According to US media, one feature of the J-10CE that has attracted considerable attention is the fighter's "golden canopy", which is very rare on fourth-generation aircraft, but in the J-20 and the US F-22 "Raptor". "I've seen it on a fighter jet. Under certain lighting conditions, the canopy of the J-10CE appears golden yellow due to an indium tin oxide conductive film coating between the optical glass layers. This color coating is mainly used to scatter radio waves from the cockpit to reduce the fighter's radar cross-section.
A window member composed of a transparent resin or inorganic glass with a transparent conducting film such as gold or ITO (indium tin oxide) coated thereon, is used as an electromagnetic wave shield window for stealth aircraft. Applying such transparent conducting film enables, while maintaining transparency to visible radiation, both a radio wave stealth property which scatters radio waves in various directions so as not to be detected by radar, and an electromagnetic wave shield property which prevents harmful electromagnetic waves, except for visible radiation, from invasion into an aircraft.
This feature is one of several new technologies introduced in Pakistan, the first country in the region to benefit from the technology. As the J-10CE is expected to become an elite fighter in the Pakistan Air Force in the coming years, its golden canopy symbolizes the aircraft's status.