StormBreaker
Trusted Member
Maintenance on these birds will be intensive, if it’s anywhere near what it takes to maintain the B-2. I assume part of it will be automated, with potential areas of interest for a person to look at, with the assistance of AI.
So the key will be to keep an eye on the maintenance facilities that will have to be build to support the fleet.
Considering the other variant of the J-35 will go on the PLAN’s carriers, China probably has a very robust quality of baked in stealth panels plus RAM paint ready to go. It has been nearly 15 years since the first J-20 took its flight. With more than 200 J-20 in the PLAAF, Chinese industry probably has a number of formulations of RAM paint lined up for export.
The unique feature of J-35s even if compared to J-20 is the extensive use of 3D printing to build large parts of airframes into multiple large pieces instead of having lots of separate panels throughout the airframe. This would cut production costs, maintenance would be far easier and relatively faster and this does help a bit wrt RCS reduction as well.












