As China gets ready for a war with the US in the west Pacific, the pace of military innovations has notably picked up. More weapon systems are being declassified.
In the 3 months since I wrote about the many new weapon systems unveiled in the November 2024 Zhuhai Airshow, the biennial premier Chinese military exhibition, even bigger military technology developments have been reported.
Many of these new weapons and technologies are potential game-changers with long term implications to the balance of military power between China and the US.
Here is a summary of breakthrough military tech out of China from the past 3 months. Though hardly exhaustive, it hopefully gives a sense of the rapid of pace of progress made in the field.
Given the number of technologies to highlight, I will break the article in two parts and publish the second part in a few days.
Six Generation Fighters (tentatively named J-36 and J-50)
China unveiled not one but two prototypes of six-generation stealth fighters, making it the first country to roll out the next generation aerial superiority fighters. Though the US has a decade-long head start to develop the 6th generation fighters, its NGAD program is in limbo due to technical and budgetary issues.
On Dec 26, the 131st birthday of Chairman Mao, two new six-gen stealth fighters broke cover in Chengdu and Shenyang respectively. Both planes feature revolutionary tailless design, all-angle stealth, unique advanced propulsion systems, avionics, sensor fusion, AI integration, and teaming capability with unmanned systems.
While technical details are understandably classified at this point, these fighters clearly feature breakthrough advancement in stealth, manoeuvrability, and aerodynamics, featuring pulse detonation engines, fly-by-wire and thrust-vector-control (TVC) technologies. These 6th gen fighters with expected high supersonic speed (Mach 3) are an entirely new class of air combat systems.
A lot of writings have been done about these that are readily accessible on most military-focused online sources. For those interested, I have attached a few links to mil tech websites for further readings.
The main take-away is that China is challenging and leapfrogging the US in a critical mil tech area which the US historically has an enormous lead over others.
Fighter jet is one of the most sophisticated weapon systems any nation can build. It requires an integration of multiple technical fields from material science, radar, sensor systems, electronics, propulsion technology, onboard weapon systems, and networked communication. Advancements in fighter jet technology have enormous implications.
The total cost for the US 5th generation F-35 program by Lockheed is over $1 trillion. The program was envisioned to ensure US air superiority for the next 30-50 years. The emergence of the two Chinese 6th generation fighter prototypes have led to wide-spread doubt about the long-term viability of the F35 program and led to a 15% Lockheed share collapse immediately after the breaking news.
Links for reference:
Hypersonic drones
Hypersonic technology is an area where China has built an entrenched global leadership position for a decade already. Started as an “Assassin’s Mace” in its Anti Access Area Denial (A2AD) strategy against US intervention in Taiwan and South China Sea, hypersonic technology has long been developed and matured for Chinese missile arsenals, which feature a range of hypersonic weapons which can target land, sea and now aerial targets. I have long been interested in this field and attached are two links to recent hypersonic weapons.
– https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/a-watershed-hypersonic-technology
– https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/md-19-another-chinese-military-aerial
Now pushing beyond arming its missile with hypersonic technology, China is incorporating the technology to its unmanned aircraft programs.
China is the only nation known to operate hypersonic aircrafts (above Mach 5 speed). These include the WZ-8, WZ-9, MD-19 and MD-22 family of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can operate at near-space altitude and conduct deep-penetration ISR, strike and kamikaze missions without fear of interception.
In contrast, the fastest plane developed in the US is the now retired Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft, with max speed of Mach 3.
These new hypersonic unmanned drones distinguish from traditional manned and unmanned systems in their stealth feature and hypersonic speed.
WZ-9 Divine Eagle
According to a video published on December 28, 2024, the WZ-9 “Divine Eagle,” China’s large high-altitude long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) designed for anti-stealth missions, was recently spotted in flight.
Developed by the 601 Institute of Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, the WZ-9 represents a significant step forward in China’s efforts to detect and counteract stealth technologies used by advanced military forces worldwide including F35 and B21.
The WZ-9 is a high altitude long endurance (HALE) UAC with 20 hour endurance and 18 km near space flight ceiling. It has a unique twin-fuselage design, multi-static radar system, and advanced data fusion capabilities. It features two side-looking conformed radar antenna arrays that are integrated along fuselage working in conjunction with an ultra-wide dual-band electronically scanned radar. This enables detection of stealth targets at extended range.
The WZ-9 is the first ever anti-stealth drone to detect aircrafts such as F-22, F-35 and B-2. It serves as an airborne early warning (AWE) platform and forward deployed thousands of kilometers from Chinese shore to supplement satellite, ground-based radar, and other air-defence systems.
WZ-9 is designed to work in groups, controlled via secure datalinks by either ground-based stations or airborne AWACs positioned safely behind frontline.
Its multi-static radar system provides a layered and redundant approach to detecting stealth targets, a critical advantage in contested environments. It is the first airborne anti-stealth radar system globally.
In summary, WZ-9 is a critical force multiplier and will pose a serious threat on the stealth technology the US relies for its air dominance. For further reading, you can check out this article on Army Recognition.
GJ-11 Sharp Sword – carrier-based UCAV and loyal wingman
The Hongdu GJ-11 is an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) designed by Shenyang Aircraft Design Institute and Hongdu Aviation Industry.
The GJ-11 features a tailless flying wing with two internal weapons bays. It serves as loyal wingman for J-20S, the 5th generation fighter from Chengdu. It is likely to serve on China’s new drone carrier Type-076 amphibious assault ship (to be covered later), making it the first carrier-based hypersonic drone in the world.
GJ-11 is a high stealth large sized UCAV with 2,000 kg weapons payload that carries small-diameter missiles and precision bombs. It is AI-integrated with manned fighters as a low-cost force multiplier. With the launch of GJ-11, China is materializing the collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) program the US air force is only envisioning.
KJ-3000 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft
In December, China officially unveiled a new 55-ton leading edge AEW&C aircraft (KJ-3000) that is specifically designed to detect stealth fighters and bombers like F35 and B21.
This massive long-range early warning and electronic warfare plane is based on the airframe of Y-20, the world’s largest military transport plane, and equipped with the latest advanced sensor fusion and radar suite. This represents another layer of Chinese air defence on top of land and space based assets as well as unmanned aerial systems such like WZ-9 and MD-19.
CAMA PL-XX hypersonic air-to-Air (A2A) missile
This yet-to-be-named hypersonic A2A missile from the China Airborne Missile Academy (CAMA) is a revolutionary long range ultra-high speed weapon to achieve aerial superiority.
The missile is designed to attack fast moving aerial targets such as B21. It is far more advanced than hypersonic missile technologies used by other nations which are targeting fixed land-based targets such as Russia’s Oreshnik or US Dark Eagle.
China pioneered hypersonic missile designed to attack slow-moving naval targets such as aircraft carriers. The new hypersonic A2A missile is a step-function improvement and will revolutionize the dynamics of air superiority contest as the range of the missile enables pilots to shoot first outside the range of enemy firepower (typical A2A missile range is less than 500 km) and the above Mach 5 speed will leave target aircraft no time to react and escape.
This new missile demonstrates China’s quantitative lead over other nations in hypersonic technology. Given the significance of this development, I wrote a piece specifically about this yet-to-be-named missile. Here is a link.
https://huabinoliver.substack.com/p/a-watershed-hypersonic-technology
I’ll continue the discussion about other recent Chinese military technology breakthroughs in another piece in a few days.
