Ever since it was revealed in December 2024, the world’s military aircraft analysts have been trying to discern what possible mission the Chengdu J-36 combat aircraft is designed for. Some speculate the airframe is just a testbed.
According to a recent issue of a Chinese military magazine, Shipborne Weapons, the outsized aircraft was actually built for a specific function.
Not much about the J-36 “fighter aircraft,” as it is usually described, seems to make sense when compared with what we know to date about designing a platform for air combat—to say nothing of the conventional guidelines for cost and producibility that most of the defense industry operates under.
The J-36 is the first aircraft of its kind to have three engines, which goes against most of what the world has seen of fighters in more than 70 years. It is outsized—to the point that one combat aviation analyst will be heard describing it as a “flying gas can.”
In addition to some other anomalies, the aircraft has a much larger than normal wingspan—estimated at up to 20 meters—and a surface area of over 190 m². This makes it a platform unlike any other contemporary Chinese fighter aircraft designs, unlike the other famous Chengdu designs, the J-20 or the Shenyang J-35. The size and configuration also raise whether it can be stealthy enough to be survivable.
J-26 Mission Profile
According to the Chinese magazine, the J-36’s primary role would be in one of several scenarios. The main one would be the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) attempting to invade the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan.
The Air Force arm of Beijing’s armed forces, the PLAAF, foresees using this 6th-generation fighter (as described) as creating what Chinese aerospace industry leaders have talked about for many years but have never been able to create: a “Great Wall in the Sky.”
Specifically, according to the Chinese publication, the J-36 “Great Wall” would block off the airspace “to foreign bases in Guam for up to two hours from 1,000km away,” according to a mainland Chinese military magazine. The objective is that American air power would be unable to intervene on behalf of the ROC during the critical first days—if not hours—of an attack by Beijing.
The same Chinese writers state that the primary goal of the J-36’s design was to have a platform that could hold back the US B-21 Raider stealth bomber while Washington’s military forces attempted to defend the islands in that chain, which includes the ROC.
“This will make it difficult for the US Navy and Air Force to maintain air superiority over the western Pacific and to intervene militarily in a series of operations by the Chinese military within the first island chain,” the analysis in the magazine’s March edition said.
Is This a Real Strategy for J-36?
However, there are skeptics about the viability of this approach on two counts, which 19FortyFive discovered when we spoke to former intelligence officials knowledgeable of PLA’s likely moves and how the US would likely react.
According to an article in Shipborne Weapons, a publication owned by China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, when the sixth-generation fighter is in service, the PLA will be able to intercept US warplanes trying to penetrate that same first island chain. The article claims it would also be possible to conduct airspace blockades lasting one to two hours and suppress the air defenses of bases in Guam from a distance.
The same article said the PLAAF and US forces would likely engage one another in airspace some 600 or more miles from the PRC coast. This would fulfill the PLA’s strategic objective of keeping the US B-21 and other aircraft from firing air-launched cruise missiles against targets on the mainland.
Those unconvinced that the J-36 mission, as described, is realistic point out that it would be a significant challenge for the aircraft to remain undetected. US satellites and other remote sensing systems—in addition to the airborne radars of any US fighters—would have a fairly large target to look for.
Others also point out that the article’s source is suspect. The publication is produced by the China State Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSSIC). This has led some to ask why the J-36 is not being written about by a source connected to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), which would be the logical outlet for discussing this aircraft.
Another data point is that another recent article about the J-36 discussed developing training simulators for launching the aircraft aboard one of the PLAN’s aircraft carriers.
“This aircraft is far too large to be practical to operate aboard a carrier,” said a former US Navy shipbuilding engineer working in the private US defense industrial sector. “The Chinese talking about such makes you wonder if this program is real or if they are just trying to confuse our intelligence services,” he said.
B-21 Raider Bomber. Artist Rendition/Creative Commons.
B-21 Raider. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
B-21 Raider Artist Rendering.
B-21 Raider Bomber. Image from U.S. Air Force and edited with AI software.
B-21 Raider Bomber.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is 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.
