by Martin Armstrong,Armstrong Economics:

China’s military has for the first time shown a new, tailless combat aircraft widely identified by analysts as their sixth-generation fighter jet J-36, a large, unconventional prototype that flew in public alongside a J-20 chase plane and has reignited debate about whether Beijing is closing the technology gap with the West.

The alarm over China’s J-36 stems from its potential to fundamentally alter the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific. It represents a generational leap beyond the F-22, not just in technology, but in its very concept of how air combat will be fought. Where the F-22 is a dedicated “air dominance” fighter, the J-36 is designed as a massive, stealthy “flying command center” built for long-range operations.

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The J-36 is reported to operate effectively above 65,000 feet (20,000 meters), giving it a literal “high ground” over the F-22, which has a service ceiling around 59,000 feet (18,000 meters). This allows the J-36 to spot the F-22 first while remaining harder to detect itself. The 2023 incident where an F-22 struggled to intercept a Chinese balloon at 65,000 feet (20,000 meters) is often cited as a practical example of this limitation.

The J-36 likely carries the PL-17 missile with a range of over 245 miles (400 km), more than double that of the F-22’s AIM-120D (approx. 100 miles (160 km)). Combined with a potentially more powerful AESA radar, the J-36 could theoretically detect, target, and fire upon an F-22 well before the F-22 could even get into firing range. This is a great concern.

If an F-22 survives theBeyond Visual Rangephase and closes to visual range, its superior agility, thanks to thrust vectoring, would give it a significant advantage in a traditional dogfight against the much larger J-36, which is not designed for that kind of maneuvering.

The J-36 is designed with a “smart” skin and powerful onboard systems to process vast amounts of data and potentially employ directed-energy jamming. It could use its electronic warfare suite to disrupt the F-22’s sensors and communications, blinding it while feeding targeting information to its own missiles or accompanying drones.

The concern is not about a one-on-one dogfight. It’s about how the J-36’s design would allow China to project power and challenge U.S. operations in a way the F-22 cannot counter.

The J-36 vs. F-22 matchup is essentially a contest of “system vs. platform.” The F-22 is an incredibly capable but finite platform. The J-36 is the centerpiece of a networked system designed to dominate a battle-space. The alarm in the U.S. comes from the realization that China has not only fielded a prototype of asixth-generationaircraft before the U.S. has finalized its own NGAD/F-47 design , but that its design philosophy directly targets the key vulnerabilities of the U.S. way of war in the Pacific.

Source: SGT Report