J-35A

China's second fifth-generation stealth fighter — a medium-weight, multirole design that equips both the PLAAF and the PLAN's carrier fleet, and the airframe selected to offer fifth-generation capability to export customers locked out of the F-35.

Overview

The Shenyang J-35A, named "Cloud Dragon" by the People's Liberation Army Air Force, is the land-based variant of a family of fifth-generation stealth fighters developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation (SAC) under AVIC. Derived from the privately funded FC-31 demonstrator, it is the lighter, medium-weight complement to the heavy J-20, giving China two distinct operational stealth designs in concurrent service. A parallel naval variant, the J-35 "Blue Shark," has been certified for electromagnetic-catapult operations aboard the carrier Fujian. The J-35A is in low-rate initial production and early operational service, with no combat record, but its public debut in 2024 and the unveiling of an export version (J-35AE) in 2026 have made it a pivotal system in Beijing’s airpower and arms-export strategies.

Development

The programme began not as a state requirement but as SAC’s privately funded FC-31 export demonstrator after Chengdu’s J-20 won the PLAAF heavy-fighter competition. The first FC-31 prototype flew on 31 October 2012 on Russian RD-93 engines, and a much-revised second airframe with Chinese WS-13E engines and a single-piece canopy followed in December 2016, according to Wikipedia. After years of uncertain domestic interest, the design was navalized: the carrier variant J-35, featuring folding wings, a catapult bar, twin nosewheel, and an electro-optical targeting system (EOTS), flew on 29 October 2021, and a second naval prototype with PLAN markings appeared in July 2022. The land-based J-35A — distinguished by a smaller wing, single nosewheel, and revised vertical stabilisers — first flew on 26 September 2023 and was publicly unveiled at the Zhuhai Airshow on 12 November 2024. By mid-2025, brigade-marked airframes had been photographed, and Chinese state media showed a multi-aircraft assembly line, confirming the type had entered low-rate production and early induction.

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