DTN News - INTELLIGENCE REPORT/NEWS: Chinese J-20 Jet Fighter Highlights Need For Intelligence, Dialogue....NSI News Source Info # 1450

DTN News - INTELLIGENCE REPORT/NEWS: Chinese J-20 Jet Fighter Highlights Need For Intelligence, Dialogue....NSI News Source Info # 1450

** China got stealth tech from Russia: US lawmaker -

WASHINGTON - CHINA got the technology for its first stealth fighter jet from Russia, a senior US lawmaker said on Tuesday, one week after the airplane

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources The China Post - Taiwan

(NSI News Source Info) - January 19, 2011: As far as stealth fighters are concerned, the Chinese prototype J-20 is perhaps too eye-attracting. On Dec. 22, 2010, photos of a taxiing test at the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute of the fifth-generation twin-engine fighter aircraft emerged on the Internet and triggered a firestorm in the international media.

On Jan. 11, hours before U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing, the prototype was taken for a 20-minute test flight.

However, the reason behind the test and the true capabilities of the J-20 are far less clear.

The sooner-than-expected development of the advanced military aircraft apparently took the U.S. by surprise. In 2009, in his push for ending production of the U.S.'s stealth fighter F-22, Gates said that the mainland “is projected to have no fifth-generation aircraft by 2020.” He later corrected his assessment, saying that China might possess a handful of them by that year. Although the exact date for fielding the new fighter is anyone's guess, a successful test flight in 2011 will likely prove Gates wrong.

However, according to Gates, the U.S. is not the only party caught unaware by the test flight. On Jan. 12, he confirmed accounts by U.S. officials that Hu himself seemed to be unaware of the test flight. “The civilian leadership seemed surprised by the test and assured me it had nothing to do with my visit,” Gates said.

The Wall Street Journal observed that the test showed “a brash display of military might that fueled doubts about the extent of Hu's authority just a week before his state visit to the U.S.” Major U.S. newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post held similar views.

http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.com/2011/01/dtn-news-intelligence-reportnews_19.html