Key Points and Summary: China’s JH-XX stealth aircraft, rumored to be a next-generation strategic bomber, conducted its first flight in December 2024.
-This mysterious aircraft, featuring a double-delta wing and three engines, appears designed for long-range missions with a large internal weapons bay.
-Unlike tactical fighters, the JH-XX suggests a strategic role, possibly complementing the PLA’s growing airpower.
-However, China’s lack of foreign sales for its stealth aircraft raises questions about sustainability.
-Is the JH-XX a serious threat to U.S. air dominance, or another showpiece for Beijing’s military ambitions? Only time will tell.
JH-XX: China’s Mysterious Stealth Bomber Breaks Cover
Consider this hypothetical conversation: One long-time observer of advanced combat aircraft developments at the Chengdu Aerospace Corporation (CAC) asks another, “How do you know the People’s Republic China (PRC) is ready to reveal their next advanced aircraft to the world.”
Answer: “The first photos and videos always appear close to Chinese New Year – posted online by people allegedly standing around the aerodrome at the adjacent Aircraft Plant No.132. The photos always appear to be furtively taken in the winter months from behind trees with no leaves on them.”
The latest secret aircraft project from CAC, located outside the capital of the southwestern Sichuan province, has followed this standard scripted sequence of events that the PRC security services have followed for years.
First, the biennial Air Show China takes place in November every even-numbered year in Zhuhai. No one says anything concrete about any new combat aircraft – only rumors are heard. Within some weeks, one starts to see the aforementioned stage-managed photos.
The photos are mysteriously allowed to remain posted on various Chinese aviation sites.
This is despite an increasingly repressive security apparatus that typically scrubs them from the internet within five minutes.
Performance Art for China
This was the same performance art routine followed when another Chengdu aircraft, the J-20, was revealed in January 2011.
It was around two months after the Zhuhai expo, the company needed a “gift” that it could present to its People’s Liberation Army AF (PLAAF) customer that would several steps above the normal “hung bao” or the red envelopes filled with bank notes that are traditionally handed to those one wants to impress or ingratiate during Chinese New Year. It makes the flight of a new aircraft the ultimate fireworks display.
The 2011 first flight had the bonus for the PLA of embarrassing the visiting US Defense Secretary, Dr. Robert Gates, as well as the then-Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao, who had enjoyed perhaps the least collegial relationship with the PLA of any other party leader to date.
J-36 from China. Image Credit: X Screenshot.
So, when on 26 December 2024 – almost 14 years later – and from the same aerodrome – the “JH-XX” makes its “official” first flight everything is going according to the established routine.
The Chinese also could – as one colleague puts it – “could never be arrested for gambling.” All the available evidence is that the aircraft had other unrecorded and unpublicized flights and other tests before this late December event, which also happens to be PRC founder Mao Zedong’s birthday.
The earlier flights ensured that the aircraft worked and has no significant defects before the “official” flight that shows it to the world is relatively risk-free.
There has been very little, if any official, commentary on the aircraft since. It appears to be one of numerous sea and air platforms that are part and parcel of a PLA plan for future warfare.
There are numerous Chinese military academic writings that discuss their concepts for next-generation aircraft and other weapon systems, but nothing concrete related to this aircraft, which has people asking just what its ultimate function is.
JH-XX: The Mystery Bomber?
JH-XX/J-36 may be one of the platforms that are key to these concepts. But for now, determining its exact mission profile is like scrutinizing a puzzle and describing what the final picture is supposed to look like when two-thirds of the pieces are still missing.
Since there has been almost no official confirmation or recognition of this flight it also remains an unknown as to what the JH-XX’s real designation is.
JH-XX Stealth Bomber Artist Rendering. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
The label “J-36” has been used, as well as “J-XD.” One indicator is that the serial number seen on the aircraft was “36011.”
The examples from previous programs at Chengdu’s main rival, Shenyang, offer a clue in that the first prototypes for the FC-31, and then its second-iteration, J-35 were assigned serial numbers “31001” and “35001” respectively.
The numbers were interpreted at the time that the “001” indicated there were the first models of the “FC-31” and “J-35” series, which turned out to be the correct assumption.
Design and Function
The aircraft’s double-delta planform, its lack of vertical control surfaces, its size and numerous other features suggest that this is a strategic platform and not a tactical aircraft.
The cockpit appears to be a two-man arrangement, and the fuselage size would be consistent with an aircraft with a large fuel fraction for long missions that do not require multiple refuelings and still have adequate room for a large internal weapons bay.
The aircraft is also powered by three engines, the designation(s) of which are also unknown. The size of the plane and the mission profile suggest that they would be in the class of the J-20’s WS-15 Emei, or a later, developed model of the WS-10 series that powers many of the copies of Russian Sukhoi-design aircraft in PLA service.
The unconventional three engines and other aerodynamic characteristics suggest an aircraft that would have an extremely complicated flight control system. It would also sport a very high cost-per-flight hour expense. It could only be operated by a nation like the PRC that has the resources to support a large strategic bomber fleet and multiple aircraft carriers.
This runs against one of the overall ambitions articulated by PLA officials and the primary defense industry leaders: to up China’s game in the export market.
So far, no PRC-made combat aircraft have succeeded in foreign sales.
Therefore, the question remains whether the PRC can maintain an industry that churns out one new-age weapons system after another without any foreign customers to help defray the increasing costs of maintaining that industrial base.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
