Key Points and Summary – While China’s J-20, known as the “Mighty Dragon,” is its premier 5th-generation stealth fighter, a new analysis argues that it falls critically short of the U.S. F-35.
-The J-20 reportedly suffers from “shoddy workmanship” that compromises its stealth and cannot carry bombs internally, limiting its mission.
J-20 Fighter Screenshot from X. Image Credit: X.
-However, its most significant, unfixable flaw is cultural: Chinese pilots are micromanaged from the ground and lack the autonomy to act as the “battle-space managers” their F-35 counterparts are trained to be.
-This deep-seated institutional barrier will always limit the J-20’s full potential.
The J-20 Mighty Dragon Is No F-35: Here’s Why
More than 20 years ago, a colleague of mine at Lockheed Martin was explaining the projected mission profile for the F-35.
The picture he painted was of a next-generation jet, first and foremost, following in the footsteps of the F-117 in penetrating enemy radar networks, attacking high-value targets, and then still being able to return to base without being shot down by an air defense battery or an enemy fighter.
But that was not all, he continued. “With the many abilities of the aircraft, the pilot is able to function as a battle-space manager—almost like a smaller-scale AWACS in some respects. Among other previously unheard-of capabilities of this next-generation fighter, the pilot can receive data directly from a satellite. The information is not being ‘processed’ or ‘filtered’, etc. to decide what the pilot ‘needs to know’. It is a direct link.”
Capt. Andrew “Dojo” Olson, F-35 Demonstration Team commander and pilot performs a dedication pass in an F-35A Lightning II during the 2019 Wings Over Wayne Airshow April 27, 2019, at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. The WOW Airshow marks the third public performance of the F-35 Demo Team’s new aerial demonstration during 2019 airshow season.
To the best of our knowledge, this battle management functionality is intended to be a feature of the first stealthy aircraft produced in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Chengdu Aerospace J-20. However, it may also never be able to perform this function—regardless of how many years the aircraft remains in service or how many upgrades it receives.
In comparing the two aircraft, one notices several differences that would lead most airpower analysts to conclude that the American aircraft is the more versatile and multi-role of the two.
“China’s Chengdu J-20 fighter jet, despite its advanced capabilities, falls short in comparison to the U.S.-made F-35 jet,” an expert has argued in a Newsweek report that was published early in June. He spoke to the publication about ten days before the F-35’s opening, once appearing at the Le Bourget air show outside Paris.
J-20 Fighter. Image Credit: Chinese Weibo.
J-20: Third to the Race
With its first flight of the J-20 in January 2011, the PRC became only the third nation in the world, after the US and Russia, to design and build a fifth-generation stealth fighter that could evade enemy radar detection. Several years then passed before the J-20 Introduced in 2017.
Today, there are various estimates, but most indicate that there are approximately 250 J-20 models in service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).
On the surface, J-20 appears to be a fighter with a blended-body, stealthy-type shape. The aircraft is also designed like other stealth aircraft, featuring diverterless supersonic inlets, which is another necessary basic feature of a low radar cross-section (RCS) aircraft. The design also features movable canard foreplanes and root extensions on the wing’s leading edge.
But stealthy design technique has some very extreme and unforgiving requirements, which some observers say the aircraft has yet to meet. Specialists who have viewed the aircraft up close comment that the J-20 manufacturing methods produce exposed rivets and shoddy workmanship. It’s shoddy in that some panels do not match up precisely, which can compromise the low-observable surface of a stealthy aircraft.
There are also—as there is with Russia’s Sukhoi Su-57—problems with the signature of the aircraft in its exhaust nozzle section and rear hemisphere in general. (It compares very poorly with the US F-22 and F-35 in this respect.) This has historically been one of the most challenging aspects of stealthy aircraft design.
J-20 Fighter. Image Credit: Chinese Weibo Screenshot.
Where is the Quarterback?
But the biggest reason is that the J-20 will never be thrust into the kind of mission roles that one is seeing the aircraft performing with the US and Israeli air forces in the recent conflict with Iran.
