Indeed.
Better compare J-20 and F22.
Chengdu J-20 5th Generation Aircraft News & Discussions
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Better compare J-20 and F22.
Beijingwalker
VIP Member
China's J-20 GAMBLE — How the WS-15 Engine Rewrote Pacific Air Power
May 30, 2026The Chengdu J-20 debuted with Russian engines never designed for stealth warfare, crippling its super-cruise capability and exposing its afterburner signature to infrared sensors.
This breakdown examines how propulsion limitations forced controversial canard design choices, why the WS-15 Emei engine finally unlocks the J-20's true combat potential, and what this means for air superiority competition in the Pacific.
Beijingwalker
VIP Member
China's J-20 Fighter Jet Will Officially Become The Most Tangible Threat To US Air Dominance In 2026
By Tom Gitaa
-2026-06-02
Welcome to Aviation Daily! Here, we don’t just talk about planes. We explore the world behind these giant machines. How are they designed? How are they operated? What role do they play in modern conflicts? We’ll take you on a journey that reveals the secrets behind every takeoff. Join us as we celebrate the innovation, courage, and beauty of military toulouse – lyon aviation.
By 2026, the Chengdu J-20 “Mighty Dragon” will no longer be viewed as just another fifth-generation fighter jet. With the full integration of the WS-15 engine, supercruise capability, and a new role as a combat drone command center, the J-20 is now entering what is known as the 5.5 generation era.
This video delves deeply into the evolution of the J-20, covering engine upgrades, the loyal wingman concept, large-scale production, and avionics and long-range weaponry upgrades. The analysis is presented from the perspective of modern military defense and technology, based on open-source information and international analyst reports.
This content is educational and analytical in nature and does not support any conflict or propaganda.
Beijingwalker
VIP Member
China’s J-20 And J-35A Stealth Fighters Don’t Have To Beat The F-22 And F-35. Beijing Is Building Enough That They Don’t Need To
Commercial satellites caught China’s fighter plants adding eight million square feet — enough to build 100-plus stealth fighters a year while the F-22 line stays closed forever. The J-20 and J-35A don’t have to beat America’s best jets. The production math means they don’t need to.
By Harry J. Kazianis
June 10 2026
Chinese J-20 Stealth Fighter. Image Credit: Chinese Internet.
The most important air-power story of 2026 was told by commercial satellites photographing factory rooftops in Chengdu. The analysis, presented at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Warfare Symposium in February by Mitchell Institute senior fellow J. Michael Dahm, found that China’s fighter plants have expanded to the point that the Chengdu complex alone could be producing as many as 100 J-20 stealth fighters per year, with the Royal United Services Institute putting 2025 output at 120, and total Chinese fighter production capacity heading toward 300 to 400 aircraft annually. Set aside the long-running debate over whether the J-20 can match an F-22 or F-35 in a merge, because that debate increasingly misses the point. China is building stealth fighters at a pace that changes the Pacific math, even if every individual American jet remains better, and the United States military has never faced an adversary that could say that.
The Satellite Evidence: Eight Million Square Feet Of New Factory
J-20S. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The physical evidence is the place to start, because it does not depend on anyone’s propaganda. Imagery from commercial providers shows the Aviation Industry Corporation of China adding more than 743,000 square meters of manufacturing space, roughly eight million square feet, across its major plants at Chengdu, Shenyang, and Changhe.
Chengdu, home of the J-20, has multiplied its assembly halls. Shenyang, building the J-35 family alongside fourth-generation jets, is growing in parallel. The same open-source analysis notes cleared land beside the Chengdu complex, apparently reserved for whatever comes after the fifth generation — and something is coming, because China’s J-36 and J-50 sixth-generation demonstrators have continued flying through this spring.
The infrastructure conclusion is what matters: independent analysts now assess that Chinese fighter output is approaching or exceeding any single Western fighter program in operation, with the trajectory pointing toward a thousand fifth-generation aircraft by 2030.
