Stealth Saga #63

5th Generation Fighter:

Poland is planning on buying a 5th generation fighter around 2025.

6th Generation Fighter:

Airbus is calling on France to join Germany and Spain in developing the next generation weapon system, a potentially sixth gen fighter.  A bit more on the Airbus backed European next gen fighter (not sure whether it will be 5th or 6th gen).  What exactly is going to happen is up in the air though.  Dassault may not join the paneuropean fighter and that might be a good thing.

Lockheed has unveiled its updated penetrating counter air concept.

Are 6th generation fighters going to be stealthy drone herders?

TFX:

Turkey is mostly relying on local manufacturers for their next fighter, but also a dash of the British.

J-20:

China has tested a solid rocket ramjet missile for use with its J-20 fighters, potentially tripling the range of the J-20's missiles to kill.

H-20:

The Pentagon confirmed the Chinese H-20 stealth bomber is being designed with nuclear weapon carriage in mind.

MiG-41:

Mikoyan claims to be working on the MiG-41, the successor for the MiG-31 Foxbat.

PAK-FA:

The PAK-FA is supposed to be in the final stages of development.

Russia is supposed to take delivery of two more PAK-FA this year.

FGFA:

Is the PAK-FA derivative fighter deal going to be scuttled?

LCAAS:

Some are claiming the LCAAS 'disposable' UCAV will be stealthy.

RQ-170:

Some beautiful pictures of the RQ-170 were taken at Vandenberg a while back.

B-21:

McCain is pushing on the USAF to reduce the level of secrecy of the B-21 program.

B-2:

Orbital ATK won a contract for composite structures for the B-2.

B-2 bombers have deployed to Britain.

F-117:

Iraq's brushes with the F-117.

F-22:

More on the modified airliner that acts as an avionics testbed for the F-22.

F-35:

Canada will fork out another $30 million to stay part of the F-35 team despite not planning (currently) to buy any.

Japan has its first two F-35 pilots.

Japan has rolled out its first locally assembled F-35.  You can watch the roll out here.

The first Japanese assembled F-35 had its first flight.  You can see that here and its landing here.

Spain is considering replacing its AV-8Bs and F/A-18s with F-35s.

A proposed upgrade to the F-35's engine may improve fuel use and increase power.

How the F-35 fared at the Red Flag exercise and what it may portend.

Elbit of America won cockpit related work for the F-35.

Lockheed is preparing for the F-35A premier at the Paris Airshow.  The fighter was filmed practicing for its aerobatics at the show.

USAF F-35As at Luke AFB have stopped flying due to hypoxia problems much like most of the US fighters.  The grounding is indefinite until they find the problem.

Interestingly, the F-35B is NOT having hypoxia problems.

Stealth Saga #49

RQ-170:

Neuron:

The French have completed the first round of naval testing of the Neuron UCAV.

Taranis:

High levels of assurance for the decision making will be necessary for automated capabilities on UCAVs.

FCAS:

At least two variants for the FCAS will be delivered, one to each partner country.

Increasingly, the FCAS is looking to be a stealthy drone.

MQ-25:

Surrogate tests are being run for the MQ-25's refueling pod.

PAK-FA:

India has restarted the negotiations with Russia for the PAK-FA derivative. 

Supposedly, going forward, India and Russia will each invest $4 billion in the FGFA PAK-FA derivative.

J-20:

Two more J-20s have joined the flight line this month.  This appears to be part of the LRIP for the J-20.  Side note is the new J-31 is supposedly bigger.

J-31:

Rumors are the new J-31 prototype is larger than the original.

H-20:

Supposedly, China's stealth bomber, the so-called H-20, is using data stolen from the US B-2 program.

Tornado Replacement:

The stealthy Tornado replacement is likely to be a drone herder.

Sixth Generation Fighters:

Russia claims it is testing 6th generation fighter tech on the PAK-FA.  Supposedly, these components are EW systems.  Or they might be high powered microwave weapons.

Russia also claims its 6th gen fighter will fly at Mach 4 to 5, have an EM gun (railgun), be able to fly to the edge of space and control drone swarms.   THey are missing the critical sparkles and rainbow coming out of the afterburner.

F-22:

The F-22 pilot with the most flight time has taken his last flight.

F-35:

How F-35 pilots clobber their A-4 opponents in wargames.

