China Unveils ANOTHER Stealth Fighter Jet, the J-21

Written by Dabney B. on Monday, September 17th, 2012

China has just unveiled a new stealth fighter jet.

Wait, why am I getting feelings of déjà vu?

Probably because China has already shown off its new (but ever-so-slightly older) stealth fighter jet, the Chengdu J-20. Well, evidently China isn’t content to have just one next-gen fighter – they need two. There have been rumors of this second mysterious fighter for some time now, but these snapshots finally give us a little bit of concrete evidence that there’s more to the claims than smoke and mirrors.

Known as the J-21, this new aircraft is being manufactured by a rival company in Shenyang, the capital and largest city of China’s northeast province. Past that, there isn’t really much that we know about the J-21 beyond what we can glean from the pictures. But we can still speculate until the cows come home!

First of all, it’s important to point out that just because China has two fourth-gen stealth fighters in the works, that doesn’t necessarily mean that both aircraft will enter widespread production. Considering just how new China’s modern military force is, it’s fairly reasonable to assume that the government is experiment with different designs. Still, we can’t discount the possibility that China wants to create two specialized fighter jets to counter the jack-of-all-trades buy valium diazepam 10mg F-35.

We also have to wonder whether the release of these photos was planned or completely accidental. We know that Beijing has a habit of releasing “leaks” that get spread around on the Internet in order to show off the government’s strength. After all, they did cover a jet in camo and truck it through the streets of Chinese cities. They may as well have posted a sign on the side of the truck that read, “Do not take photos of this SUPER SECRET fighter jet and post it on social media!”

Image source: warisboring.com

If the leak was actually intentional then it’s hard to guess their motivation. The photos came out right before US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was set to arrive in China. Alternatively, China might be using these photos to intimidate Japan in the midst of all that political uproar surrounding the Senkaku Island controversy.

Is this a carefully planned political move or an accidental photo leak? Will the mysterious J-21 ever fly itself off the tarmac, or will Beijing pile all of its hopes onto the Chengdu J-20? Just how stealthy, dangerous, and effective is this Chinese fighter jet? Only time (or staged leaks) will tell.

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