From 40 Jets A Year To 120: How Fast The Estimates Moved
Honesty about the numbers requires showing their distribution, and that distribution is itself the story. As recently as 2024, public estimates drawn from the US military and open sources put J-20 production at 40 to 50 aircraft per year and the fleet around 200. French defense analysis tracked output at 70 to 80 jets per year from mid-2024, with the fleet reaching 320 to 350 aircraft by the middle of last year. Now Dahm’s imagery supports 100 per year, RUSI says 120, and Chinese media claims the lines are accelerating further through automation. Nobody outside Chengdu knows the true figure, and capacity is not the same as output. But the direction of every revision for three years has been up, and the doubling of credible estimates in twenty-four months tells you the analysts have been chasing the factories, not the other way around.
J-20 Stealth Fighter Landing. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
J-20 Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Compare the trend lines. The F-22 line closed in 2011 and will never reopen; the Air Force plans to keep all 184 of its remaining Raptors precisely because no replacement exists yet. The F-35 line runs at a stable 156 jets per year — and last year’s record of 191 deliveries, against previous highs of 142 and 110, owed much of its margin to clearing a backlog of roughly 100 finished jets that had been parked awaiting software certification, a delivery surge rather than a production surge. American fifth-generation production is a known, fixed quantity. Chinese fifth-generation production is an open question whose floor keeps rising.
The J-35A And A Two-Stealth-Fighter Nation
The second Chinese type sharpens everything. The J-35A made its formal debut at the Zhuhai Airshow in November 2024 and entered service with the air force in September 2025, while its naval sibling conducts electromagnetic-catapult operations with the carrier Fujian.That makes China the only country other than the United States ever to put two stealth fighter types into simultaneous production, and it hands the People’s Liberation Army a distinction that should sting in Washington: a catapult-launched stealth fighter entering carrier service while the US Navy’s own next fighter, F/A-XX, remains a contested budget line. The J-35 family also gives Beijing an export product aimed at the one market the F-35 cannot touch, with Pakistan long reported as the opening customer.
Two types matter operationally, not just symbolically. A heavy, long-range air-superiority platform and a smaller multirole fighter cover different missions, complicate an opponent’s identification and tracking, and insulate the overall stealth fleet from the groundings or flaws of any single type. It is the same logic that led the United States to pair the F-22 with the F-35. China copied the structure and is now filling it at industrial speed.
Why Quantity Changes The Pacific Math
The reason production numbers translate into strategic consequences is geography, and it deserves to be stated bluntly. Every J-20 and J-35A China builds is permanently based in the theater that matters. The American fifth-generation fleet is scattered across three oceans, European reassurance missions, the Middle East, which consumed a year of combat power, and a training establishment that cannot stop.On any given day in a Taiwan crisis, the relevant comparison is not the global inventory of American stealth fighters against China’s; it is the number that can generate sorties over the strait from Kadena, from Guam, from carriers inside missile range, and through a tanker bridge that China’s missile force will be attacking from the first hour, against the number China can launch from concrete runways at home. Mass at the point of contact is what wins air campaigns, and the side that builds 100-plus stealth fighters a year for one theater accumulates it faster than the side that builds 156 a year for the entire planet.
J-35A Fighter from China. Image Credit: Chinese Military
China J-35 Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Attrition compounds the problem. Air wars between peers consume aircraft, and the Iran campaign just demonstrated how fast a modern conflict eats munitions, spares, and airframes even against a regional power. A force that loses 50 stealth fighters and replaces them within months is a different strategic animal from a force that loses 50 and waits years. The F-22 fleet is irreplaceable by definition. Every Raptor lost in a Pacific war would be a permanent subtraction from American air superiority, while every J-20 lost would be a production slot. That asymmetry, multiplied across a long war, is the heart of the matter: the Chinese jets do not have to be as good, because the arithmetic forgives them for being worse.
The Air Force has effectively admitted the math. Its own recent force-structure analysis concluded the service needs F-35 production maxed out to roughly 100 aircraft annually just to reach an “acceptable military risk,” language that does not describe a comfortable lead. Washington’s answer, beyond the F-35, is the F-47 sixth-generation fighter, a collaborative combat aircraft meant to multiply each manned jet, and the B-21 line — real programs, all of them, and all of them years from mass production.