The F-35 is gaining momentum with buyers, but its dominance is far from certain or even likely.

The US Navy is fully committed to the F-35C.

The F-35C will be aboard the Washington for sea trials next month (August, 2016).

F-35Bs will participate in Red Flag for the first time.

F-35Bs have completed ski jump land trials.

Airbus is being tapped to provide cyber protection tech for the F-35.

Pratt & Whitney discussed the adaptive cycle upgrade for the F-35 engine. 

GE hopes to steal some of that engine production in the future and the USAF is open to the idea.

 Rolls Royce has a piece of the engine action, too.

Lockheed is working to cut costs for the F-35.

There's no system in place to strip Canadian firms of their work share of the F-35, at least not a standard system.

The JPO is at odds with the US Air Force over the ejection seat replacement.

The RAF is hinting it wants a mixed fleet of F-35s (As & Bs).

The Brits & USMC may pool weapons for the F-35B.

Israeli industry is waiting on the MOD to decide on what weapons will be selected for their F-35s.

The F-35 may be deployed to the Middle East, too.

META:

WiB says not to sweat the new Russian radar that can supposedly detect stealth aircraft.

How Stealthy is the US NAvy's new Zumwalt Clas Destroyer?

The future USS Zumwalt is so stealthy that it'll go to sea with reflective material that can be hoisted to make it more visible to other ships.

The Navy destroyer is designed to look like a much smaller vessel on radar, and it lived up to its billing during recent builder trials.

Lawrence Pye, a lobsterman, told The Associated Press that on his radar screen the 610-foot ship looked like a 40- to 50-foot fishing boat. He watched as the behemoth came within a half-mile while returning to shipbuilder Bath Iron Works.

"It's pretty mammoth when it's that close to you," Pye said.

Despite its size, the warship is 50 times harder to detect than current destroyers thanks to its angular shape and other design features, and its stealth could improve even more once testing equipment is removed, said Capt. James Downey, program manager.

During sea trials last month, the Navy tested Zumwalt's radar signature with and without reflective material hoisted on its halyard, he said. The goal was to get a better idea of exactly how stealthy the ship really is, Downey said from Washington, D.C.

The reflectors, which look like metal cylinders, have been used on other warships and will be standard issue on the Zumwalt and two sister ships for times when stealth becomes a liability and they want to be visible on radar, like times of fog or heavy ship traffic, he said.

The possibility of a collision is remote. The Zumwalt has sophisticated radar to detect vessels from miles away, allowing plenty of time for evasive action.

But there is a concern that civilian mariners might not see it during bad weather or at night, and the reflective material could save them from being startled.

The destroyer is unlike anything ever built for the Navy.

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Mini Stealth Saga: More X-2 Taxi Tests

Stealth Saga #33: Meet the B-21

B-21/Long Range Strike Bomber:

Meet the B-21.  This is the first official rendering of the new bomber.  No word when they will release other images or unveil a prototype.  IMO, they really ought to have named it the B-3. The obsession with the '21st century' is sooooo 90s.  ;)

Senator McCain is very unhappy with the prospect of the first LRSB contract being a cost plus contract rather than a fixed price. Note: the production contact is a fixed price, but the development contract is cost plus.

At the unveiling, the air force replied to McCain as well.

In general, despite McCain's anger, Congress is supportive of the nuclear triad revamp.  Maybe, just maybe, we have something so important they'll stop being stupid. The B-21 is amongst those programs.

Here's some more background info on contracting something like the B-21.

It also seems the air force brass is stating one of the older bomber types will have to be retired (B-1 or B-52) when the LRS-B comes online.

Minor Update:  The Air Force brass will be asking to raise the number of bombers planned from 100 to 175, maybe, 200.

Minor Update: Boeing and Lockheed have signaled they will not be suing (and again) over the B-21 contract.

VTOL Stealth Drone:

DARPA is looking at funding a VTOL X Plane.  Some sources are stating this is the second coming of VARIOUS.

Sixth Generation Fighter:

The US Air Force is looking at new missiles for the 6th gen, including SACM.

F-35:

General Bogdan has stated it is possible for Australia to do a block buy of the F-35 before the US does.  The US cannot do a block buy until at least LRIP 13's batch.  The international partners have six months to decide on whether or not to do a block buy for them.

