记事本
一个普通的记事本
https://www.yahoo.com/news/watch-china-secretly-flies-advanced-112433704.html
The Telegraph
Watch: China secretly flies advanced fighter jet
Ben Farmer
Fri, December 27, 2024 at 6:24 AM EST5 min read
296
China stealth fighter jet
China stealth fighter jet
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Generate Key Takeaways
China has carried out flight tests of an advanced stealth jet that could threaten US military assets over a vast range of territory.
Video clips posted online showed the tailless aircraft moving through the sky accompanied by a J-20 fighter escort.
Experts said the triangular aircraft appeared to be the most advanced design China has yet fielded, although it was too early to determine the capabilities or performance.
Advertisement
Hours later, a second video clip appeared online of flight testing of another, smaller, tailless aircraft.
China has for years been pouring money and innovation into new aircraft in an attempt to break the air-power supremacy of the United States in the Pacific.
Aviation analysts said the disclosure of the two new designs within 24 hours of each other was momentous and showed Beijing’s commitment to the arms race.
The larger of the two designs is a sixth-generation combat aircraft and is thought to have been filmed at the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation factory airfield.
The aircraft has a modified delta-wing shape and appears to be manned, according to the War Zone defence blog.
Advertisement
Tailless designs can give aircraft a smaller radar signature, while the size of the aircraft appears to be designed to give it long range and a heavy weapons payload, as well as room for a large load of sensors and fuel.
The aircraft also appeared to have three air intakes for its engines, two alongside the fuselage and one on top, in what experts said was an extremely unusual configuration.
Euan Graham, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Reuters that the designs “show the willingness of China’s aviation industry to experiment and innovate”.
He said: “Whatever the merits or demerits, it appears to be a highly original design.
Advertisement
More in World
'Highly indoctrinated' North Korean troops are being sent on 'hopeless' human wave assaults against Ukrainian positions: White House
INSIDER
How Jimmy Lai, a young entrepreneur-turned-billionaire, became China’s most dangerous man
NY Post
North Korean killed in Russia wrote of 'sacred duty' to fight for Kim Jong Un
Good Morning America
“They deserve kudos for that, and should shake off any lingering complacency that the US and its allies always set the pace.”
‘Highly original design’
Bill Sweetman, editor for Aviation Week, said that the aircraft’s “big main weapons bay” meant it could carry “larger weapons for larger targets – aircraft carriers and air bases”.
“Alternatively, [the aircraft] could launch swarms of loitering munitions against air bases, including more distant ones hosting long-range B-21s.”
Speculating that it could enter production by the end of the decade, Mr Sweetman said: “We may have a problem on our hands.”
Writing in The War zone, an online news website that specialises in defence, military writers Thomas Newdick and Tyler Rogoway said: “Above all else, if procured in an operation form by the PLAAF [China’s air force], it would be able to fly over long regional distances and loiter for extended periods on station far from home without tanker support – something China lacks in terms of capacity versus the United States.
Advertisement
“It could put targets in the air, on the ground and at sea at risk in areas where they currently do not expect a threat from a manned combat aircraft. This has real implications for American tankers, airlifters and airborne early warning, and control, and reconnaissance aircraft, as well as allied ships and forces operating at forward locales.”
The second design appeared to be a tailless, twin-engine aircraft, with a swept wing and there were unconfirmed reports it had been built by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation. It was accompanied by a Shenyang-made Sukhoi Su-27 clone.
‘Curious’ daytime flights
The US is several years into the development of its own new aircraft, with the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) programme.
However, the programme is proving to be hugely costly and there are question marks over how it will proceed under president-elect Donald Trump.
Britain, Japan and Italy are working to build their own next-generation combat aircraft to be ready by the middle of next decade.
China’s daytime flights of the new designs over cities where they could be easily seen was “curious”, said Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the US-based Stimson Centre.
She added it might be easier for China to match pace with the US on aircraft rather than uncrewed vehicles and missiles.
“As the Pentagon is actively debating the future of NGAD... it is hard not to wonder if this is Beijing’s attempt to influence that debate,” said Ms Grieco.
The US has been pouring resources into advanced missiles and other systems to deter China in the Indo-Pacific region.
It recently tested a missile-interception system on the strategically important island of Guam using an advanced radar.
China’s advanced fighter jet was spotted as Beijing’s navy launched its first new-generation amphibious assault ship on Friday.
The ship's launch comes amid fears that China intends to invade Taiwan
The ship’s launch comes amid fears that China intends to invade Taiwan - Pu Haiyang/Getty Images
The 853ft (260m) CNS Sichuan-a Type 076 is longer than the 844-foot America class, the US’s newest amphibious assault ship, and is also slightly lighter. The Chinese vessel displaces more than 40,000 tons of water when fully loaded compared to the America class’s 44,000 tons.
It is considered a “small aircraft carrier” as fighter jets can take off and land on the flight deck because of the warship’s electromagnetic catapult and arresting system for fixed-wing aircraft.
This makes it the world’s first amphibious assault ship equipped with such technology, according to the Global Times.
The 076 also has strong overall combat capabilities. It can conduct amphibious assault operations such as surface landings and airborne operations, including helicopter and parachute assaults.
The ship’s launch comes amid fears that Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, intends to invade Taiwan, with Beijing intensifying military exercises around the island nation in recent years.
China regards democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to bring the island under its control – possibly by force.
US intelligence believes that Xi has ordered his People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take the island by 2027.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
==================
