{ "archive_path": "archive/1790330666.916987", "base_url": "www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design", "basename": "chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design", "bookmarked_date": "2026-09-25 10:04", "canonical": { "archive_org_path": "https://web.archive.org/web/www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design", "dom_path": "output.html", "favicon_path": "favicon.ico", "git_path": "git/", "google_favicon_path": "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.twz.com", "headers_path": "headers.json", "htmltotext_path": "htmltotext.txt", "index_path": "index.html", "media_path": "media/", "mercury_path": "mercury/content.html", "pdf_path": "output.pdf", "readability_path": "readability/content.html", "screenshot_path": "screenshot.png", "singlefile_path": "singlefile.html", "warc_path": "warc/", "wget_path": "www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design.html" }, "domain": "www.twz.com", "extension": "", "hash": "1AAYJ5K834MWM2F1JKQS", "history": { "archive_org": [], "dom": [], "favicon": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--output", "favicon.ico", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.google.com/s2/favicons?domain=www.twz.com" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:15.622900+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "favicon.ico", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790330666.916987", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:14.989066+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "git": [], "headers": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--head", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:15.864682+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "headers.json", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790330666.916987", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:15.631219+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "htmltotext": [], "media": [], "mercury": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js", "https://www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design" ], "cmd_version": "1.0.0", "end_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:51.682662+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "mercury", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790330666.916987", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:47.575746+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "pdf": [], "readability": [ { "cmd": [ "/app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor", "/tmp/tmp3ac72_tz", "https://www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design" ], "cmd_version": "0.0.11", "end_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:47.560784+00:00", "index_texts": [ "China\u2019s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation continues to press ahead with the development of its \u2018J-36\u2019 next-generation tailless heavy tactical jet. Recent flight testing has offered interesting new views of the still-evolving stealthy design from the top and behind, prompting discussion about the aircraft\u2019s features. There has also been talk recently about whether the jet might receive a laser directed-energy weapon at some point in the future.\n\n\n\nThe J-36 first broke cover, along with another next-generation tailless tactical jet design generally referred to as the J-XDS, back in December of 2024. There are understood to be at least four, and possibly five, J-36 prototypes flying now. A number of significant changes between prototypes have already been observed over the past two years, as you can read more about here.\n\n\n\nThe most recent video of a J-36 test flight, seen in the social media post below, began circulating online yesterday. The footage shows the aircraft coming in to land, providing good general views of the uniquely three-engined jet with its two-seat, side-by-side cockpit configuration, especially from the rear aspect. What is seen underscores a previously observed total revision of the exhausts from a trough style to a two-dimensional thrust-vectoring configuration akin to what is found on the U.S. F-22 Raptor. This and other significant changes to the design, including the addition of divertless supersonic intakes (DSIs) all around, not just on top, first emerged last year. The clip also offers a good reminder of just how wide the aircraft is overall.