“The J-20 has a larger internal fuel payload than the F-35, but it is also larger. The J-20’s range will be similar to or shorter than the F-35’s. Also, unlike the F-35, the J-20 cannot carry air-to-ground bombs internally, which is a fundamental limitation,” Kim Minseok, a research fellow at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, told Newsweek in an interview this June.
A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II aircraft with the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 115th Fighter Wing ascends into the clouds during exercise Northern Lightning Aug. 9, 2024, at Volk Field. Wisconsin. The F-35 works in parallel with 4th generation fighters, demonstrating the strength of combined airpower in the face of strategic competition. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Constantine Bambakidis)
An F-35 taxis from the runway onto the flightline after successfully completing a sortie, Dec. 14, 2015, at Luke Air Force Base. The F-35 Lightning II is the most advanced fighter aircraft ever fielded, and is being adopted internationally by the United States and eight partner nations including Norway, Italy, and Australia. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Ridge Shan)
The J-20 is not only unable to carry the kind of air-to-ground mission, but the problem for many years, according to a 2016 RAND report, is not the aircraft itself but the culture and general limitations placed on its pilots:
“PLAAF pilots still lack the ability to adapt to rapidly changing battlefield conditions and make autonomous decisions on the fly. Such skills remain new to many PLAAF pilots accustomed to having almost all of their tactical maneuvers dictated by commanders in the control tower. For example, one Kongjun Bao report noted this deficiency in flight leads taking over from ground control.”
“Ground commands often are not able to keep up with the complex and changeable air situation. Pilots relied too much on the commands and guidance from the ground, which was not conducive to enhancing the enthusiasm and initiative of airborne combatants. Our findings also highlight an inability among some PLAAF pilots to hit ground targets successfully upon receiving inflight changes to flight trajectories or plans, as well as a reluctance among pilots to take risks for fear of making mistakes or out of safety concerns.”
J-20 Stealth Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
“Our report supports the notion that the PLAAF is fully aware of its shortcomings in pilot combat skills and is taking steps to rectify many of these deficiencies. However, cultivating true pilot autonomy in unscripted scenarios takes decades to hone and demands a training system that encourages honest assessments of mistakes. While the PLAAF appears to have undertaken major reform in how it trains its pilots, success will ultimately depend on breaking the service’s deep-seated institutional and cultural barriers.”
The J-20 Fighter Falls Short
Unfortunately, the paranoia, institutional barriers, and the long-standing imperative that dictates the Chinese Communist Party keep the PLA on a short lease remain “rule number one in the PLA,” said one US military analyst of the PRC and former intelligence officer.
These habits do not align with the freedom of decision-making required of a pilot, who is supposed to be that of a quarterback or battle-space manager, he explained.
MORE – Will China Invade Taiwan?
MORE – China Could Sink Aircraft Carriers?
“For as long as the current regime is in power in Beijing, this mismatch will continue to be what holds the J-20 back from achieving its full potential,” he concluded. “The F-35 is likely to remain dominant as a consequence.”
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 U.S. 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.
More Military
We Almost Touched the F-117 Stealth Fighter
Me
July 27, 2025 at 1:16 pm
Short lease? Or short leash.
David Wakoli
July 27, 2025 at 4:29 pm
That’s american paid propagandist to downgrade Chinese engineering in Aircraft manufacturing. India/Pakistan war offered very important lessons to draw from regarding western made military equipment. Chinese low grade J17 managed to shoot down 6 French made Rafale jets
Merve
July 27, 2025 at 4:43 pm
No! I do not think so. I disagree. Their jet is more advanced than the F-35. What happened during the brief conflict between India and Pakistan?
Rizwan
July 27, 2025 at 7:35 pm
Dear sir let the Pakistani pilots fly them and face and you will come to know the capabilities it bears.
Ncm
July 27, 2025 at 8:38 pm
‘Specialists who have seen the J20 up-close’?? Yeah, right
Allen Michael DeWaal
July 27, 2025 at 8:48 pm
Seems to me that the subject aircraft has too many short-comings to be awarded the “5th Generation” commendation. “Shoddy workmanship” destroys aircraft at certain speed envelopes and certain other flight/fight envelopes. You cant have “shoddy-workmanship” where complex flight performance expectations are stated as “5th Gen” and its very construction final condition will not/cannot/have not been verified as “5th Gen” capable while performing to common 5th-Gen specs.