However, Australia is now considering other platforms than the F-35 (paywall) for the 2030s time frame for its strike capabilities.

The Dutch F-35s will be flying to the Netherlands soon.

PAK-FA:

More sources have started calling the PAK-FA a '5th gen fighter in name only.'

ATD-X/X-2:

The X-2 gets a quick profiling ahead of its maiden flight.

Chinese 5th Gen VSTOL:

The J-18 VSTOL fighter, the equivalent of the F-35B, is something of a will o'wisp.  Reported here.  Reported there.  Rumored periodically.  Never with any real substance.  However, it is clear the Chinese want one, whether or not they have even a prototype now.

Has UC San Diego Discovered how to do Optical Stealth With Metamaterials?

Cloaking devices — or “metamaterials” that scatter light — have been in university labs for years. But electrical engineers at U.C. San Diego claim they’ve solved a few key problems that make existing cloaks too obvious to the human eye.

First, let’s back up a moment. For the most part, metamaterials in cloaking devices are really thick and bulky. Far too bulky to be practical. The second problem is that the cloaks scatter light at lower intensities than when the light first touches the cloak — and all that low-intensity light is still within visual frequencies.

This means we perceive the area around those cloaks to be darker than its surroundings. It’s a dead giveaway.

But the U.C. San Diego engineers claim they’ve corrected those two issues in a recent paper. A very thin sheet of Teflon peppered with tiny dielectric cylinders can scatter light while being “almost lossless,” they claim, meaning there’s little to no difference in the intensity of light around the cloak.

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paper link.

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Invisibility (or Rather Stealth) Without Metameterials or Radar Absorbing Materials Discovered

hysicists from ITMO University, Ioffe Institute and Australian National University managed to make homogenous cylindrical objects completely invisible in the microwave range. Contrary to the now prevailing notion of invisibility that relies on metamaterial coatings, the scientists achieved the result using a homogenous object without any additional coating layers. The method is based on a new understanding of electromagnetic wave scattering. The results of the study were published in Scientific Reports.

The scientists studied light scattering from a glass cylinder filled with water. In essence, such an experiment represents a two-dimensional analog of a classical problem of scattering from a homogeneous sphere (Mie scattering), the solution to which is known for almost a century. However, this classical problem contains unusual physics that manifests itself when materials with high values of refractive index are involved. In the study, the scientists used ordinary water whose refractive index can be regulated by changing temperature.

As it turned out, high refractive index is associated with two scattering mechanisms: resonant scattering, which is related to the localization of light inside the cylinder, and non-resonant, which is characterized by smooth dependence on the wave frequency. The interaction between these mechanisms is referred to as Fano resonances. The researchers discovered that at certain frequencies waves scattered via resonant and non-resonant mechanisms have opposite phases and are mutually destroyed, thus making the object invisible.

The work led to the first experimental observation of an invisible homogeneous object by means of scattering cancellation. Importantly, the developed technique made it possible to switch from visibility to invisibility regimes at the same frequency of 1.9 GHz by simply changing the temperature of the water in the cylinder from 90 °C to 50 °C.

"Our theoretical calculations were successfully tested in microwave experiments. What matters is that the invisibility idea we implemented in our work can be applied to other electromagnetic wave ranges, including to the visible range. Materials with corresponding refractive index are either long known or can be developed at will," said Mikhail Rybin, first author of the paper and senior researcher at the Metamaterials Laboratory in ITMO University.

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Korean Air, Airbus Sign Korean KF-X 5th Generation Fighter Joint Bid Agreement

Korean Air and European aerospace giant Airbus have signed an agreement to jointly bid for an $8 billion jet fighter project, an airline spokesman said Sunday, pitting them against a team comprised of Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries.

The project is designed to develop and produce 120 fighter jets of a new "indigenous" type to replace the country's aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s.

"We've signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus," a Korean Air spokesman told AFP.

One of the conditions of the bid is that local enterprises tie up with foreign companies to secure technological assistance, according to Seoul's Yonhap news agency.

The pair will compete with Korea Aerospace Industries, which has teamed up with America's Lockheed Martin.

South Korea's Defence Acquisition Program Administration plans to announce the final winner in July.

The Korean Air/Airbus alliance would have to present a totally new design as the Eurofighter Typhoon's delta wings do not fit South Korea's specifications, an analyst said.

