The Fascinating Emergence of China's J-20 next-generation combat
aircraft demonstrator in late 2010 has refocused attention on the pace
of military aerospace development in the People's Republic. The
carefully stage-managed revelation of the large and unconventional 'new
Chengdu machine 2001', or J-20, as many are calling it, seems to confirm
that China has grand industrial ambitions and attention-getting
operational requirements.
Whether the '2001 programme' will fulfil any of those aims remains to
be seen. At this early stage there is still more than a hint of amateur
dramatics surrounding the aircraft and the speed with which this secret
project has been exposed to the outside world. All early assessments of
its capabilities should be restrained, but the 2001 programme is
nevertheless the fourth or fifth new combat aircraft development project
in China - as many as those from the rest of the world combined.
Even before the arrival of the J-20, China was heavily engaged with
the Chengdu J-10 multirole fighter and what could be a significantly
enhanced successor in the shape of the J-10B. At Shenyang the J-11B has
emerged as an 'indigenised' Su-27 with combat capabilities that far
exceed China's original Sukhoi Su-27SK and baseline J-11 aircraft.
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