China’s Sixth-Gen Fighter Accelerates as U.S. Jet Project Faces Pressure in Air Superiority Race
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Fresh images from Chinese platforms reveal major updates to China’s sixth-generation fighter prototypes, including a heavy tailless jet now sporting angular, two-dimensional exhausts and a unique three-engine layout. The pace of testing and visible design shifts suggest Beijing is accelerating toward a full test campaign that could pressure U.S. next-generation air dominance timelines.
According to information published by the South China Morning Post, on November 3, 2025, fresh imagery on Chinese social platforms shows notable configuration changes across China’s sixth-generation fighter efforts, including a second prototype of the heavy tailless design associated with Chengdu that now features angular, two-dimensional style exhausts and a distinctive three-engine layout. SCMP notes these updates are appearing roughly ten months after the first public sightings, signaling an accelerated move toward a formal test campaign.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
China’s twin sixth-gen stealth prototypes emerge, including a heavy tri-engine jet with new angular 2S exhausts (Picture source: Chinese social media posts).
High-resolution imagery circulating since late August indicates that both the heavy tailless airframe and a slimmer tailless counterpart are cycling through remote western test ranges, with taxi and flight activity captured on multiple days. The cadence and visibility of these events, combined with newly observed exhaust geometry on the heavier prototype, suggest a program that is iterating quickly in full public view rather than remaining confined to factory airfields.
An independent review of the newest airframe underscores what engineers appear to be chasing. The second heavy prototype shows revised inlets, landing gear, and exhausts, removing the “deck” structure seen on the first article and enabling a path to two-dimensional thrust vectoring. Nothing official has been disclosed about the engines, and FlightGlobal cautions that early articles may fly with WS-10 class powerplants while the WS-15 family matures, a sequence that matches China’s past practice on the J-20.
Beijing has not named the programs, and Chinese state-linked outlets continue to frame the type unofficially as J-36. Global Times, echoing foreign coverage, acknowledges the “second prototype” narrative while stressing that the J-36 label is unconfirmed and the authenticity of some images remains under verification. That is a familiar playbook, but it still amounts to indirect acknowledgement that major work is underway on a heavy, tailless, multi-engine fighter.
Taken together, the visible changes point to a design team balancing signature control and control authority at high alpha. The move to angular, F-22-style exhausts on the newest prototype is not cosmetic. Two-dimensional vectoring allows pitch and yaw control with lower drag and potentially reduced infrared exposure, a useful combination on a very large airframe that must manage heat while preserving agility around the boat and at altitude. SCMP’s comparison of the new nozzles to the Raptor’s hardware captures that intent, and it aligns with long-running Chinese experimentation with TVC on a J-10B testbed.
Materials and propulsion trends also map to what we see on the airframes. In late 2024, Chinese authorities published a new stealth materials testing standard that demands absorption across both high frequency and low frequency bands while remaining thin and lightweight, a requirement set that favors advanced composites and engineered meta materials typical of sixth-generation briefs. In parallel, Chinese institutes have promoted superalloy cooling advances aimed at higher turbine temperatures and longer life, which would directly support the thrust and electrical power budgets implied by the heavy prototype.
Open source characterizations describe the heavy-tailed aircraft as the world’s largest fighter concept in development, a platform defined by range, sensor aperture, and magazine depth rather than point performance alone. What the latest imagery implies is that China is buying persistence, payload, and power generation through mass.
The industrial signal is just as important as the military one. Activity around the Chengdu line now appears synchronized with a parallel tailless effort reported by Chinese and foreign outlets, reinforcing that Beijing is sustaining two design houses in competition. SCMP’s framing of “both” sixth-gen programs evolving within months of each other is the clearest public indicator that China intends to field a portfolio rather than a single exquisite solution, which complicates adversary force planning and stretches opposing test and evaluation bandwidth.
For U.S. and allied planners, the comparison set is important. The U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance program, now publicly tracked in Congress as a crewed F-47 element within a broader family of systems, targets greater than 1,000 nautical miles combat radius, higher speed than F-22, and deep integration with Collaborative Combat Aircraft. That path remains funded and moving, but it is also under intense cost and schedule scrutiny on Capitol Hill. If China can push a heavy, long-legged stealth design into early operationalization sooner than expected, it will put pressure on NGAD’s timeline and the resilience of U.S. tanker and ISR orbits.
Europe is running its own race: the UK-Italy-Japan Global Combat Air Programme still aims for initial service entry around 2035, according to official RAF and UK Parliament materials, while the Franco-German-Spanish FCAS timeline to around 2040 has encountered new doubt following a series of slips and leadership disputes this fall. A faster Chinese fielding would narrow the generational gap not only with Washington but also with London, Rome, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, and Madrid.
The exhaust redesign on the second heavy prototype signals that China is converging on a solution to the two hardest problems for a heavyweight stealth fighter: signature-tuned thrust vectoring and thermal management at sustained power. Pair that with stricter stealth materials standards and incremental propulsion advances, and the development picture looks less speculative and more programmatic.
