A team of scientists from China reportedly revealed the new testing standard to measure sixth-generation stealth performance. The team has offered much harsher evaluation standards than what the military currently uses.
Their innovation is pushing limitations of stealth technologies against multi-angle radar illumination across all frequency bands, according to a report.
The team led by Zhou Hai, a researcher with the stealth department of China’s AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, maintains that the stealth material should be capable of absorbing high-frequency electromagnetic waves from advanced military radars.
China searches for material that can bypass anti-stealth radars
They also underlined that the material should be lightweight and thin and be able to bypass anti-stealth radars, which use low-frequency detection signals.
Published in the peer-reviewed Chinese journal Advances in Aeronautical Science and Engineering, the study maintains that the material should be able to beat radars from different directions.
They also suggested that even very weak electromagnetic waves coming from the exhaust nozzle must be tested to check the effectiveness of the stealth coating inside the engine.
Stealth materials for typical stealth combat aircraft
The team, in its paper, also mentioned that these standards were applied in the selection process of stealth materials for a recent stealth combat aircraft.
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, reported SCMP.
Recently, the previously unseen aircraft was spotted conducting daytime flight tests, accompanied by a two-seat Chengdu J-20S fighter.
This likely indicated testing occurred at the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) factory airfield. The most striking feature of this new aircraft is its unique tailless design and modified delta wing.
The aircraft displayed prominent chine lines extending to the nose, resembling aspects of the J-20 fighter jet’s central fuselage. Although it is difficult to ascertain the configuration of the cockpit from available images, the broad nose raises the possibility of accommodating one or two crew members side by side.
Reports also claimed that China’s recent tailless aircraft could be the world’s first sixth-generation fighter jet, propelled by three engines – one of them taking in air from a back-mounted inlet.
The stealth fighter jet was possibly mentioned as a multifunctional carrier in the study published in the Chinese journal Advances in Aeronautical Science and Engineering.
Reports suggest the fighter jet could play a versatile role in air combat and also strike targets on the ground, at sea, and even in space.
There’s also speculation that recent fighter jet could be used as a command platform for electronic warfare or drone swarms.
The ability of current stealth coatings to absorb electromagnetic waves can vary greatly depending on the angle and frequency of the waves, sometimes leading to a significant reduction in effectiveness. It is one of the technological hurdles that have set back America’s sixth-generation fighter jet program, known as NGAD, according to SCMP.
The Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter is an advanced fighter jet intended to replace the stealthy F-22 Raptor. According to the U.S. Air Force, NGAD is also a “family of systems,” enabling air superiority, defined as the ability to operate without threat of attack, even in highly contested environments.
The NGAD family or system of systems includes the NGAD fighter program, as well as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program to develop variants of uncrewed, semiautonomous aircraft that could fly as “loyal wingmen” with the NGAD fighter or other fighter aircraft.