China’s J-20 stealth jet may be ready this year, US commander says

China may declare its first stealth fighter operational this year as it also develops long-range bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons, part of a regional build-up by Beijing that the United States is closely monitoring, according to the US Air Force’s Pacific commander.

General Charles Brown, head of Pacific Air Forces, said the stealthy J-20 fighter could “possibly” be operational this year, a move he said would signal “greater threat, greater capability” for China in the Pacific. He went on to emphasise that US efforts to counter those developments included rising deployments of next-generation F-35 jets and continuing overflights of strategic areas such as the South China Sea.

“My sense of the way the Chinese operate is somewhat incremental,” Brown said. “They’ll continue to push the envelope to figure out does anybody say or do anything – if you don’t push back it’ll keep coming.”

Fielding the J-20 would add to what was already the region’s biggest air force and world’s third-largest, with more than 2,500 aircraft including 1,700 combat fighters, strategic bombers, tactical bombers and multi-mission tactical and attack aircraft, the US Defence Intelligence Agency said in a report earlier this year.

China’s J-20 fighter was part of a modernisation effort that had been “closing the gap with Western air forces across a broad spectrum of capabilities, such as aircraft performance, command and control and electronic warfare”, the report said.