Key Points and Summary on China’s Stealth Fighters – China’s state-run CCTV network has provided the world with its first glimpse inside the secretive Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) production facilities, where the J-35 was spotted.
-During a segment focused on the new catapult-capable J-15T carrier fighter, two J-35 stealth fighters were prominently visible in the background.
-This “accidental” reveal strongly suggests the J-35 has entered mass production and is being prepared for deployment on China’s new Fujian aircraft carrier.
-The broadcast also highlighted a massive expansion of the Shenyang plant, indicating Beijing’s large-scale ambitions to ramp up production of its most advanced combat aircraft.
China’s J-35 Stealth Fighter Factory Is Out for the World to See
On July 8, China allowed the world a look inside the secretive Shenyang Aerospace Corporation (SAC) production facilities. The footage, taken during a visit to the facility by the state-run CCTV network, represented the first known time filming and interviews have been permitted in the facility.
China’s at times comically paranoid Ministry of State Security (MSS) has been loath to release a single detail about the activities of any major defense-industrial site, much less to allow press coverage of what happens inside.
Shenyang is the site of production lines for three of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA’s) combat aircraft programs. In a separate report, the SAC plant was also shown being visited by Liaoning Province Governor Wang Xinwei.
Footage of that visit showed Shenyang is expanding its production facilities. The governor’s visit showed expansive construction sites, but the coverage on CCTV offered no explanation for the construction activity. In August 2023, Shenyang Aircraft Corporation issued a public notice that it planned to invest 8.6 billion yuan to build a new production site 4.2 square kilometers in area over a five-year timeline, but further details were scant.
“An expansion of this size means that the PLA have big plans for an increase in production of combat aircraft,” said a former U.S. naval intelligence officer who spoke to National Security Journal.
The aircraft that will likely soon be built in greater numbers include the stealthy fifth-generation J-35A land-based fighter, the J-35B carrier-capable aircraft, and the new variant of an older carrier-based fighter, the J-15.
That latter aircraft has been modified to make it capable of being launched from a catapult-equipped carrier. This new variant, designated “J-15T,” was the focus of the CCTV coverage.
On The Ground at SAC
SAC is located in northeastern China. The company became well known in the 1990s for licensed manufacturing of the Su-27, and later for building an illegally reverse-engineered copy of the Su-27 known as the J-11B. Still later it manufactured a copy of the Su-30MKK that is designated J-16 in PLAN Air Force service.
At least two of the latest versions of the J-35 were seen in a SAC hangar while the CCTV crew interviewed a company representative. The stealthy jets were visible in the background, painted in what appeared to be the latest-technology zinc chromate green factory primer that has replaced an older yellow primer coating.
The TV anchor introduced the J-15T, which the company describes as a “4.5-generation multirole fighter that can be launched by a catapult.” During the interview, Li Guoen, a test pilot for J-15 aircraft, explained that the J-15T had been upgraded from the J-15 by adding thicker struts, a catapult tow bar, and dual-wheel nose-landing gear.
The efficiency of the front landing gear’s energy absorption “remained a major technical challenge,” he said during the interview.
Because a carrier flightdeck is not a fixed, immobile surface, the landing gear for any carrier-based aircraft must be designed to a higher sink rate than that of land-based counterparts. The aircraft must be able to distribute the energy of impact throughout the airframe.
Going to Sea With the Fujian
“You can see that the landing gear is very thick … we hope to make this structure slimmer and lighter in the future as that would give the aircraft better control,” explained Li.
The CCTV report did not mention the J-35A, but the shipborne J-35B version and the J-15T are both expected to be deployed on the PLAN’s third aircraft carrier, the Type 003 Fujian. This carrier is also reported to be equipped with an electromagnetic aircraft launching system (EMALS) instead of steam catapults.
An EMALS catapult should generate more sorties than steam-powered catapults or the skijump bow ramps used for take-off on the Liaoning and Shandong. That system is undergoing sea trials and is expected to be commissioned by the end of this year.
Song Zhongping, a military commentator and a former PLA instructor, told the South China Morning Post that the J-35 fighters seen in the hangar during the broadcast were likely the carrier-based versions. The green primer is a corrosion-resistant coating, which would be important for an aircraft that operates at sea.
Song said this was the first time that production facilities for the J-35 had been shown publicly. Showing the aircraft, albeit in the background and without mentioning it by name, indicates that it is in mass production.
In a separate interview with CCTV, also on July 8, the chief J-15 designer, Sun Cong, said China’s carriers were now “equipped with basic elements required” to make the PLA a “deep blue-water” navy.
“The fighters are being made like mobile phones as the functions are now software-based, so the systems and software could be designed separately [to boost efficiency],” Cong said.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs and Director of the Asian Research Centre with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
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