{loadposition bannertop}
{loadposition sidebarpub}
Fresh images from Chinese platforms reveal major updates to China’s sixth-generation fighter prototypes, including a heavy tailless jet now sporting angular, two-dimensional exhausts and a unique three-engine layout. The pace of testing and visible design shifts suggest Beijing is accelerating toward a full test campaign that could pressure U.S. next-generation air dominance timelines.
According to information published by the South China Morning Post, on November 3, 2025, fresh imagery on Chinese social platforms shows notable configuration changes across China’s sixth-generation fighter efforts, including a second prototype of the heavy tailless design associated with Chengdu that now features angular, two-dimensional style exhausts and a distinctive three-engine layout. SCMP notes these updates are appearing roughly ten months after the first public sightings, signaling an accelerated move toward a formal test campaign.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
China’s twin sixth-gen stealth prototypes emerge, including a heavy tri-engine jet with new angular 2S exhausts (Picture source: Chinese social media posts).
High-resolution imagery circulating since late August indicates that both the heavy tailless airframe and a slimmer tailless counterpart are cycling through remote western test ranges, with taxi and flight activity captured on multiple days. The cadence and visibility of these events, combined with newly observed exhaust geometry on the heavier prototype, suggest a program that is iterating quickly in full public view rather than remaining confined to factory airfields.
An independent review of the newest airframe underscores what engineers appear to be chasing. The second heavy prototype shows revised inlets, landing gear, and exhausts, removing the “deck” structure seen on the first article and enabling a path to two-dimensional thrust vectoring. Nothing official has been disclosed about the engines, and FlightGlobal cautions that early articles may fly with WS-10 class powerplants while the WS-15 family matures, a sequence that matches China’s past practice on the J-20.
Beijing has not named the programs, and Chinese state-linked outlets continue to frame the type unofficially as J-36. Global Times, echoing foreign coverage, acknowledges the “second prototype” narrative while stressing that the J-36 label is unconfirmed and the authenticity of some images remains under verification. That is a familiar playbook, but it still amounts to indirect acknowledgement that major work is underway on a heavy, tailless, multi-engine fighter.
Taken together, the visible changes point to a design team balancing signature control and control authority at high alpha. The move to angular, F-22-style exhausts on the newest prototype is not cosmetic. Two-dimensional vectoring allows pitch and yaw control with lower drag and potentially reduced infrared exposure, a useful combination on a very large airframe that must manage heat while preserving agility around the boat and at altitude. SCMP’s comparison of the new nozzles to the Raptor’s hardware captures that intent, and it aligns with long-running Chinese experimentation with TVC on a J-10B testbed.
Materials and propulsion trends also map to what we see on the airframes. In late 2024, Chinese authorities published a new stealth materials testing standard that demands absorption across both high frequency and low frequency bands while remaining thin and lightweight, a requirement set that favors advanced composites and engineered meta materials typical of sixth-generation briefs. In parallel, Chinese institutes have promoted superalloy cooling advances aimed at higher turbine temperatures and longer life, which would directly support the thrust and electrical power budgets implied by the heavy prototype.
Open source characterizations describe the heavy-tailed aircraft as the world’s largest fighter concept in development, a platform defined by range, sensor aperture, and magazine depth rather than point performance alone. What the latest imagery implies is that China is buying persistence, payload, and power generation through mass.
The industrial signal is just as important as the military one. Activity around the Chengdu line now appears synchronized with a parallel tailless effort reported by Chinese and foreign outlets, reinforcing that Beijing is sustaining two design houses in competition. SCMP’s framing of “both” sixth-gen programs evolving within months of each other is the clearest public indicator that China intends to field a portfolio rather than a single exquisite solution, which complicates adversary force planning and stretches opposing test and evaluation bandwidth.
For U.S. and allied planners, the comparison set is important. The U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance program, now publicly tracked in Congress as a crewed F-47 element within a broader family of systems, targets greater than 1,000 nautical miles combat radius, higher speed than F-22, and deep integration with Collaborative Combat Aircraft. That path remains funded and moving, but it is also under intense cost and schedule scrutiny on Capitol Hill. If China can push a heavy, long-legged stealth design into early operationalization sooner than expected, it will put pressure on NGAD’s timeline and the resilience of U.S. tanker and ISR orbits.
Europe is running its own race: the UK-Italy-Japan Global Combat Air Programme still aims for initial service entry around 2035, according to official RAF and UK Parliament materials, while the Franco-German-Spanish FCAS timeline to around 2040 has encountered new doubt following a series of slips and leadership disputes this fall. A faster Chinese fielding would narrow the generational gap not only with Washington but also with London, Rome, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, and Madrid.
The exhaust redesign on the second heavy prototype signals that China is converging on a solution to the two hardest problems for a heavyweight stealth fighter: signature-tuned thrust vectoring and thermal management at sustained power. Pair that with stricter stealth materials standards and incremental propulsion advances, and the development picture looks less speculative and more programmatic.