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nObviously one of the best video recordings of the J-36 so far seen during landing approach \u2026 But can anyone read the number under the cockpit? \ud83d\ude09 https://t.co/cmQ0AkdsdO\u2014 @Rupprecht_A (@RupprechtDeino) September 22, 2026\n\n\n\n\n\nAs this particular J-36 passes by, it can be seen to have a lighter-colored radome, as well as at least one relatively large lighter-colored section on top of the dorsal air intake. A similarly colored radome was first spotted on what is said to be the fourth prototype back in July. This coloring could point to the installation of actual radar in the aircraft\u2019s nose. In TWZ\u2018s first in-depth analysis of the J-36 back in 2024, we assessed that the jet\u2019s very broad radome area could house an absolutely massive primary array. \n\n\n\nThe lighter section on top of the fuselage could be an aperture for a conformal antenna tied to a beyond-line-of-sight communications and data-sharing suite. In 2024, we posited that the heavyweight J-36 could serve as an intelligence-gathering and communications relay platform in addition to performing tasks more typically associated with tactical combat jets. Reliable and multi-faceted connectivity would be key for employing the J-36 as an airborne controller for advanced air combat drones, as well. \n\n\n\nCaptures from the video above highlighting the lighter-colored radome and section on top of the center of the fuselage. Chinese internet captures via X \n\n\n\nAnother J-36 flight testing video that emerged on Monday, seen below, offers an additional view of the top of the jet, showing multiple lighter-colored sections that would appear to be additional conformal apertures for various antennas. There is a lighter-colored rectangular outline painted around part of the intake on top of the center of the fuselage, as well. The jet\u2019s full paint scheme includes lighter-colored leading and trailing edges, which are critical structures on low-observable (stealthy) designs that often contain additional antenna arrays. Overall, the two-tone coloring is very much in line with what is seen on operational J-20 fighters in Chinese service today. The original J-36 prototype, at least, has notably worn a splinter-type camouflage paint scheme.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nChina's J-36 sixth-gen fighter asserting its dominance in the sky.My prediction, the J-36 will gain initial operational capability before the American F-47 take its maiden flight. pic.twitter.com/SLmjqZ76Aw\u2014 Zhao DaShuai \u4e1c\u5317\u8fdb\u4fee\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddf3 (@zhao_dashuai) September 21, 2026\n\n\n\n\n\nA stock shot of a J-20 fighter with its two-tone scheme. PLAAF \n\n\n\nA view of the first J-36 prototype with its splinter-type camouflage scheme. Chinese internet via X \n\n\n\nWhether or not the two recent video clips show the same J-36 prototype is unclear. The possibility has now been raised that Chengdu may be using a single serial number (36011) on at least some of the J-36 prototypes, a decision that could have been made for counter-intelligence and/or deliberate misinformation/disinformation purposes.\n\n\n\nMuch still remains unknown about the current or expected future capabilities of the J-36. Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) did have a placard at its booth at the 14th China International Defence Electronics Exhibition earlier this month that has prompted questions about whether the jet could be equipped with a laser directed-energy weapon. Chengdu falls under the umbrella of AVIC, which is a state-run enterprise. The Chinese-language placard in question describes a \u201claser weapon tracking system\u201d with a power rating of \u201c*00\u201d kilowatts and a weight of \u201cless than\u201d 837.7 pounds (380 kilograms), per a machine translation. The way the power rating is written appears to mean that it is in the hundreds of kilowatts, which would put it firmly in a class capable of doing physical damage to objects, such as incoming missiles and drones.\n\n\n\nFurthermore, an associated graphic shows a turreted system and a computer-generated rendering of a J-36 projecting a beam. The render appears to be from a video that depicts a J-36 using a laser to destroy other aircraft. Another computer-generated video that shows a J-36 using retractable lasers to shoot down incoming missiles has been circulating online since at least last year. \n\n\n\nAVIC showed this at the 14th China International Defence Electronics Exhibition earlier this month. Chinese internet via X \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIt is not immediately clear how official either of the clips depicting laser-armed J-36s might be, or whether they at all reflect real planned capabilities. The full placard presented at the China International Defence Electronics Exhibition, as seen in the video below, shows a variety of different laser systems, and not just for aerial applications.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe fielding of operational laser directed-energy weapons capable of inflicting any real physical damage has historically proven to be very challenging, and even more so within the size, power-generation, and cooling constraints presented by modern combat jets. As an example, the U.S. Air Force spent roughly a decade working on a podded laser weapon system that tactical jets could use to swat down incoming missiles under its Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD) program. In 2024, the service confirmed SHiELD had \u201cconcluded\u201d without achieving its goal of an actual flight test. That same year, the Air Force cancelled plans to test a laser weapon system on an AC-130 gunship.