Why China's and Russia's 5th-generation stealth jets don't quite live up to the hype, according to a former US Navy pilot

Feb 10, 2023 06:00 pm Cyber Security 159

Russia and China have both recently debuted new jets they say are fifth-generation fighters.

Those jets have advanced features but aren't quite as advanced as US stealth jets, a former Navy pilot says.

"I have too many questions on their stealth capabilities," the former pilot said in a Quora post.

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J-20 and Su-57: not really 5th-generation?

Beijing and Moscow have increasingly close military ties, sharing hardware and technology. Each has also touted the capabilities of their respective latest jet fighters — even as some experts have continued to downplay the purported attributes.

China's Chengdu J-20 'Mighty Dragon'

A Chinese J-20.Reuters

The Chengdu J-20 Mighty Dragon can trace its origins back to the J-XX program of the late 1990s, which was actually a series of efforts initiated by Beijing to develop an indigenous fifth-generation fighter.

It resulted in the Shenyang FC-31 and later the J-20 Mighty Dragon, but it can be questioned how original the latter aircraft actually is given that it borrowed liberally from other warbirds. This included the double-canard design from China's own J-10, an aircraft in service in China since 2005.

It has been further su ..

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