It was presented yesterday, at the opening of the Dubai Air Show which will end next Thursday, the cheap Chinese answer to the F-35: the FC-31, version for the foreign market of the J-31. Despite being theoretically ready for mass production, the fifth-generation Chinese fighter does not yet have a buyer.
The Shenyang J-31 "Falcon Hawk" should be the ideal platform in the "anti-access area-denial" strategy (A2AD) in the Western Pacific. The J-31 has always been considered the cheap alternative to the F-35 and is expected to be adopted in the future also by the allies of China and by those who cannot buy the "original" JSF.
The Shenyang J-31, (mostly for propaganda), is called a fifth generation fighter, even if for the West it is considered fourth. The fighter has similarities with the Russian PAK-FA T-50, although it would be more correct to say that the design of the J-31 resembles that of the F-35.
The Shenyang J-31 "Falcon Hawk" flew the 31 October 2012 for the first time. Designed (probably) thanks to a reverse engineering process from a fighter stealth a dejected American, he should have become the fifth generation Chinese fighter on board, effectively becoming the F-35 Lightning II's antagonist. But something does not seem to have worked. China, which has only one aircraft carrier in service (two more under construction), has reduced the real value of the aircraft, proposing it to second-level air forces such as Brazil (which then gave up), Pakistan and some Middle Eastern countries. It seems that the technology created was not initially designed for export, but built for internal use.
Strangely, last year the Chinese press also lashed at the aircraft, claiming that the plane would not be able to take off from an aircraft carrier with heavy armament. The J-31 seems to be little more than a cheap copy of an American fighter jet. In fact, the nose section, the twin tails as well as the trapezoidal wings represent the distinctive lines of the design stealth West. Probably, the J-31 is based on technology extracted from American planes lost in battle, such as the F-117 shot down in 1999, in Serbia. It is also true that in recent years, targeted attacks have been made against Lockeed Martin. Therefore, Chinese hackers could have managed to get their hands on some useful technical drawings of the Raptor and the F-35. But in order to copy American technology, projects are not all that are needed, we must also be able to transform them into reality.
We know that his shooting control radar, as well as the subsystems, the two engines and the avionics are entirely Chinese. His design certainly makes it look like a fifth-generation fighter, but we don't know the materials used for the aircraft's upholstery. For the Chinese, the FC-31 is the best solution for those who are subject to US restrictions or cannot afford JSF. Despite the premises, foreign success is slow to arrive. Hopes are placed in Iran and Pakistan. According to the Chinese, mass production (without a real order yet) should start in the 2019 with initial operational capacity planned for the 2022. The FC-31 will be fully operational in the 2024.
For the United States there is no doubt: the design of the FC-31 was stolen from the F-35 projects in April of the 2009, during a massive hacker attack against Lockheed Martin.
