China’s J-35A: The ‘New’ Stealth Fighter No Air Force Really Wants

Key Points and Summary – Despite being heavily promoted as an affordable and highly capable stealth fighter, China’s Shenyang J-35A has failed to secure any foreign buyers, not even from longtime allies like Pakistan.

-The aircraft is advertised as a potent “stealth-killer” and a “battlespace manager” that can network with and guide other weapon systems.

J-35A Fighter at Le Bourget Air Show. Image Credit: Author/National Security Journal.

-The reason for its lack of sales is geopolitical.

-According to an intelligence source, purchasing the J-35A comes with unacceptable strings attached, including a permanent presence of Chinese technicians and significant cybersecurity and espionage risks that potential customers are unwilling to accept.

Shenyang J-35A – The Aircraft No One Wants to Buy

WARSAW, POLAND – The Chinese-designed Shenyang J-35A continues to generate considerable interest as more information about the aircraft becomes available.

However, despite the fighter’s growing public profile, its advertised advanced capabilities, and its resemblance to the US F-35 jet, the J-35 has not attracted the flock of foreign buyers that the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) had hoped.

The J-35A: The Back Story

The J-35 came out from under wraps, so to speak, when it was shown in November 2024 in one of its first public appearances. This unveiling took place at Air Show China in the city of Zhuhai in the country’s southern Guangdong Province.

The air show is a biennial event that has become one of the largest expositions of military hardware in the world. It is also sometimes the venue where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) decides to reveal the existence of and details of a new weapon system.

The 2024 expo was the time and place where the pathologically secretive military establishment chose to showcase the J-35A, the “A” model of the aircraft, which is the land-based variant of what China claims is a stealthy fighter jet.

J-35 Fighter X Screenshot. Image Credit: X Screen Capture.

Its close analogue, the J-35B, was designed for carrier operations and not only can perform arrested landings back aboard the flight deck but is also capable of being launched with a catapult based on Electromagnetic Aircraft Launching System (EMALS) technology.

The J-35B is currently going through trials on the latest People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) aircraft carrier, the CV 18 Fujian, to evaluate its performance in carrier operations.

All About the PLA’s Newest Stealthy Aircraft

Earlier this year, the designer of the J-35A spoke at length to the state-controlled China Daily about the aircraft. This interview was with Wang Yongqing, who is described as the “J-35A’s chief researcher at AVIC’s Shenyang Aircraft Design and Research Institute (SAC).”

In this exclusive sit-down with China Daily, Wang stated that the radar-evading fighter was “created to act as the backbone of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s efforts to neutralize high-level threats, especially hostile stealth aircraft.”

J-35 Factory in China. Image Credit: CCTV Screenshot.

China J-35 Fighter on Aircraft Carrier. Image Credit: Chinese Navy.

He added that the J-35A fits the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) goal to create a “considerable scale” fleet of affordable but highly capable low-observability fighters. Wang spoke to the state-controlled daily from his office and the design centre at the institute’s headquarters in Shenyang, Liaoning province.

“Our adversaries will definitely use their stealth aircraft or low-observable cruise missiles to penetrate our air defense networks,” Wang said.

Therefore, the concept behind the J-35, according to Wang, is to establish a defensive network with a plane like the J-35A that can “see” and locate on radar any hostile stealthy airborne weapon systems, track and intercept them.

Defense Networks

Wang stated that there is an even more critical function that the J-35A will perform—being a stealthy weapons platform functions as a low-observable tactical aircraft is not enough. Aside from its own offensive capabilities, the J-35A will enable and synchronize other assets in a network of weapons platforms.

Wang described this part of the J-35A’s mission as “systems coordination” or “multi-domain coordination” in combat, the China Daily reported from one portion of his interview.

“It [the J-35A] can lock on the targets, share the targets’ position with other weapon systems, such as surface-to-air missiles, and even use its own radar to guide other weapons to bring the targets down.”

J-35 Fighter from China. Image Credit: PLAAF.

J-35 New Stealth Fighter from China

According to Wang, this capacity to serve as a battlespace management platform is what will make the J-35A an affordable, powerful stealth jet that will form part of the PLAAF fleet, making it a highly effective battlefield multiplier.

So, Why No J-35A Buyers? What a Former U.S. Intel Offical Told National Security Journal 

Despite the enticing advertising of J-35’s powerful potential, there have been no takers to date on purchasing the aircraft.

AVIC and its export sales arm, CATIC, have peddled the aircraft to smaller, poorer nations that cannot afford Western models, as well as to wealthier nations like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which have not been able to purchase the F-35.

At one point, Pakistan, the longest-time customer of Chinese military hardware, was supposedly set to be the first foreign buyer for the J-35A. However, last month, it was announced that shortly after the visit of Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to the US, Islamabad declined the Chinese offer.

“One of the problems with buying something Chinese,” said a US former intelligence official, “is what comes with that purchase. You get Chinese technicians – a permanent presence on your territory – and you also get the connectivity of the aircraft now linked up with all your other computer systems,” he explained.

“A few years ago when the Swiss military decided to procure the F-35 there were very vocal anti-American voices there – saying that if you buy this American jet then ‘the CIA is always there in the cockpit with you.’ I think some people in place like Riyadh and Abu Dhabi realized that with this Chinese fighter you would have a similar situation – only a lot worse,” he said.

About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson 

Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the US Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.

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