The twin-engine, single-seat jet “has been officially commissioned into military service,” Xinhua reports, citing Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian.
Per Xinhua, the “fourth-generation” medium- and long-range aircraft is still undergoing flight tests which “are being conducted as scheduled.”
Scout Warrior’s Dave Majumdar reports that China’s fourth-generation designation corresponds to what most mature air forces consider “fifth-generation” aircraft, namely the F-22 and F-35.
The F-22 Raptor went live in 2005 while the US military’s other fifth-generation aircraft, the F-35 — informally known as the ‘F-22 With a Cupholder’ — reached initial operational capability (IOC) in 2015. Technically, the F-35A US Air Force variant attained IOC in December 2016, the US Marine Corps’ short-takeoff and vertical landing variant hit IOC in December 2015, and the US Navy’s F-35C is expected to receive the IOC declaration in February 2019, according to a report for Congressional Defense Committees prepared by the F-35 Joint Program Office.
“The process of fifth-gen. fighters’ introduction to the U.S. Air Force was very long and painful for the US,” Vasily Kashin, senior fellow at the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies in Moscow, told The National Interest. There’s “no reason to believe China would be different,” Kashin says.
