Photos Show Mock 'J-35' Fighter Jet on China's Fujian Carrier

Beijingwalker · Dec 26, 2023

Photos Show Mock 'J-35' Fighter Jet on China's Fujian Carrier

Dec 08, 2023 at 5:21 AM EST

A suspected mock-up of China's next-generation fighter aircraft has appeared on the deck of the Chinese navy's new aircraft carrier, the Fujian.

Photographs, likely taken by commercial airline passengers overflying a Shanghai shipyard where China's third "flat-top" warship was built, showed an airframe resembling that of a "J-35" stealth jet parked at one end of the Fujian's runway, according to Andreas Rupprecht, a researcher and author of Chinese military hardware.

The J-35 is what experts at the Pentagon and elsewhere call the carrier-based variant of the FC-31 or J-31 Gyrfalcon, a fifth-generation aircraft developed by China's state-owned Shenyang Aircraft Corporation for the People's Liberation Army.

In its year-end report on the PLA, the Pentagon said the J-35 conducted its first flight in 2021. The mock aircraft was designed to operate on the Fujian, which was last seen testing its advanced catapult aircraft launch system in late November.

The PLA Navy's surface and submarine fleet is growing rapidly under President Xi Jinping's military modernization plans. China's leader has tasked his troops with regional supremacy by the end of the decade, and he wants a "world-class" fighting force by 2049—the country's 100th anniversary.

Both the J-35 and the Fujian, which the PLA calls the Type 003, are fundamental to Beijing's plans. China's second homemade aircraft carrier is believed to be preparing for its maiden sea trials, an important step toward active service.

The J-35 fighter was also seen undergoing tests in August, according to images circulated on Chinese social media—a now vital source of information for military analysts who would otherwise struggle to gain access to sensitive developments in China's defense planning.

The latest images, which showed the Fujian at Jiangnan Shipyard, first emerged on China's X-like microblogging site Weibo on December 8.

An aerial photo posted to Chinese social media website Weibo on December 8, 2023, shows a suspected mock-up of a fifth-generation stealth jet, dubbed the "J-35," on the deck of China's Fujian aircraft carrier, which was undergoing testing at a shipyard in Shanghai.WEIBO

A Naval News report in July 2022 said a full-size model of the J-35 was seen at a testing facility in Wuhan, in central China, in 2021. The tests featured a mock-up of a Chinese Navy aircraft carrier.

Despite some uncertainty surrounding the fighter's official designation, its significance to the PLA Navy in general and the Fujian in particular cannot be understated.

The Chinese carrier's new catapult-assisted take-off but arrested recovery, or CATOBAR, promises to launch several more aircraft than the navy's existing carriers, the Soviet-made Liaoning and the domestically built Shandong.

Additionally, the Fujian is expected to match the U.S. Navy's latest Gerald R. Ford-class carriers in size and displacement, although not in propulsion, which remains conventional rather than nuclear.