The Counterweights: Pilots, Engines, And An Alliance Full Of F-35s
The honest limits of the Chinese position are in full view, because they are substantial. No Chinese pilot has fought anyone in living memory, while American and allied crews have decades of combat employment, including stealth operations as recent as the Iran campaign, where F-35s helped suppress Iranian air defenses during Operation Midnight Hammer and the global fleet passed one million flight hours across nearly 1,300 aircraft.The J-20’s engine saga — years of underpowered stopgaps before the WS-15 matured — counsels humility about how the jets actually perform versus how they are briefed. Stealth is a discipline of maintenance, coatings, tactics, and mission data as much as it is of shape, and China is two decades behind in the unglamorous parts.
And the raw US-versus-China fleet comparison understates the American side badly, because the F-35 is an alliance, not just an aircraft. Japan, South Korea, and Australia are building toward hundreds of fifth-generation fighters based permanently in the theater, while European operators keep expanding their buys, and NATO F-35s recorded their first combat intercepts over Poland.
China’s stealth force will fight alone; America’s fights as a network of a dozen air forces flying the same jet. Quantity comes in more than one form, and allied mass is the form Beijing cannot replicate.
The Edge Is Real, And It Is Perishable
Put the ledger together honestly, and it reads like this. The United States still operates the best aircraft, has the deepest experience, has the combat record, and has the alliance network. China operates the larger factories, has better geography, and has a steeper production curve, with two stealth types in service, new designs already flying, and a thousand-jet fleet within sight.Both are true at once, and the second set compounds annually, while the first does not.
The American advantage in stealth airpower was built when no one else could play the game at all. That era produced habits — small silver-bullet fleets, closed production lines, complacency about attrition — that made sense against adversaries who could not answer in kind. China is answering in kind, at scale, on its home field. The jets coming off the lines in Chengdu and Shenyang do not need to outfly an F-22 over the Taiwan Strait.
They need to outnumber the F-22s, F-35s, and tankers that can reach the strait on the day it matters, and the satellite photos say Beijing has decided that is a problem solvable with concrete and floor space. The United States solved harder problems than this when it took industrial competition seriously.
The factories in those satellite images are China betting that it no longer does.
lightning f57
Trusted Member
If your comparing F22, F35 v J20, J35 context is important. Any future conflict with China and US will be over Taiwan or in the SCS region, that is home advantage to China. It can pour more equipment than the US equivalent could due to it being overstretched around rest of the world.
Also in the data, network centric war environment the fighter jets are just a cog, the vast numbers and types of missiles, drones will create havoc on the battlefield and China has advantage here as well.
Also in the data, network centric war environment the fighter jets are just a cog, the vast numbers and types of missiles, drones will create havoc on the battlefield and China has advantage here as well.
Beijingwalker
VIP Member
Mass production of high tech weapons of all sorts have actually just started for China, the full capacity of unrivaled Chinese industrial capability will be fully shown in the next decade.
Ali_Baba
VIP Member
Going through my archives, and I came across this old picture.
A blast from the past, of what the J-20 cockpit was meant to look like. The symbology looks correct and some pictures we have from the outside of the J20 seem to suggest this image is correct.
A blast from the past, of what the J-20 cockpit was meant to look like. The symbology looks correct and some pictures we have from the outside of the J20 seem to suggest this image is correct.
Funny! I just wanted to post it here too!
BY the way, I am surprised that this aircraft is again still powered by the WS-10C2. I had expected the 1st AB at Anshan to be the first unit to receive WS-15-powered examples, and this also confirms that considerably more J-20As with the WS-10C2 must have been built in the initial batches than previously expected.
niubi
Registered Member
This aircraft is part of the original J-20A batch which was produced for almost an entire year before it was shown publicly in 2024 with the different skin material, evidenced by the completely different colour.
There would have been many, many dozens of this bird built. Following batches surely all use WS-15? since they've been spotted with WS-15.