"Eurofighter does not fit the swept-wing concept favored by South Korea," Lee Il-Woo of Korea Defence Network told AFP.

Korean Air currently operates aircraft maintenance workshops for both the South Korean and US air force and has many years of experience in manufacturing wings for Boeing.

"Korean Air would play a role as a manufacturer with technological assistance from Airbus", Lee said.

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Stealth, Hypersonics and Prototyping! Oh My! A Glimpse at the Thoughts Behind USAF 6th Generation Fighter Development

The U.S. Air Force is launching a new air-supremacy effort designed to identify and develop next-generation technologies to maintain America’s air dominance through 2030 at the same time the future of stealth is being questioned.

The service has stood up teams to experiment and conduct technology demonstrations to identify innovations that will guide the service and its platforms into future in which the Air Force expects to face more threats from advanced militaries like China or North Korea, Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, military deputy for Air Force acquisition, told Military​.com.

“We are going to be facing adversaries that are as modern as we are if not more so. This provides us the opportunity to leverage the entire world market of technology development through our collaborative activity with our allies,” she said.

The effort, which includes work with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Pentagon’s research arm, DARPA, is looking at a wide range of future applications including hypersonics, stealth, advanced sensors, cyber technologies, drones, space systems and directed energy weapons, Pawlikowski said.

“We’re taking a more enterprising look at understanding and exploring the capabilities we are going to need in the future,” she said. “It is not just looking at a next-generation fighter but looking at these issues in the context of leveraging all of the capabilities that can accomplish that.”

Overall, the new Air Force initiative plans to use a lot of modeling and simulations to assess and verify the validity of new or emerging technologies, Pawlikowski said.

When it comes to hypersonic flight, Pawlikowski emphasized that the service will not only explore hypersonic weapons but also hypersonic aircraft designed to carry and deliver the weapons.

In addition, Pawlikowski said the effort will look to defeat the rapidly improving air defense systems. Many experts and analysts have made the point that stealth or low-observable technologies are less effective as faster computers processors, sensors and radar can jump between multiple frequencies and help locate stealth aircraft at increasingly longer distances.

Pawlikowski said stealth technologies will continue to evolve as a way to meet these emerging threats from more advanced air-defense systems. She did not specifically reference the Air Force’s new Long Rang Strike Bomber, or LRS-B, slated to enter service in the 2020’s – but she did say stealth applications are evolving far beyond their original or initial configurations.

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Lockheed: Stealth ABSOLUTELY Necessary for 6th Generation Fighter

Stealth – the technology that masks aircraft and ships from enemy radars – needs to be an integral part of the next generation of U.S. fighter aircraft, the head of Lockheed Martin’s secretive Skunk Works division told reporters on Wednesday.

The Navy and the Air Force both are conducting early developmental work into each service’s next fighters past their latest crop – the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and the F-22 Raptor. Those new fighters – Navy’s F/A-XX and the Air Force’s F-X – will need stealth, Rob Weiss said during the Lockheed Martin Media Day.

“Stealth is and will remain foundational to any new airplane design and I will assert that based on the threat analysis we’ve done the technology assessments that we’re making,” he said.
“Anybody who would suggest that stealth is past its value really isn’t just looking at the data.”

Weiss was responding to a reporter’s questions on comments made by Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Adm. Jonathan Greenert who called into question the efficacy of stealth for fighters operating in contested environments.

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US Air Force's new Long-Range Standoff (Hypersonic? Stealthy?) Cruise Missile Moves Ahead

Maintaining the shroud of secrecy surrounding the US Air Force's (USAF's) new Long-Range Strike Bomber (LRS-B), the general in charge of the USAF's nuclear forces would only tell reporters that advances in air defence technology drove the development of the Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) cruise missile being designed to arm the US bomber fleet.

"As we look around the world, air defences are getting more and more sophisticated as technology improves," said Lieutenant General Stephen Wilson. "We'll need a missile that can penetrate more sophisticated air defences."

He added that a conventional variant of the LRSO would be built after a nuclear-tipped missile is first developed.

The general said the USAF has completed its analysis of alternatives (AoA) and is now waiting on senior Pentagon leadership to allow the acquisition effort to proceed.

"We've finished the analysis of alternatives except for the Office of the Secretary of Defense coming forward, but we are proceeding on track," he said. "We're proceeding with an LRSO, working on the phasing and the timing and the funding for that going forward."

