
MFM Episode 4 This is a follow-up to my first video on the Chinese J-20 "stealth" plane. Whereas the first one offered some analysis of what the plane's role might be, this video provides technical specifications -- all guesstimates right now based on news and analyst reports, along with "leaked" footage and photos. It's been theorized that China obtained stealth-building know-how from any of a number of sources: information stolen via cyber-espionage against contractors working on the US F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; and data somehow obtained from Russia's languishing MiG 1.44 stealth project (to which the J-20 bears a not-so-vague resemblance). Chinese officials have said the plane -- and others in the "J-XX" program of advanced combat jets -- instead owes its existence to homegrown ingenuity. The J-20's large-ish size and supercruise ability suggests it's an airplane with very long legs -- the better to fly the great distances required to reach potential trouble spots near China's far-flung borders. So how good is it in a fight? We may very well not find out until after the plane enters service, around 2018 or so. It looks to be super-maneuverable and let's not kid ourselves -- a cut above the West's fourth-generation fighters. No telling yet if it can hang with the F-22 Raptor or the Russian T-50 PAK FA. The proof, of course, will be in the plane's avionics and ability to function in a networked battlespace -- but that's another video!
J-20
Chinese stealth plane
PAK FA
Chinese defense
stealth fighter
Chinese military
military jets
mig 1.44
Mean
Freakin
Machines