DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: J-20 Not Yet Ready For Export: Jane's Defense Weekly

DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: J-20 Not Yet Ready For Export: Jane's Defense Weekly

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by K. V. Seth from reliable sources Want China Times

(NSI News Source Info) KOTTAKKAL, Kerala, India - November 2, 2013: A model of the J-20, China's first stealth fighter, was on show at the World Radar Exhibition held in Beijing between Oct. 16-18. The aircraft is still at the developmental stage and not yet ready for the overseas market, reports the London-based Jane's Defense Weekly, citing company sources.

The fighter, designed by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, was on public display for the first time at the exhibition, though the company has yet to comment on whether the aircraft is ready for export or not. An executive of Poly Technologies — a defense manufacturing company and subsidiary of China Poly Group Corporation — said however that the J-20 model was only put on display to show China's military capability in designing stealth fighters, adding that it is not ready for export.

The state-run Poly Technologies is currently looking to become a "whole system" supplier of military equipment and weapons systems to foreign customers, the report said. Meanwhile, the company source said that an increasing number of nations are looking to buy Chinese aircraft to help modernize their air defense systems.

The source said that China scored an important win after Turkey chose the FD-2000, the export version of China's HQ-9 surface-to-air missile, over rival bids including the US Patriot and Russian S-300 missile systems. He added that nations are now more confident in Chinese-designed weapons systems and Poly Technologies is currently the only company in China that is able to provide full air defense systems to foreign clients.

*Related Chengdu J-20 J-XX Fifth Generation Stealth Fighter Jet - Photo

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DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: China Flies New Stealth Fighter As Problems Plague U.S. Jets

DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: China Flies New Stealth Fighter As Problems Plague U.S. Jets
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By David Axe - Wired
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 17, 2012: The second copy of China’s stealth fighter prototype has just flown at a research facility in the city of Chengdu. The first flight of the J-20 Mighty Dragon with the nose number 2002 doubles Beijing’s stealth test fleet at a time when America’s latest jet fighters are hobbled by cost overruns, labor disputes and lethal design flaws. But it’s far from certain how much, and how fast, the new Chinese jet will alter the military balance.

The challenges for American stealth developers are clear. It has come to light that Lockheed’s F-22 Raptor — the first of the current generation of stealth fighters — is steadily poisoning its pilots owing to a faulty oxygen system. Meanwhile, the F-35 has been delayed by several years and the overall cost to design and build thousands of the new jets has risen by hundreds of billions of dollars. To make matters worse, workers at Lockheed’s F-35 factory have gone on strike, with no end in sight.


At first glance, China appears to be making huge progress where the U.S. falters. The twin-engine Mighty Dragon 2002, painted black like its predecessor, made its first appearance in April in photos snapped by Chinese bloggers (who may or may not be on Beijing’s payroll). The second J-20 spent a month or so performing ground tests before launching on its inaugural test sortie sometime in the past few days. If the initial flight of the first Mighty Dragon (nose number 2001) in December 2010 is any indication, 2002′s debut mission amounted to little more than a lap around the Chengdu airfield to test the aircraft’s basic functions and show off for the aforementioned bloggers.

With two airframes to work with, the Chengdu engineers can now double the roughly five-flights-a-month development program apparently aimed at producing a front-line stealth warplane. Before the first Mighty Dragon ever flew, General He Weirong of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force said the J-20 would enter service between 2017 and 2019. Then-U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates countered, saying it would be 2020 or later before China possessed a combat-ready stealth fighter. It’s unclear who’s right — or even what definition of front-line service either man was using.

Certainly, the Mighty Dragon’s engineers have a lot of work ahead of them. For comparison, the development program for the U.S. military’s latest F-35 Joint Strike Fighter includes more than 10,000 test flights spread over 15 years. If China duplicated the American testing profile, it could take decadesfor the J-20 to complete development.

But China traditionally does not take the same approach to warplane testing that America does. Instead, China follows the Russian model: some basic tests after which small numbers of new jets with rudimentary combat capabilities are handed over to a regular fighter squadron. After a few years of real-world use, engineers build a second batch with improved capabilities, and so on.

In that way China usually builds its aerial arsenal in small increments in parallel with testing. On the upside, new designs can enter service faster than they do in America. The downside is that the new fighters often fly with undetected flaws. The U.S. initially tried that “concurrent” approach with the Lockheed Martin-built F-35, only to scale back early production after testers discovered design flaws costing billions of dollars to fix. The J-20 could encounter the same problem.

Moreover, it seems both J-20s are still flying with Russian-made AL-31 engines rather than motors specifically designed for the J-20′s huge size and apparent weight. China has had so many problems inventing its own jet engines that it has revived imports of Russian models. Finalizing advanced avionics, sensors and weapons could prove equally difficult for the Chengdu developers.

All the same, Mighty Dragon 2002 does appear to be a step towards an early combat capability. It features several apparent improvements over its sister Mighty Dragon 2001, including stockier landing gear and a redesigned nose that could house an ultra-modern electronically scanned radar. If Beijing chooses to build a squadron of J-20s for early front-line use, they could look a lot like jet number 2002.

That said, there are signs China is cooling its stealth-fighter ambitions. Until recently, analysts had predicted the J-20 would be joined by several other brand-new Chinese stealth fighter designs, including one code-named J-16. But this spring reporters got their first look at the J-16. Turns out it’s a bolt-for-bolt copy of the Russian Su-30, a decidedly non-stealthy design.

