– Vinayak Barot
New Delhi: To counter the United States’ deadliest fighter jet F-35, China may develop its own version of fighter jet F-35 very soon.
According to sources, China has the designer who can develop the fighter jet like F-35 and he has a vision of what the next Chinese fighter jet should look like.
China’s state control media Global Times reports, “A revolutionary, cognition-subverting next generation fighter jet, characterized by long-range, high capabilities in penetration, awareness, firepower and fast decision-making, is about to come into being amid great power competition,”
“China is eyeing to develop a next generation fighter jet by 2035 or earlier, which could feature laser, adaptive engines and the ability to command drones,” the report said.
A Chinese media cited a technical paper written by Yang Wei, an aircraft designer at Aviation Industry Corporation of China, who has designed the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter.
Over the China’s plan for super jet F35 Yang Wei said “a future fighter jet will generally require a longer combat range, longer endurance, stronger stealth capability, a larger load of air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons, and the functionality to provide its pilot with easy-to-understand battlefield situation images and predictions,”
Global Times said Yang’s vision could indicate what China’s future fighter jet might be like. In an integrated system, the aircraft should be able to form a network, draw real-time integrated situational images, create multiple attack routes and transmit target information across mission areas in real time.
The GT report said, “Information has now become the deciding factor, as modern fighter jets focus on gaining more information with the help of AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radars and data chains, while also reducing opponents’ ability to gain information, including using stealth technology and electronic countermeasures.”
As per the world experts “F-35 is expressly designed to be a highly networked aircraft with extensive automation, including a sensor fusion system that presents the pilot with integrated 360-degree situational awareness. The technology is still buggy for now, but it does fit Yang’s vision of what a next-generation Chinese fighter should be.”