This is sloppy – have the J-20 tested at say, the Paris Airshow where many 3rd party experienced aircraft performance engineering specialists can see it try to perform to true 5th Gen performance criteria, vs. other 5th Gen Stealth aircraft that have already been through that. I mean RCS would be an obvious criteria to be examined. How does it do – not “as reported by any Chinese source”, but the same methods applied to the western aircraft.
Here’s my guess: it fails. See how well it manages a dozen drones coming at it.
Why is its internal storage bay “non-finctional” – and it is still a 5th-Gen class plane? Does it even qualify as a 4th-Gen aircraft without an internal storage bay?
Sloppy again.
Jimmy Song
July 27, 2025 at 10:01 pm
This is someone that analysis aircraft for 3 decades???? it is really shocking me that someone with that kind of knowledges/expertise are using J-20 to compare with F-35. Even a student from grade 6 from China would know the proper matchup to F-35 would be J-35. Not only because both J-35 and F-35 are similar in sizes with similar perupres, also both are carrier possible. The way how you use J-20 to compare to F-35 is like to use a truck to compare with a couple. Imaging Trump is around with all experts like this, no wonder he is becoming the biggest joke in the world now.
Dr. I Khalil
July 27, 2025 at 10:49 pm
The Chinese will be very happy with your article, keep fooling yourselves until 1 night very soon you get tucked up very hard getting a personal fissure.
Dr. I Khalil
July 27, 2025 at 10:51 pm
Keep fooling yourselves , I bet the Chinese are very happy with this article, watch being tucked up by them
JN
July 27, 2025 at 10:55 pm
This is nonsense report…. Keep talking about culture? Obviously, this shows F35 has not so many advantages over J20.
Chris Johnson
July 27, 2025 at 11:18 pm
haha average anti China propagandist
Joseph Tan
July 27, 2025 at 11:22 pm
J20 flying radius is 1,200km where F35 is merely 800km. J20 is having 4th gen radar and F35 still using 3rd gen radar. Comparatively, F35 is flying slower, shorter range and inferior to its missile range.
Troy Scott
July 27, 2025 at 11:49 pm
One point made was that the Chinese were micromanaged. The main point is they have no combat experience. Whereas US military forces are lead by leaders with actual combat experience. Can you imagine a US Navy captain waiting for every Order for a course of action while in combat. No our leaders are expected to make decisions of the cuff and real combat experience has taught them. The Chinese have no combat experience and that will be their Achilles Heel.
Dr Sadiq
July 28, 2025 at 1:42 am
Totally baised and discrementory analysis, talking about politics not machine, talking about pilots not machine, who do you think , you talking too, 🤔
Peter
July 28, 2025 at 2:10 am
Yes, F35 and J20 are very different planes. F35 is designed for crashes and being stranded at airports. J20 are designed to fly, not a single J20 has been lost, can’t say the same for F35
Robert stevenson
July 28, 2025 at 2:34 am
Always what tells the truth is facts and history.China never had a premier airforce that excelled in design and manufacture.Chinas early airforce was russian jets and this is where facts and history make the best argument.The 1980s saw the creation of the F-15 made out of false fear that the russians the only credible threat to US aviation came up with a super jet.It turned out to be not a super fighter jet but a not so advanced high speed interceptor.By the time the russians came up with a jet comparable we had already had the F-22 and F-35s taking off their training wheels.China at this point is only using less capable versions of russian jets and 15 years after the dominance of the F-22(while the US started working on its 6th gen fighter already) the Chinese show up with the J-20.If you look at all the chinese jets the bare strong resemblance to the jet they “copied”.This is not a video game this is real life and in real life you dont suddenly jump 5 to 15 years ahead of your opponent.Railguns,laser,hypersonic missiles all stuff worked on in R&D labs in the US during the cold war.You dont go from stealing technical data and copying designs to creating hyper-advanced fighter jets that now have better technology than the people you stole from.The J-20 is a good jet but better than the US aircraft,hell no and no disrespect to the chinese.With the same logic their so called 6th gen fighter is in the same league as the russian Foxbat that scared the US into creating a super fighter.The design is a direct copy of those early concept drawing seen in defence magazines.Again it took 20+ years for China to just catch up so how in the name of all thats holy are they gonna leap ahead??…The truly sad thing about all of this is that we live in an information age and the vast majority of people just dont have the slightest clue of how to access it an use it to better their knowledge,they prefer to listen to bias news stations,paid off partisan podcasts,and lying politicians more concerned on getting votes by any means necessary than sitting dont and doing the work of enlightening themselves.
