New Chinese advanced fighter jets appear in flight

New Chinese fighter jets broke cover in a flood of photos and videos on social media on Dec. 26 that showed them in flight and revealed two new examples of China’s development as an aerospace innovator.

A new plane surfaced in social media posts revealing a large, three-engine warplane with a cockpit and a diamond-like wing with no vertical tails. Driving controls appear to be operated by Northrop Grumman B-2-style split rudder.

The engines are supplied by a single dorsal inlet and two ventral inlets, the latter by means of tub-shaped intakes. The dorsal inlet has a stealth-enhancing diversionless supersonic inlet, but not the ventral inlets.

The aircraft’s large ventral fuselage section likely accommodates an internal weapons bay. The main landing gear has two wheels each, a characteristic of heavy fighter-bombers such as the Sukhoi Su-34.

The apparent test flight over populated Chinese territory included appearances by a Chengdu-made J-20S fighter jet possibly flying a hunting mission.

“Its size and arrangement preliminarily suggest that this is the long-awaited J/H-XX ‘regional bomber,’ designed to provide a low-observable high-altitude precision strike capability against bases and possibly ships throughout the Indo-Pacific,” said Justin Bronk, senior research scientist for Airpower and Technology at the Royal United Services Institute. “However, it is still possible that this prototype represents China’s known 6th generation fighter program.”

Hours later, additional social media posts revealed images and video of another new Chinese fighter jet, also in flight tests.

The images show a more traditional fighter design with a stunted arrow shape and possibly folding tail fins. It was not immediately clear when these photos were taken, but a post marked the photo with a time stamp of December 22, 2024.

The mystery warplanes appeared on the 13th anniversary of the deployment of the J-20 stealth fighter, which itself came 13 years after the first flight of the Chengdu-made J-10 in March 1998. The date of December 26 marks the 131- birthday of Mao Zedong, the late founder of the Chinese Communist Party.

The role each of the aircraft would play is not immediately obvious. No Chinese government or industry channel has acknowledged the images on official channels, but it also appears that internal security services have not gone to great lengths to censor the content posted by dozens of people on the site.

China has developed the H-20 long-range stealth bomber and medium-range JH-XX fighter-bomber, according to the annual China Military Power Report published by the US Department of Defense. Chinese officials have also confirmed that work is underway on a sixth-generation fighter jet.

—Tony Osborne contributed to this article from London.