What happens when a stealth fighter ceases to be a prototype-and- begins to appear in the type of paint only new jets have? The Shenyang J-35 program of China has progressed to the stage that is of greatest importance to carrier airpower repeatable production, consistent flight test rates, and observable carrier integration efforts. During early 2026, a green-primer, unpainted J-35 was demonstrated flying factory and this was used by the Chinese aerospace authorities as evidence of production confidence and pre-delivery flights. Such imagery is banal in its purpose, and that is how it works: the platform is being positioned as more of a technology demonstration rather than a plane capable of staffing squadrons.
The idea that is always easy to identify has always been the airframe. J-35 is based on the FC-31 demonstrator and developed to a twin-engine, single-seat, low-observable multirole aircraft with distinguishable land and carrier types. The carrier model incorporates the hardware which transforms shaping into a deck-ready aircraft, such as folding wings, a reinforced nose gear with catapult launch bar, and the type of landing gear and tailhook system designed to perform repeated arrested landings. The trajectory of its development also highlights the reasons why the jet is strategically compelling: the same fundamental design has been extended to both PLA Navy aviation and the PLA Air Force and enabled both services to accelerate avionics refresh cycles.
The actual multiplier is the carrier integration. J-35 is designed with catapult operations in mind and has been shown to be compatible with the latest carrier architecture of china that is based on electromagnetic launch. There the jet is not only a shooter, but it becomes a sensor-carrying node, which extends the range of the fleet, facilitates long-range engagements, and reduces decision timelines. The role of the J-35A in combat has been clearly defined in terms of “systems coordination.” AVIC researcher Wang Yongqing told China Daily in an interview that, the J-35A can target the targets, share targets position with other weapon systems, like surface-to-air missiles, and even with its own radar to direct other weapons to intercept the targets, a description that can be targeted to how modern air wings are increasingly becoming networked instead of being single aircraft.
The focus of the message is on weapons carriage. Official information gives the layout of an internal bay that would be used in a stealth-era loadout, and includes the availability of provisions that can be ramped up in other situations where low observability is no longer the priority. According to open-source reports, the J-35 also has the capability of carrying six air-to-air missiles internally and uses external stations to allow much larger total payloads when necessary, including combinations that accommodate long-range air combat and strike missions. An idea of the “beast mode”, that with more weapons attached to the outside to increase volume, is an indication that there is a desire to alternate between sneak attacks and a dense missile transport depending on a stage in a campaign.
Nevertheless, the planform or capacity of the bay is not the most important unknown which can have consequences. It is the propulsion maturity and the meaning of the sustained carrier operations. External reporting has also indicated potential restrictions associated with engine capability such as the assertion that carrier based jobs at long ranges may introduce sharp loitering restrictions. A Chinese naval commentator, published through the South Korean media, had made one comment as, according to the estimates made by domestic experts, the J-35 fighter has a flight duration of only seven minutes at a range of 900 km over the carrier. The engineering reality, whether the figure is representative or not, is that in the case of carrier stealth fighter, range, endurance, payload, and sortie generation is all bound to thrust, fuel burn, and reliability.
“Two words” is appropriate in that context. The J-35 is not so much an attempt to pit a single jet at a brochure comparison against F-22 or F-35 but an outcome of mass production at a fleet level. A carrier capable stealth design that can be produced in series-like fashion- and can be re-created at a rapid pace redraws the planning issue in the Indo-Pacific, although the exacts of its signature management, sensor-fusion depth and the roadmap of its engines may only be faintly visible on the surface.
Sources information: a J-35 flying a 2026 factory flight unpainted, J-35 land and carrier aircraft and variants, CATOBAR-specific design considerations, claimed limitation on endurance based on engine performance.