Dhjajksks
July 28, 2025 at 5:34 am
Said the moron who thought the Rafale was better than J10
Steven F
July 28, 2025 at 7:26 am
I slightly agree, but the F-35 is also no F-22. The only thing truly setting the F-35 apart is it’s RCS and sensor fusion. That is it. It’s not fast. It can’t even climb like an F-16. It’s not highly maneuverable. It is a strike fighter magically dubbed mukti-role due to cost runaways. Do you know what that means? In the modern theater against a peer adversary, the ONLY things setting the Lightning in a class of its own just might vanish. Via jamming and newer detection capabilities, such as enhanced thermal imaging satellites or extremely high fidelity photonic imaging satellites. Take away its sensor fusion and radar cross section, and all you’re left with is a heavy, loud, slow moving F-16 that couldn’t vector nor climb it’s way out of a wet paper bag if the pilot’s life depended on it. We aggressively pushed a strike fighter onto the entire free world with the incorrect label of multi-role all to save us some pennies on procurement. Now, all our allies are stuck with a strike fighter that is only viable as long as the TWO things making it special are viable. Teo things rapidly flying out the window with advances in detection and jamming. The J-20 might be micromanaged and relegated to air to air, but at least it’s just as maneuverable as a Eurofighter. According to Chinese pilots, the J-20 handles much like the J-10, which is nothing but a Euro rip off. While it’s larger than the J-10, it does have thrust vectoring and canards. The F-35 is slow (in comparison), only holds 4-5 munitions internally, can’t supercruise (even though it was a requirement of the design), and probably couldn’t even hold toe to toe with a freaking Fishbed. That’s an exaggeration, but it’s not far off. You take the Raptor’s RCS away, and you STILL have the deadliest superiority fighter ever designed about to eat you up like you’re an hors d’oeuvres and still go looking for seconds. Both undetected and still loaded for bear. The F-35 is the defense industrial base’s biggest con in recent memory. A strike fighter magically dubbed multi-role for purely cost cutting measures. And now, with the navy’s new fighter canceled (merely because it’s not called F-47)in favor said F-47, we’re about to see history repeat it’s self. Everyone knows a naval craft can serve in the airforce, no problem. But an Air Force craft can NOT serve on the navy without major modification. Ie, cost runaways and procurement slashing. Bye, bye, American edge. You are on your deathbed and the honest doctors have given you about another 5-10 years of life. I’ll picking out your tombstone from Norway.
Concerned
July 28, 2025 at 7:31 am
If F35 is a masterpiece then why has USAF lost so many in action
Steven F
July 28, 2025 at 7:48 am
Before someone tries to jump in my junk about the J-20 thrust vectoring (are nonexistent vectoring), you should know: Later models of the Dragon do have trust vectoring. Look it up. Sorry for the typos, haven’t had my caffeine yet. And I’m ashamed how the whole entire free world (ALL our allies) are going to rely on a strike fighter for aerial combat that just might have its edge flipped off via the flip of a switch. Literally. The F-35 is beautiful strike fighter. I’ll give it that. But then again, that’s what it was primarily designed for. To SUPPLEMENT Raptors and even Super Hornets. It was never meant to lead the charge by itself. Never. Not from design to development.
