A scale model of what is believed to be the J-31 stealth fighter jet is displayed during the 9th China International Aviation and Aerospace...
Military Superiority: China's new Shenyang J-31 stealth fighter could be the equal of our F-22s and F-35s, U.S. pilots say, and is just one of the weapons that may thwart America's "pivot" to the Pacific.
The J-31, a fifth-generation stealth fighter, will make its official debut at the Zhuhai International Air Show Nov. 11-16 in southern China's Guangdong province. As one U.S. pilot with F-35 experience told USNI News of the J-31 and other new Chinese fighters: "I think they'll eventually be on par with our fifth-gen jets — as they should be, because industrial espionage is alive and well."
According to the USNI report, it's believed the J-31 was developed using the Pentagon's nearly $400 billion Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.
In June 2011, Chinese hackers staged a cyberassault on Lockheed and other defense contractors, one of an ongoing series of attacks seeking to steal U.S. defense technology.
The J-31 is about the same size as the F-35 but appears to have sacrificed some payload capability in favor of improved fuel efficiency and speed.
Like the F-35, the J-31 is designed to fly off the decks of carriers, making these two planes the world's only carrier-based stealth fighters.
The J-31 will join the J-20 stealth fighter in the Chinese air force inventory, another plane based on stolen U.S. technology. In 1999 an American stealth F-117 Nighthawk bomber was shot down in Serbia, and the wreckage reportedly was passed along to the Chinese. A decade later, the J-20 fighter, a spitting image of our F-22 Raptor, took to the air, threatening to alter the balance of power in the western Pacific.
The J-20 took its first test flights in 2011 and is now in its fourth round of prototypes. A report issued by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said that based on available information, the Chinese stealth fighter will be "a high-performance stealth aircraft, arguably capable of competing . . . with the U.S. F-22A Raptor and superior in most, if not all, cardinal performance parameters against the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter."
As Bill Gertz reports in the Washington Free Beacon: "The F-35 data theft was confirmed after recent photographs were published on Chinese websites showing a newer version of the J-20. The new version of the radar-evading aircraft had incorporated several design upgrades since the first demonstrator aircraft was unveiled in 2011."
Into the mix enters the new flagship of the Chinese navy, the newly named aircraft carrier Liaoning.
Source
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/110714-725617-chinese-military-advancement-shift-asian-power-balance.htm
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