Apparent China Stealth Jet Photos Leaked

[Elmore Furth]

Source: Associated Press

Photos leaked online that appear to show a prototype of China's first stealth fighter jet were discussed in state media Wednesday - a move that supports claims the country's military aviation program is advancing faster than expected.

Both the English and Chinese language editions of the Global Times ran front-page articles on the photos of what appears to be a future J-20 fighter, along with extensive reports on the buzz the pictures have generated overseas.

Photos of the plane appeared on unofficial military news websites and hobbyist blogs last week and were still viewable Wednesday.

The Global Times did not comment on the authenticity of the pictures, but since the government wields extensive control over state media, the report's appearance and the fact that censors have not removed images from websites suggest a calculated move to leak the information into the public sphere.

That in turn would reflect the growing confidence of the traditionally secretive People's Liberation Army, which is pushing for greater influence and bigger budgets.



Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/05/world/main7215803.shtml

[Roland99]

1. Thought it might look more like this.....

http://www.airlineempires.net.nyud.net:8090/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/better_stealth_fighter.jpg

[Autumn Colors]

7. Well, tell 'em to stop knocking all the birds out of the sky

j/k

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

12. Or this . . .

image

(Magic Lasso not included)

[madrchsod]

13. here i thought you left us...

:hi:

[onehandle]

2. Preparing for their role as #1 superpower in the 2040s.

Learn Chinese, kiddies.

[qazplm]

3. yeah I don't think so

their internal needs will always be a huge burden to any thoughts of world superpower status. I also think the west and even Russia are both still fairly far enough ahead of them technologically that they still have a ways to go to play catch-up.

I do, however, think they would like to be a regional military power, and that means Taiwan's days could be numbered, and Japan might want to watch out as well.

[Terry in Austin]

5. Cold War era joke:

The optimists are learning Russian.
The pessimists are learning Chinese.

[Drale]

9. Even if they do have stealth tech

its probably about 30 or 40 years behind our own. I also find it hard to believe the the US government didn't find a way to track stealth aircraft long ago.

[14thColony]

14. Well, we did but we can't

We know HOW to do it -- use 1950s era HF radars that were declared obsolete a generation ago. Stealth has little or no impact on them. Problem is we don't have a lot of antique low-frequency radars sitting around these days...

Dirty little secret: stealth is designed to work more against computers than against radars.

By the way 30-40 yr old stealth technology would almost certainly have the angular faceted look of the F-117. This plane appears to use shaping (and one would assume composites) that are at least a generation beyond that; far more F-22 than F-117. Either we haven't seen an older generation PLAAF stealth fighter, or they wisely just said "fuck that" and skipped ahead a whole generation.

[hunter]

21. Cell phones, satellites, and other electronic gadgets have lit up the sky.

"Stealth" is dead.

Dodging and confusing missiles is more important.

But at the end of the day high technology societies are too fragile to fight high technology wars.

Any massive upset will result in genocide of one sort or another.

[somone]

4. Another example of China's true intent

The military stuff China has been doing is power-projecting, not defensive.

[KeepItReal]

6. Looks like Firefox merged with an F-22

So much for keeping stealth tech and composites secret...

[jayfish]

18. "Must think in Mandarin." -NT-

[KeepItReal]

22. LOL!

:rofl:

[Kolesar]

8. More fear mongering from the US media

A rationalization for another thousand billion in appropriations to Boeing and Lockheed.

[Johnyawl]

10. Exactly right, Kolesar...

...notice how this revelation comes right after talk of even modest cuts in the military budget?

[bossy22]

11. who if production ramped up would hire more workers

military spending can be a form of stimulus if done right. France ordered a new warship using stimulus funds.

[LawnKorn]

15. Its been going on for 65 years

Northrop fixes China up with enough technology to reach the 'next generation fighter' which in turn fuels another round of cost is no object spending to give the United States the 'latest generation fighter'. The "Cost Plus" acquisition contracts are where defense contractors make the big bucks.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. This could have been the source of the UFO sightings that we

sometimes hear about.

[Xenotime]

17. Interesting this comes out just as Pugs take the House...

Next up: Defense budget discussions

[humblebum]

19. So let's see. Why don't we just make them richer and us poorer by

giving them our jobs and buying their products?

[daleo]

20. Here comes a new arms race to blow money on

Pretty soon we will hear all about the "stealth fighter gap". It will be an update of the missile gap of the cold war or the dreadnought gap of the early 20th century.

[christx30]

23. Or the

ballista gap of the 5th century. Or the rock gap of the year 10,000 BC

[MattBaggins]

24. Mehhh. So they are manufacturing a technology

we already know how to break. Whoopdie doo