What China’s Next Generation Stealth Jet Reveal Really Means
Dec. 26, 2024, was a huge day for the global airpower, military technology, and strategy communities. The emergence of not one, but two Chinese advanced tailless tactical combat aircraft sent shockwaves around the globe and garnered very high interest from the public. You can read our initial coverage and preliminary analysis on the appearance of both those aircraft here and here. So, now that the initial news has passed, and with the information space absolutely saturated with poor takes and outlandish claims, I want to unpack in a very comprehensive manner what we have seen in these two aircraft, their broader implications, and what it all means and doesn’t mean.
First off, there is a lot we do not know about these aircraft. We have the benefit of much better imagery of the larger of the two — the one that garnered the most interest. The other may be more ambiguous due to the lack of good imagery, but its existence is important regardless.
We do not know the exact developmental status and goals of either platform. There is something of a scale here we must take into account, from technology demonstrator — a precursor experimental design that is meant to prove a design concept and important underlying components of it — to a developmental prototype that is meant to lead directly to a refined production aircraft. The latter would be based on a more mature design concept.