Steven F
July 28, 2025 at 8:09 am
Also, this is my last piece of ordnance and I’m dropping it from altitude and hitting supercruise (leaving that “Lightning” in the dust to receive my counter-fire): for those of you mentioning the Mirage fiasco, you all should know first off: it’s French. What did you expect? Secondly, the French wanted in on the Eurofighter, but backed out last minute because of picky-ness and cost reasons, meaning the Mirage is NOTHING but a cheaper, less refined Eurofighter. Of course it got splashed. France thinks spending ⅛ of a penny to every $1M dollars is an acceptable defense budget. Because they know the world will come save them when they inevitably wave that white flag again. Let’s jam long range sensors, add RCS exaggerators and relegate battle to within visual range. Then, let’s see what happens. Because that is the aerial combat of tomorrow. But then again, I’m just a civilian who hasn’t even left the ground more than 300 feet (rappelling). Never even been in an aircraft. All my knowledge is theoretical from research. So maybe I’m full of it. Maybe I’m not. Only they wars of tomorrow will tell. Get your popcorn and place your bets. I predict Lightnings falling out the sky like Starfighters. And it makes me sick because the Raptor proves beyond all doubt we’re more than capable of creating unkill-able beasts. When politicians aren’t siphoning the money for development and procurement, that is.
William Hooper
July 28, 2025 at 9:54 am
The author is correct and makes an interesting point- the F35 is the best stealth fighter for dropping large glide bombs (eg 500kg, even 2000kg)- and such bombs are extremely fashionable.
The L-20 design philosophy instead focused on missiles which are more expensive and have much lower payload to size ratios. Their internal bays are long and narrow for holding missiles, they can’t carry 500kg to 2000kg internally.
With little actual combat experience, the Chinese do seem to have missed the importance of glide bombs, whereas the Americans are very familiar with them.
On the other side, the Chinese philosophy is to use long rage missiles and J-20 fighters to secure air superiority, and once that is achieved you can use cheaper planes to glide bomb, or simply carry your glide bombs externally.
We saw this in Israel – the stealth jets only mattered at the start and once the air defences were down cheap F16s did all the work.
So it’s interesting point but it’s not quite as clear they missed a trick as suggested…
Joaquin
July 28, 2025 at 3:40 pm
No, the J-20 is not an F-35, not a Swiss Army knife. The J-20 is more like a specific kind of knife, honed to its mission. The billion dollar question is can the J-20 perform its mission? Could an F-35 perform the J-20’s mission? Probably not.
Dr. Hujjatullah M.H.B. Sahib
July 29, 2025 at 2:30 pm
I almost took this rambling write-up to be an attempt at serious analysis until it’s final paragraph gave it away as just a blatant attempt of propaganda. What a waste of time !
Michael
July 30, 2025 at 6:25 am
You study it in 3 decades but this stealth aircraft comes only a few years, so where is the decades
Damien C
July 30, 2025 at 9:17 am
This article smacks of someone sitting down with a preconceived idea and then writing an article to shut that idea.
I know Chinese missiles are vastly superior in speed distance and ability compared to US ones.
I know the F35 has 760 faults that cannot be fixed that number is correct it was 760
The F35 spends 70% of it’s life in the maintenance hangar.
Alas none of this was in the slanted article
Abdulmaleek Muhammad
July 30, 2025 at 9:38 am
Seeing is believing while no events no history,the recent India and Pakistan standoff proved that you are either an antagonist or US paid propagandist or both. Countries should be able to choose between reality and propaganda…
intp1
July 30, 2025 at 10:13 am
Can you not simply add and subtract? The J-20 e.g. combat range on internal fuel is c. 2000 km; the F-35 is hardly surprisingly far less at c. 1300 km. 65% of the J-20.
I will not even get into the your racial fantasy position that the J-20 is inferior because it was built and is flown by Chinese people since you white trash cannot even do simple arithmetic.
Bsalarm
July 30, 2025 at 11:17 am
Yeah yeah yeah. Chinese manufacturing is so bad that they just lead the world. They’re whipping America like a rented mule in 57/64 tech areas analyzed by ASPI.
Jordan Kam
August 8, 2025 at 4:48 am
Typical anti chinese propagandist,that believes planes can’t be as good just because they are flown and manufactured by chinese. u probably spent three decades analyzing camouflaged propaganda against Asians.
Flint Coal
August 12, 2025 at 11:34 pm
Gotta love the Chinese bots who know nothing about how West Taiwan even got its start in stealth tech. Hint they stole out dated tech and think they are near-peer to America.
Pingback: No, China no tiene más aviones de combate que los EE. UU. (Pero está cerca) - Big Bang Mexico