An Entirely New Stealth Fighter Just Joined China’s Air Force: How Capable is the J-35?

Footage publicised in the early hours of June 6 has confirmed the entry into service of the J-35A in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force, with the aircraft joining the 1st Air Brigade alongside J-20 fighters which began to be fielded by the unit in 2021. The J-35 was developed alongside the J-20, with the two having been produced by the respective Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation to provide a high-low combination of aircraft. The J-20 joined the Air Force in 2017 as the world’s first operational fifth generation fighter developed outside the United States, and has since seen its capabilities improved considerably and production numbers expanded to over 100 per year. The J-35 saw its first flight just one year after the J-20 in 2012, but has had a much less certain future, with the aircraft initially expected to be produced exclusively for export and as a carrier based variant for the People’s Liberation Army Navy.

The J-35 is thought to use make use of many of the same technologies seen on the J-20, including distributed aperture systems and cutting edge data links and sensors to provide very high levels of situational awareness, as well as advanced radar absorbent coatings to complement the effects of its low radar cross section airframe. The fighter is nevertheless limited by its much smaller size, which restricts it to operating over significantly shorter ranges and to carrying a much smaller radar and lower weapons payload. Its much more conventional layout also contrasts sharply with the J-20’s unique canard design that contributes to the larger aircraft’s very high levels of manoeuvrability at all speeds. Primary advantages of the J-35 are that its procurement and operational costs are likely to be far lower than those of the J-20, while its maintenance needs are almost certain to be well below this of the heavier aircraft, allowing it to be fielded in greater numbers at a lower cost.

Bringing the J-35 into serial production has made China the first country in the world to serially produce two fifth generation fighter classes simultaneously. Parallel development of two complementary sixth generation fighters at Chengdu and Shenyang, which were unveiled in December 2024 at flight prototype stages, means this is also set to be replicated in the next generation, as the fighters are schedule to enter service in the early 2030s. Much regarding the J-35’s future in China’s air force remains uncertain, with the rate at which it will be procured, and the scale of production, being unknown, but potentially remaining well below those of the J-20. A primary argument against procuring the fighter has been that its limited range will restrict its ability to carry out air defence duties in the wider pacific, although its range is still expected to be able to rival that of the longest ranged fighter in the Western world the F-15, and far surpass that of the West’s sole fifth generation fighter in production today the F-35.