Pakistan is planning to buy China’s latest 5th generation stealth fighter jet J-35s. It is believed that it may get its first consignment by the end of this year. J-35 is China’s most advanced fighter jet, which is compared with America’s F-35. Pakistan already has 20 Chinese J-10C and JF-17 fighter jets. Now if it buys 40 J-35 from China, it will become part of the elite club of stealth fighter jets.
India does not have any stealth fighter aircraft yet. Therefore the balance of air power in South Asia may deteriorate. The J-35 is a twin-engine, single-seater supersonic jet used for multirole missions. It has advanced avionics, including active electronically scanned array, electro-optical targeting system and infrared search-and-track.
China’s government mouthpiece Global Times has described it as operating in a stealth and counter-stealth combat framework and maintaining air superiority. The J-35 is called the black box due to its excellent performance and is considered even better than America’s F-35. China unveiled the J-35 in November 2024. Two variants of it were revealed, one for the Navy and the other for ground-based operations.
It is believed that Pakistan may get a second variant, which will have infrared search-and-track facility. The J-35 is such an efficient fighter jet that it has a radar cross section of 0.001 square meters, making it difficult to detect.Another matter of concern for India is that both China and Pakistan are countries equipped with stealth fighter jets and this could put pressure on India’s air defence.