\n\n\n\nDespite important U.S. strides more recently when it comes to fielding ground-based and naval laser weapon systems, \u201cthere\u2019s nothing that\u2019s on the shelf right now that we are ready to put onto an airplane,\u201d U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Douglas Wickert, the commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), told TWZ and other outlets just last week at a roundtable at the Air & Space Forces Association\u2019s (AFA) 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Tuesday. \u201cThe solid-state lasers and the power density and the different ways that you actually \u2013 there\u2019s actually a lot of secret sauce in that. How do you make the beam, and how do you form the beam, and how do you pulse the beam, and all that\u2019s in development.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u2018There\u2019s development of the laser itself, but now the power and thermal management system has progressed so much that we can provide the power needed,\u201d Dr. Michael Gregg, head of AFRL\u2019s Air Warfare Directorate, said at the same roundtable. \u201cWe\u2019ve also had new designs and engines that we know have the power \u2026 to direct that power in certain areas. So, from a system perspective, it\u2019s much more feasible because everything has matured over the last decade.\u201d\n\n\n\nA rendering of a US Air Force F-16 fighter with a podded laser directed-energy weapon. Lockheed Martin A rendering of a US Air Force F-16C Viper fighter with a podded laser directed energy weapon. Lockheed Martin\n\n\n\nChina has certainly made substantial investments of its own in laser and other directed-energy weapon capabilities across domains in recent years, and this is clearly an area of interest for the People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA), in general. When it comes to the J-36 specifically, TWZ has explicitly highlighted in the past how the three-engine configuration could be particularly useful for producing sufficient power to support a host of advanced and electricity-hungry sensors and other capabilities, including directed energy weapons.\n\n\n\nLarger questions remain about the exact set of roles the J-36 is expected to fill, as well. The basic design is certainly optimized for straight-line performance, combat radius, and payload rather than maneuverability and agility. The jet has already caused a significant amount of debate just when it comes to taxonomy, as it does not seem to fit inside traditional definitions of \u2018fighters\u2019 and \u2018bombers,\u2019 something we have explored in detail previously.\n\n\n\nA composite of other views of the J-36 that have emerged since 2024. Chinese Internet via X \n\n\n\n\u201cAccording to Yang Wei \u2013 chief designer of the J-20 \u2013, the new [J-36] fighter can penetrate heavily defended airspace that the J-20 and comparable F-22s or F-35s must avoid, placing it a generation ahead,\u201d Andreas Rupprecht, an analyst specializing in Chinese military aviation and TWZ contributor, wrote in a post on LinkedIn last week. \u201cWith lower RCS [radar cross section], high speed, and the capacity to control more drones, it could act as a node and command center for systems including J-20s and, especially, unmanned aircraft, while attacking high-value targets from stand-off range with long-range weapons.\u201d\n\n\n\n\u201cThe type could therefore represent a new class of \u2018fighter,'\u201d he added. \u201cOnline terms include \u2018theater-level deep-penetration command combat aircraft\u2019 and \u2018high-performance fighter,\u2019 analogous to a cruiser ranking above a destroyer within the Navy. Recent evidence gives this theory new weight and warrants continued monitoring.\u201d\n\n\n\nThe J-36, as well as the J-XDS, reflect a larger burst of next-generation air combat developments in China in recent years. This includes an array of new crewed and uncrewed aircraft designed for operations from bases on land, as well as from the PLA Navy\u2019s (PLAN) growing fleet of aircraft carriers and big-deck amphibious assault ships. The Chinese aviation industry\u2019s development of a growing array of flying-wing uncrewed aircraft,\u00a0some of which are very large, has been particularly notable.