There would have been many, many dozens of this bird built. Following batches surely all use WS-15? since they've been spotted with WS-15.
ChillVein
Registered Member
China’s J-20 is Now the Most Procured Fighter By Any Service Since the Cold War: Fleet Surpasses 500 Aircraft
Chinese PLA Air Force J-20 Fighters
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s fleet of J-20 fifth generation fightersis estimated to have exceeded 500 fighters, with recent accelerated deliveries to new air brigades providing confirmation of years of reports of a significant expansion of the type’s scale of production. Eighteen air brigades are confirmed to have now received the aircraft, with each brigade typically fielding 28 fighters, for a total of 504 fighters. A further 40-60 fighters are estimated to be allocated for training operations. Deliveries to new air brigades are often only confirmed months or years after they occur, meaning that the figure could be closer to or over 600 fighters. These deliveries make the J-20 by far the most procured fighter type by any single service since the end of the Cold War.
Chinese J-20 Fifth Generation Fighter From the First Serial Production Batch in 2016
To place J-20 deliveries in perspective, the United States Air Force has received roughly 430–450 F-35A fifth generation fighters since deliveries began in 2011, placing the service in a distant second place. Where deliveries of the J-20 have surged, however, and are estimated at 100-120 fighters per year, deliveries of F-35A fighters have fallen to just 24-40 per year. The only fighter type rivalling the J-20 and F-35 in the numbers delivered is the J-16, of which close to 500 are also estimated to have been delivered to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force. A very distant fourth place is held by the Russian Su-30MKI, a much less advanced ‘4+ generation’ fighter type which has seen an estimated 270-285 fighters delivered to the Indian Air Force.
F-35 Fighter Equipped For Air-to-Air Combat
The J-20’s production scale is currently one of the largest in the world alongside that of the F-35, although F-35 production is divided between the F-35A, B and C variants which have almost no commonality between them other than their avionics. This and the fact that F-35s are being delivered to over 20 countries, several of which are splitting them between multiple services, highlights why the deliveries of all output of J-20s to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force is outstandingly significant. The fact that the F-35 is a much lighter and shorter ranged single engine aircraft makes the discrepancy appear all the more pronounced. The J-20 program’s combination of scale and sophistication is in many respects the primary factor in China’s emergence as the world leader in its forces’ air-to-air capabilities, which is a position that had for decades been held exclusively by the U.S. and Soviet Union.
J-20 Fifth Generation Fighters
A significant factor in the decision to expand J-20 production is thought to be the modernisation of the aircraft to the J-20A standard, the most notable aspect of which is the integration of twin WS-15 engines. Video footage in December 2025 for the first time confirmed that the first batch of fighters had integrated the clean sheet new engines, which significantly improve power generation capacity, reduce maintenance needs, and drastically enhance all aspects of flight performance including range. Footage released by the J-20’s primary developer, the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, in January for the first time showed several of the new aircraft undergoing test flights with the WS-15. This is far from unprecedented, with the J-20’s transition from the Russian AL-31FM2 to the WS-10C engine in production in 2020 having also resulted in a significant expansion of production.
J-20AS Twin Seat Fighter
Further important factors in the decision to expand J-20 production are the variety of roles the aircraft are expected to play, the type’s significant modernisation, and its reported comparable operational costs to fourth generation fighters like the J-11, which contrasts to U.S. fifth generation programs which have exceedingly high operational costs. The J-20S twin seat variant in particular was designed to serve as an airborne command post and as a drone controller, while new WS-15 engines provide the potential for major improvements to avionics over several decades. A January report published by the British Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) estimated that due to the significant expansion of production, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force will field approximately 1,000 J-20s by 2030. The expected service entry of Chinese sixth generation fighters into service in the early 2030s is likely to lead to a reduction to J-20 production numbers
China’s J-20 is Now the Most Procured Fighter By Any Service Since the Cold War: Fleet Surpasses 500 Aircraft
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s fleet of J-20 fifth generation fighters is estimated to have exceeded 500 fighters, with recent accelerated
militarywatchmagazine.com
SolarWarden
Trusted Member
USAF has 525 F-35A's not 430-450.China’s J-20 is Now the Most Procured Fighter By Any Service Since the Cold War: Fleet Surpasses 500 Aircraft
Chinese PLA Air Force J-20 Fighters
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s fleet of J-20 fifth generation fightersis estimated to have exceeded 500 fighters, with recent accelerated deliveries to new air brigades providing confirmation of years of reports of a significant expansion of the type’s scale of production. Eighteen air brigades are confirmed to have now received the aircraft, with each brigade typically fielding 28 fighters, for a total of 504 fighters. A further 40-60 fighters are estimated to be allocated for training operations. Deliveries to new air brigades are often only confirmed months or years after they occur, meaning that the figure could be closer to or over 600 fighters. These deliveries make the J-20 by far the most procured fighter type by any single service since the end of the Cold War.
