Chinese Aviation Defense Industry Expands

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A half-dozen years ago, China's aircraft industry had not delivered a single competitive, operational fighter of its own design. Today, two are in service—the low-cost JF-17 and the J-10, the latter apparently comparable to most current in-production fighters—and China is still delivering bargain-basement fighters evolved from the classic Mikoyan MiG-21. The country's industry has developed an indigenous version of the Su-27 (the Russians might call it something less creditable) and is in the process of doing the same with the carrier-based member of the family, the Su-33.

Moreover, the Chengdu and Shenyang design teams have produced prototypes of two next-generation combat aircraft incorporating stealth technology, in the form of the canard-delta J-20 and the Lockheed Martin-influenced design identified as the J-31. An expanding range of air-launched missiles has been developed for the new fighters, together with new-generation sensors including active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radars and infrared search-and-track (IRST) systems.

Defense News