Beijing’s secret FC-31 stealth jet to challenge US sea power

Beijing prepares to deploy new FC-31 stealth fighter on the next generation of aircraft carriers as it challenges US military sea supremacy.

The model, which closely resembled an FC-31, was snapped in unverified photos that have been circulating on social media. Picture: Twitter

China is preparing to deploy its secretive new stealth fighter on the next generation of aircraft carriers as it challenges US military supremacy at sea.

Photographs circulating on social media revealed a mock-up of the FC-31 jet being used at a test site for the country’s first domestically designed carrier, the Type 003, which is being constructed in Shanghai. The dummy FC-31 was seen on a full-sized mock-up of a real aircraft carrier that was built at Wuhan more than ten years ago.

An allegedly quite recent image of the carrier EM facility at Wuhan and the mock up representing today how the Type 003's island might look like has gained a SAC FC/31/J-35 mock up! 😮

Any idea since when exactly it is there since my last image is from April/June 2019. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/QFifx59dhK

— @Rupprecht_A (@RupprechtDeino) June 8, 2021

In recent years China has accelerated the modernisation of its armed forces to meet President Xi’s demand that the military be “combat-ready”. The carrier deployment of the FC-31 would challenge the F-35 Lightning-II stealth jet used on British and US warships. China’s other stealth jet, the J-20, is already in service and is a rival to the American F-22 Raptor.

In March Shenyang Aircraft Company, part of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, released a statement declaring its determination to make breakthroughs in its fourth-generation fighter jet program.

It attached photos of the FC-31, the only known fourth-generation fighter jet being made by the company, according to the Global Times, a party-run newspaper.

Wang Ya’nan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge, a magazine based in Beijing, told the newspaper it was reasonable to speculate that the statement was referring to an altered design of the FC-31, originally conceived as a land-based fighter for export.

Naval News, another military news site, said that the choice of the FC-31 over the J-20 as the carrier fighter made sense, because the FC-31 is much smaller and lighter. While it is still a challenge to upgrade the FC-31, the jet will “bring the Chinese navy’s growing carrier capabilities into the stealth era”, Naval News reported.

Chinese President Xi Jinping attends the commissioning ceremony for three new warships at a military port in the southern city of Sanya, in April. Picture: CGNT

The Chinese military has also recently conducted midnight exercises with DF-26 ballistic missiles, known as the aircraft carrier killer, to improve their night-time combat abilities. A news video, released by China National Radio, shows soldiers transferring missiles at night.

“We have been holding night exercises on a regular basis recently, which usually last past midnight,” Colonel Jiang Feng, deputy commander of the brigade, told the radio service. “We randomly change the launch position, randomly change the strike target. We continuously carry out fire strikes and relocations.”

The Times