Chinese J-20 Fifth Generation Fighter From the First Serial Production Batch in 2016
To place J-20 deliveries in perspective, the United States Air Force has received roughly 430–450 F-35A fifth generation fighters since deliveries began in 2011, placing the service in a distant second place. Where deliveries of the J-20 have surged, however, and are estimated at 100-120 fighters per year, deliveries of F-35A fighters have fallen to just 24-40 per year. The only fighter type rivalling the J-20 and F-35 in the numbers delivered is the J-16, of which close to 500 are also estimated to have been delivered to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force. A very distant fourth place is held by the Russian Su-30MKI, a much less advanced ‘4+ generation’ fighter type which has seen an estimated 270-285 fighters delivered to the Indian Air Force.
F-35 Fighter Equipped For Air-to-Air Combat
The J-20’s production scale is currently one of the largest in the world alongside that of the F-35, although F-35 production is divided between the F-35A, B and C variants which have almost no commonality between them other than their avionics. This and the fact that F-35s are being delivered to over 20 countries, several of which are splitting them between multiple services, highlights why the deliveries of all output of J-20s to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force is outstandingly significant. The fact that the F-35 is a much lighter and shorter ranged single engine aircraft makes the discrepancy appear all the more pronounced. The J-20 program’s combination of scale and sophistication is in many respects the primary factor in China’s emergence as the world leader in its forces’ air-to-air capabilities, which is a position that had for decades been held exclusively by the U.S. and Soviet Union.
J-20 Fifth Generation Fighters
A significant factor in the decision to expand J-20 production is thought to be the modernisation of the aircraft to the J-20A standard, the most notable aspect of which is the integration of twin WS-15 engines. Video footage in December 2025 for the first time confirmed that the first batch of fighters had integrated the clean sheet new engines, which significantly improve power generation capacity, reduce maintenance needs, and drastically enhance all aspects of flight performance including range. Footage released by the J-20’s primary developer, the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, in January for the first time showed several of the new aircraft undergoing test flights with the WS-15. This is far from unprecedented, with the J-20’s transition from the Russian AL-31FM2 to the WS-10C engine in production in 2020 having also resulted in a significant expansion of production.
J-20AS Twin Seat Fighter
Further important factors in the decision to expand J-20 production are the variety of roles the aircraft are expected to play, the type’s significant modernisation, and its reported comparable operational costs to fourth generation fighters like the J-11, which contrasts to U.S. fifth generation programs which have exceedingly high operational costs. The J-20S twin seat variant in particular was designed to serve as an airborne command post and as a drone controller, while new WS-15 engines provide the potential for major improvements to avionics over several decades. A January report published by the British Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) estimated that due to the significant expansion of production, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force will field approximately 1,000 J-20s by 2030. The expected service entry of Chinese sixth generation fighters into service in the early 2030s is likely to lead to a reduction to J-20 production numbers
China’s J-20 is Now the Most Procured Fighter By Any Service Since the Cold War: Fleet Surpasses 500 Aircraft
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s fleet of J-20 fifth generation fighters is estimated to have exceeded 500 fighters, with recent accelerated
Just look at the site and you know it’s shit.
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