\n\n\n\nIn turn, there is something of an emerging gap between these developments and the pace at which the U.S. military is moving along similar lines, at least publicly. Boeing\u2019s sixth-generation F-47 for the U.S. Air Force is not expected to take to the skies for the first time until 2028, though preceding demonstrator designs have been flying for years already. The U.S. Navy still has yet to officially announce a winner of its F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based fighter competition, and the current timeline for that program producing an operational aircraft is unclear. \n\n\n\nA rendering the US Air Force has released of the F-47. USAF \n\n\n\nAs an aside, based on what has emerged publicly to date, there are signs that the F-47 may reflect a distinctly different design philosophy that puts greater emphasis on maneuverability compared to the J-36, and even likely the J-XDS. As mentioned, the J-36 certainly seems much more focused on payload, range, and level flight performance. In July, TWZ published a deep dive exploring why the U.S. Air Force would pursue a sixth-generation fighter with rear-swept wings, canards, and other features despite steady trends in the opposite direction visible in Chinese designs and ones elsewhere globally.\n\n\n\nRegardless, U.S. officials have downplayed questions about China\u2019s gaining ground in the air combat arena, or even surging into the lead in certain areas, in the past. \u201cChinese sixth-generation aircraft are in the nascent stages of development and expected to be operational by 2035,\u201d the Pentagon wrote in its most recent annual report on military and security developments in China, which was published in December 2025.\n\n\n\nIn the meantime, the J-36\u2019s design is already steadily being refined, and the total fleet of prototypes has been growing, offering new insights into the aircraft\u2019s expected capabilities and roles.\n\n\n\nContact the author: joe@twz.com" ], "output": "readability", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790330666.916987", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:44.870211+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "screenshot": [], "singlefile": [], "title": [ { "cmd": [ "curl", "--silent", "--location", "--compressed", "--max-time", "120", "--user-agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) curl/curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "https://www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design" ], "cmd_version": "curl 8.14.1 (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)", "end_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:44.862751+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "China's Recent J-36 Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet Testing Offers New Insights Into Its Evolving Design", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790330666.916987", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:44.811612+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ], "wget": [ { "cmd": [ "wget", "--no-verbose", "--adjust-extension", "--convert-links", "--force-directories", "--span-hosts", "--no-parent", "-e", "robots=off", "--reject=js,mjs,woff,woff2,ttf,otf,eot,mp4,m4v,mov,webm,ogv,mkv,avi,flv", "--timeout=120", "--restrict-file-names=windows", "--page-requisites", "--user-agent=Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/118.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 ArchiveBox/0.7.4 (+https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox/) wget/GNU Wget 1.21.3", "--compression=auto", "--timestamping", "https://www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design" ], "cmd_version": "GNU Wget 1.21.3", "end_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:44.802459+00:00", "index_texts": null, "output": "www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design.html", "pwd": "/data/archive/1790330666.916987", "schema": "ArchiveResult", "start_ts": "2026-09-25T13:33:15.874483+00:00", "status": "succeeded" } ] }, "icons": null, "is_archived": true, "is_static": false, "latest": { "archive_org": null, "dom": null, "favicon": "favicon.ico", "git": null, "media": null, "pdf": null, "screenshot": null, "singlefile": null, "title": "China's Recent J-36 Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet Testing Offers New Insights Into Its Evolving Design", "warc": null, "wget": "www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design.html" }, "link_dir": "/data/archive/1790330666.916987", "newest_archive_date": "2026-09-25T13:33:47.575746+00:00", "num_failures": 0, "num_outputs": 6, "oldest_archive_date": "2026-09-25T13:33:14.989066+00:00", "path": "/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design", "schema": "Link", "scheme": "https", "snapshot_id": "9fbb8f7f-2596-4161-83e6-2c578ec60ed4", "sources": [ "/data/sources/1790330666-import.txt" ], "tags": ",escalation,war-wiki,pool", "tags_str": "escalation,war-wiki,pool", "timestamp": "1790330666.916987", "title": "China's Recent J-36 Heavy Stealth Tactical Jet Testing Offers New Insights Into Its Evolving Design", "updated": "2026-09-25T13:33:14.988909+00:00", "updated_date": "2026-09-25 13:33", "url": "https://www.twz.com/air/chinas-recent-j-36-heavy-stealth-tactical-jet-testing-offers-new-insights-into-its-evolving-design" }