‘All frequencies’: China releases sixth-generation stealth fighter standard

Research team say they’ve come up with a stringent new testing standard to measure stealth performance

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Videos and images posted on social media last week appear to show China’s first sixth-generation stealth fighter jet flying over Chengdu. Photo: Handout

Published: 8:00pm, 31 Dec 2024

China’s new-generation fighter jet programme is pushing the boundaries of stealth material technology against multi-angle radar illumination across all frequency bands, according to scientists involved in the project.

To put the stealth coatings to the test the project team said they came up with far more stringent evaluation criteria than the military currently uses.

The new testing standard includes several criteria once thought to be unattainable. Stealth materials must now be both lightweight and thin, while also being able to absorb high-frequency electromagnetic waves from advanced military radars and effectively absorb the low-frequency detection signals used by anti-stealth radars.

The design resembles a ginkgo leaf. Image: Stealth department, AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute

The materials must also maintain consistent low detection when illuminated by radars from different directions, and even very weak electromagnetic waves coming from the exhaust nozzle must be tested to check the effectiveness of the stealth coating inside the engine.

This standard “provides a comprehensive and precise evaluation method for assessing the absorbing performance of stealth materials across all frequency bands”, the team wrote in a paper published in the peer-reviewed Chinese journal Advances in Aeronautical Science and Engineering on November 25.

And it “has been applied in the selection process of stealth materials for a typical stealth combat aircraft”, wrote the team led by Zhou Hai, a researcher with the stealth department of the AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute.

The aircraft described in the paper appears to be identical to what is thought to be a new Chinese stealth fighter, which was seen in videos and images apparently flying over Chengdu, Sichuan province, on December 26 – the birthday of Mao Zedong, founder of the People’s Republic of China.

Both feature an aerodynamic design that resembles the fan-shaped leaf of the ginkgo tree.