy might already be flying new F/A-XXs from its own flattops. In that sense, the Americans might maintain their edge in carrier aviation despite the J-XX’s dramatic reveal last month.
The drama is probably deliberate. The US aerospace industry reportedly flew a new stealth fighter demonstrator as long ago as 2020, but in secret. Whatever new technology may feed into the F/A-XX is apparently also secret.
In showing off the J-XX years or decades before it’s ready for combat, the Chinese might be trying to taunt the Americans into revealing their own advanced fighter demonstrators. Jealous of the J-XX’s disclosure, the administration of US president Donald Trump “might be tempted to respond with disclosures of its own, to China’s benefit,” Sweetman mused.