The USAF studied "a variety of options - different capabilities, different speeds, lots of different options", he added. "We narrowed our focus to what we currently have. Beyond that, I can't get into specifics."

In December 2012, the Pentagon announced plans to issue separate contracts to Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman for the technology development (TD) phase of the LRSO programme. A request for information released just ahead of that announcement contained no details about whether the USAF was seeking a subsonic, a supersonic, or even a hypersonic weapon.

Only a small amount of information about what the USAF is seeking in an LRSO missile is in the public domain.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee in 2012, Lt Gen Wilson's predecessor described the LRSO as a stealth cruise missile. He was earlier on the record as saying that the weapon's range would be longer than the 500 n mile (c.900 km) range of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile Extended-Range (JASSM-ER) and "closer to the current air-launched cruise missile [ALCM] range". The maximum range of the legacy nuclear-armed AGM-86B ALCM is 2,500 km. The maximum range of the conventionally armed AGM-86C and D models is 1,200 km.

The warhead for the nuclear-tipped LRSO is also unknown.

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Despite Reports, Significant Disputes Remain Between Russia & India Over FGFA Stealth Fighter

India and Russia agreed on 21 January to expedite their joint military programmes, particularly the delayed Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) project.

"We discussed all issues, including the FGFA, and have decided to fast-track many of them as there are apprehensions about the slow pace in their execution," Indian defence minister Manohar Parrikar said in New Delhi.

Speaking after jointly chairing the Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation (IGC-MTC) with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu, Parrikar said the two sides would hold regular "interactions" to maintain project deadlines.

Official sources told IHS Jane's that differences persisted on the FGFA's preliminary design features despite a 10 January Russian media report claiming that the two sides had managed to resolve them following a four-year delay.

Quoting FGFA project director Andrev Marshankin, the Sputnik news agency had reported agreement between Indian and Russian officials on the specifications of the 30-tonne fighter, which is based on the Sukhoi T-50 PAK-FA. Enduring Indian reservations over the FGFA programme include those over the fighter's AL-41F1 engine and its stealth and weapon-carrying capability.

India is also insistent on Russia restoring its workload in the USD10.5 billion developmental programme after recently reducing it from 25% to 13% without consulting Delhi. It is also seeking greater access to the fighter's design configuration, which it claims it is denied.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) plans on acquiring around 130 FGFA, down from an earlier projected requirement of around 220.

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Serbian Downed F-117 Sparked Russian Stealth Technology Revolution

In August 2001, nobody was quite sure what had happened to the wreckage of a Lockheed Martin F-117A stealth fighter that had been shot down over Serbia in March 1999. Aviation Week editors Dave Fulghum and Robert Wall, in Moscow for the MAKS air show, managed to secure an interview with a Russian general in charge of air defense programs. In the course of the interview, using what some would call low cunning and I would call tradecraft, they asked what the Russians had learned from examining the F-117's remains - and the officer told them, in detail.

It was the basis for a groundbreaking story about Russian stealth and counterstealth technology that ran in the October 8, 2001, issue. AW&ST discussed the development of anti-stealth radars: the early Nebo VHF radar at MAKS in 2001 was the ancestor of the huge active electronically scanned array that was shown in 2013. Stealth modifications to tactical aircraft were confirmed a couple of years later when engineers from Moscow's Institute for Theoretical and Applied Electromagnetics spoke at a London conference about radar cross section (RCS) reduction work on the Sukhoi Su-27 family.

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China Cyber Spies Stole Vast Amounts of Data on F-35, Including Critical Engine and Radar Designs

Chinese spies stole key design information about Australia's new Joint Strike Fighter, according to top secret documents disclosed by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

German magazine Der Spiegel has published new disclosures of signals intelligence collected by the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and its "Five Eyes" partners, including the Australian Signals Directorate. The intelligence reveals new details of the directorate's efforts to track and combat Chinese cyber-espionage.

According to a top secret NSA presentation, Chinese cyber spies have stolen huge volumes of sensitive military information, including "many terabytes of data" relating to the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) - also known as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

The leaked document shows that stolen design information included details of the JSF's radar systems which are used to identify and track targets; detailed engine schematics; methods for cooling exhaust gases; and "aft deck heating contour maps".

