Shenyang J-XX

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According to the reports of the Jane's Defence Weekly, China has already launched its next generation stealth aircraft fighter programme, and Shenyang Aircraft Industry Co. (SAC) has been selected to head research and development of a new fighter for the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).

[edit] Development

According to the report from Jane's, development of the subsystems including the engine and weapon suite for the next generation fighter, codenamed J-XX by Western intelligence, has been underway for some time. Concept images show a twin-engine aircraft with canard wings and sharing some design traits with Lockheed Martin's stealth F-22 Raptor, such as the internal carriage of its weapons. However, little public information is available.

As China has developed close ties with Russia's aerospace industry and has license-produced many planes of Soviet design, the J-XX may use Russian designs and/or technology. China was offered joint development and production of a new fifth-generation fighter by Russia. Stealth and thrust vectoring are two highly desirable features in fighter aircraft being designed in the 21st century. It is not clear how much progress Chinese designers have made in these areas, but an all-aspect thrust vectoring engine was demonstrated in 1998 at the Zhuhai Air Show.

In service the J-XX may be known as the J-12 or J-14. There is also some speculation of the J-XX actually being two projects, the advanced J-14 stealth, much like the F-22 Raptor, and the J-12, similar to a smooth, two-engined J-10.