China’s New Apex Predator Set to Rule Asia and Pacific By Darrin Waller

China’s new J36: a 6th-generation stealth fighter jet — a tailless, supersonic, trijet flying wing with a double delta design — undergoing flight tests, manufactured by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC).

Fountainbridge : China’s J-36: A 6th-gen stealth trijet with unmatched range, AI-driven drone swarms, and the power to outpace US air dominance...Beijing is set to win the race among the great powers for a sixth-generation combat aircraft, with the development of not one, but two sixth-generation stealth aircraft, informally dubbed the J-36 and J-XX by China watchers.

Once these aircraft enter serial production — likely within the next few years after flight tests conclude — they will deliver a harder blow to America’s ‘big five’ defence contractors than the one-two punch China’s AI platform, DeepSeek, dealt to the 'Magnificent Seven' tech giants.

Whilst less is known about the J-XX, the J-36, by contrast, has emerged in sharper detail — and that’s our focus here.

What we do know is this — the advanced, stealthy and enormous J-36 fighter jet — is a tailless, supersonic, trijet flying wing with a double delta design — that has entered pre-production flight testing, surging ahead of rival programs like the US’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), the UK-led Tempest, and Europe’s FCAS — taking military analysts by surprise. As for its two-seater, side-by-side cockpit configuration? We’ll circle back to that later.

Typically, what takes the US over 15 years — from green-lighting a next-generation fighter jet to its operational deployment — China pulls off in just 5. This puts the J-36 on track for operational service by the early 2030s, whilst the US’s 6th-generation fighter will struggle to secure initial operational status before 2040 — relegating the US to the status of an also-ran.

In other words, China now commands at least a 5-year technological lead in fighter jet capability over the US — and I suspect that lead will only widen from here on out.

Whilst Western 6th-generation designs prioritise agility and versatility, the J-36 delivers both — alongside exceptional range and unmatched electrical power generation, addressing the critical weaknesses of modern fighters through its three-engine configuration.

Unlike traditional engines that prioritise thrust, the J-36’s trijet design generates a surplus of electrical energy, enabling larger and more powerful GaN radar systems, greater computational capacity, enhanced electronic warfare capabilities, and direct-energy weapons — with capacity to spare for future technologies. By rendering its rivals obsolete, it sets the definitive benchmark for advanced combat jets. For sure, this is a tailor-made solution for establishing air superiority over the West Pacific and Asia. 

As more details emerge about this next-generation stealth flying wing, its lethality becomes undeniable. With supercruise — the ability to sustain supersonic flight without afterburners — a 10,000 km range, and a 3,000 km combat radius under full payload, it obsoletes America’s most advanced fighter, the F-22 Raptor.

The Raptors maximum range is just 2,900 km (with external tanks and no weapons), and its combat radius barely reaches 1,000 km. This striking contrast underscores the J-36’s potential to upend strategic calculations in the West Pacific. It’s like fielding a sniper rifle whilst everyone else is stuck with pistols.

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