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China Claims new JY-26 Phased Array RADAR has Tracked F-22

China has unveiled a new counter stealth radar that can detect and track stealth aircraft like America's famed F-22 Raptor fighter jet.

The new phased array named JY-26 was showcased at the 10th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai that concluded Sunday, along with four other Chinese radar systems: the YLC-20, the YLC-2V, the YLC-8B and the JY-27A.

Designed to detect fifth-generation stealth fighters, the JY-26 phased array radar is capable of high accuracy, target tracking, and separation, and can operate up to a range of 500 kilometers, according to the manufacturer.

Chinese media reported recently that the JY-26 radar had spotted an F-22 Raptor stealth fighter -- the United States' most advanced stealth fighter -- when it flew over South Korea during a recent military exercise.

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Photos of the J-31 Chinese Stealth Fighter

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Korea's KFX Program Greatly Benefits From F-35 Purchase

In return for obtaining 40 Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, South Korea will receive technologies related to its long-planned KFX indigenous fighter programme.

Following Lockheed’s announcement on 24 September that Seoul was on the verge of signing an order for 40 F-35s, state news agencyYonhapquoted a spokesman from South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) as saying that the F-35 technologies will play a key role in KFX.

Under the F-35 deal – which will cover deliveries to run between 2018 and 2021 – Lockheed will transfer key fighter technologies from “17 sectors”, he says.

The DAPA spokesman adds that Seoul will build 120 KFX aircraft for deployment from 2025. South Korean officials indicate the fighter will be a twin-engined design that is more capable than advanced versions of the Lockheed F-16, but less capable than leading Western fighters such as the F-35.

Technology transfer was a major consideration in Seoul’s pursuit of a replacement for its McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms and Northrop F-5s under its F-X III requirement, which was ultimately won by the F-35.

Industry sources say Lockheed, Boeing and Eurofighter all offered attractive technology transfer packages during the contest. Boeing offered an upgraded version of its F-15E, dubbed the Silent Eagle, while Eurofighter offered the Typhoon.

At last year’s Seoul lnternational Aerospace & Defense Exhibition, Korea Aerospace Industries, which will likely build the new jet, displayed two models of the KFX, both of which bore low-observable characteristics reminiscent of the F-35.

The aircraft will be developed with help from Indonesia, which is a 20% partner in the programme.

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Japan Unveils Stealth Fighter Testbed

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Chinese Radar be Able to "See" F-35 Stealth Technology

Increasingly sophisticated radar in China and Russia may soon be able to pierce the stealth armor on F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, according to a news report.

The stealth coating on the U.S.-made fifth-generation fighters shields the aircraft from high-frequency radars operating in the Ku, X and C bands and some of the S band, but not from low-frequency systems utilizing L, UHF and VHF wavelengths, according to an article by Dave Majumdar at USNI News.

China and Russia are now developing low-frequency radars with more computing power designed to track stealth aircraft with more precision — enough to target with a missile, according to the report, citing an unnamed former senior U.S. Navy official.

“Acquisition and fire control radars are starting to creep down the frequency spectrum,” the official told USNI News. “I don’t see how you long survive in the world of 2020 or 2030 when dealing with these systems if you don’t have the lower frequency coverage.”

To be sure, the Defense Department is aware of the increasing sophistication of enemy air defenses, known in military parlance as anti-access, area-denial, or A2-AD, environments.

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Fourth J-20 Chinese Stealth Fighter Prototype Flew on July 26th

The fourth known prototype of the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) J-20 fifth-generation fighter made its first flight on the morning of 26 July, according to Chinese aviation websites.

According to online postings by local spotters, the prototype flew for nearly two hours after having undertaken taxi tests since early July. The first hints on military web forums of a fourth J-20 prototype with the tail number '2012' emerged in late June, with clear photos emerging by mid-July.

Images show that '2012' features the refinements first seen in the third prototype, '2011'. These include an undernose faceted shape to hold a future electro-optical targeting system, adjusted air intakes to aid engine air flow and clipped tips on the vertical stabilizers.

The new J-20 prototype does not give any outward indication that CAC has installed an indigenous turbofan engine, despite much online speculation. The status of the J-20's intended WS-15 turbofan is not clear, and it is possible that initially deployed J-20s may use a Russian-made turbofan, perhaps an upgraded version of the Saturn AL-31 or the newer AL-117S.

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