Work to develop a really heavy extremely lengthy vary sixth technology fighter for the Chinese language Individuals’s Liberation Army Air Drive has reached an extra milestone, with the fourth prototype airframe having reportedly made its first flight. This occurred little over a yr after the fighter’s unveiling on December 26, 2024, with the entry of 4 separate incrementally extra refined plane into flight testing highlighting the speedy progress being made by this system. This has been interpreted by analysts as a sign of its precedence standing and the appreciable portions of funding which have been made accessible. It has occurred roughly one month after the disclosing of the third prototype on December 25, 2025. Chinese language fighter applications have a constant historical past of with the ability to pioneer main advances and transition from flight testing to serial manufacturing and frontline service entry in fractions of the time required by different nations, with the brand new fighter’s predecessor the J-20 fifth technology air superiority fighter having entered service simply six years after its first flight in January 2011.
Present geopolitical tensions, and the stronger place of the Chinese language defence sector and industrial base in comparison with 15 years in the past, have raised the chance that the brand new ultra-long vary sixth technology fighter may could also be supposed to enter service much more shortly after its first flight than the J-20 had, doubtlessly as early as 2030-2031. Whereas China had not developed ‘4+ technology’ fighters earlier than the J-20, which means this system represented a very vital technological leap, the J-20 is itself being developed into what’s extensively being termed a ‘5+ technology’ fighter with the combination of a variety of latest applied sciences that set it far aside in its capabilities from baseline fifth technology fighters. This may occasionally make the transition to serially producing and working a sixth technology fighter considerably smoother.
Each the J-20 and its successor have been developed by the Chengdu Plane Company, whereas their respective lighter counterparts the J-35 and an unnamed second sixth technology fighter have been developed by the Shenyang Plane Company. Chengdu’s sixth technology fighter stands out because the world’s first with a triple-engine configuration, and is predicted to have by far the longest vary, largest and strongest radar, and highest weapons carrying capability of any fighter sort on this planet. The brand new plane’s vary is predicted to be completely in a league of its personal with a fight radius exceeding 4000 kilometres, with its mixture of superior stealth capabilities, a very massive radar, and a excessive weapons carrying capability permitting it to function unsupported and critically threaten Western Bloc plane throughout the western and mid-Pacific. Whereas the J-20’s 2000 kilometre fight radius is already greater than double that of the rival American F-22 and F-35 fifth technology fighters, the brand new plane is predicted to boast a fight radius of over 4000 kilometres.
The brand new Chinese language fighter is predicted to enter service greater than half a decade forward of the rival F-47 sixth technology fighter beneath growth for the U.S. Air Drive, which is meant to make its first flight solely in 2028, and is projected to enter service within the latter half of the 2030s. No third nations are anticipated to discipline equally succesful fighters at the least till the 2040s, with solely Russia having operationalised indigenous fifth technology fighters, however in very restricted numbers and with much less superior capabilities than their Chinese language and American counterparts, whereas South Korea lags additional behind with the far more conservative KF-21, which has been termed a ‘5- technology’ fighter. In early June 2025 a brand new picture of the brand new Chinese language ultra-long vary fighter supplied the clearest frontal view of its design, displaying three open ventral weapons bays with a capability for ordinance that seems to be a number of instances that of another identified fighter design together with the J-20. The plane is predicted to hold a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles sorts, in addition to outsized air-to-air missile sorts such because the PL-17, which may have interaction targets at ranges approaching 500 kilometres.