That should prove comforting to American warplane developers who are in the throes of parallel crises involving the F-22 and F-35. Which is to say, China’s stealth fighter development is faring no better and no worse than America’s. For every big step forward there are little steps back.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By David Axe - Wired
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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Asia's Military Spending Likely To Overtake Europe This Year

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Asia's Military Spending Likely To Overtake Europe This Year
*Asia, led by China, is becoming increasingly militarised as a result of rapid economic growth and strategic uncertainty
Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Richard Norton-Taylor ~ guardian.co.uk
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - March 8, 2012: Military spending by Asian countries, led by China, is rising fast and for the first time is likely this year to outstrip Europe, where governments are cutting their defence budgets, according to a leading London-based thinktank.

"While the west reduces its spending on defence, Asia is becoming increasingly militarised as a result of rapid economic growth and strategic uncertainty," John Chipman, director general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said at the launch of its latest annual Military Balance survey.

Asian countries increased their defence budget by more than 3% in real terms last year, the IISS said. China increased its share of total military expenditure on weapons in the region to more than 30%. Official Chinese military spending totalled nearly $90bn last year, more than two-and-a-half times the 2001 level.

Western analysts point to China's plans for naval "force projection" to defend its growing economic interests in Africa and elsewhere, and secure maritime lanes of communication.

Most attention has focused on China's first aircraft carrier, the former Soviet ship the Varyag, and its new J-20 combat aircraft. "But China's technological advances are more modest than some alarmist hypotheses of its military development have suggested", Chipman said. "They represent nascent rather than actual capability. China, for example, does not yet have the capability to operate fixed-wing aircraft from a carrier."

More immediately significant is China's development of anti-satellite capacities, anti-ship ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and cyber-warfare capabilities. "Managing tensions in the South China Sea will be an increasing challenge," said the IISS report.

Defence analysts also pointed to potential tensions between the US and China being aggravated by Beijing refusing to agree to confidence-building measures along the lines of those between the US and the Soviet Union during the cold war. "China does not want to give a seatbelt to the US," one defence analyst said.

Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are all investing in improving air and naval capacities, as are India, Japan and South Korea. India, for instance, plans to boost maritime capacities with submarines and aircraft carriers, said the IISS.

In Europe, defence budgets remain under pressure and cuts to equipment programmes continue. Between 2008 and 2010 there were reductions in defence spending in at least 16 European Nato member states. In a significant proportion of these, cuts in real terms exceeded 10%.

*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Richard Norton-Taylor ~ guardian.co.uk
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DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: China Already Has Advanced Stealth Technology Claims Pakistan

DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: China Already Has Advanced Stealth Technology Claims Pakistan

**DTN News - PAKISTAN NEWS: Pakistan Let China See Crashed U.S. "Stealth" Copter - Dated August 16, 2011

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir - The News, Pakistan

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - August 17, 2011: China is not interested in acquiring the stealth technology currently being used by the United States for its flying machines as it has already developed the same in a much advanced shape and is using it in its most sophisticated multi-role planes, highly placed defence sources told The News here Monday.

The planes have successfully conducted their test flights early this year and China is now in the production phase of its stealth planes. A chopper fitted with stealth characteristics is not much different to what is used for the fixed-wings planes. The Chinese never requested Pakistan to provide any sort of access to the debris of the US stealth chopper that crashed in the Abbottabad operation on May 2 in which American special forces reportedly killed Osama bin Laden (OBL) and took his body to Afghanistan.

Highly placed defence sources say American satellites were monitoring the movement in and around Abbottabad during the days when the debris was lying outside the OBL compound. The area was under the constant watch of the world media and US moles were also actively at work during that period. In such a situation it was not possible for any Chinese expert to examine the tail of the chopper and, secondly, China never asked for such access. The stealth planes exterior is made of highly specialised materials such as Polygraphite. China has complete knowledge of the technology and is successfully using it already, the sources maintained.

They pointed out that the western media reports pertaining to so-called inspection by the Chinese experts is totally baseless and it appearance after more than three months depicts ill-intention. The purpose is to malign Pakistan and build pressure on it.

Providing background of the technology the sources said that it is used to avoid detection by employing a combination of features to interfere with radar as well as reduce visibility in the infrared, visual, audio, and radio frequency (RF) spectrum. Development of stealth technology began in Germany during World War II.

Well-known modern examples of stealth aircraft include the United States’ F-117 Nighthawk (1981-2008), the B-2 Spirit, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning II. While no aircraft is totally invisible to radar, stealth aircraft prevents conventional radar from detecting or tracking the aircraft effectively, reducing the odds of a successful attack.

Stealth is the combination of passive low observable (LO) features and active emitters such as Low Probability of Intercept Radars, radios and laser designators. These are usually combined with active defences such as chaff, flares, and ECM. It is accomplished by using a complex design philosophy to reduce the ability of an opponent’s sensors to detect, track, or attack the stealth aircraft. This philosophy also takes into account the heat, sound, and other emissions of the aircraft as these can also be used to locate it. It has already been established that the United States does not have monopoly on the stealth technology, as some other countries are also equipped with it.

Full-size stealth combat aircraft demonstrators have been flown by the United States in 1977, Russia in 2010 and China in 2011, while the US Military has already adopted three stealth designs, and is preparing to adopt another.

Most recent fighter designs will at least claim to have some sort of stealth, low observable, reduced RCS or radar jamming capability, but as yet there has been no actual air-to-air combat experience against stealth aircraft.

During World War I, an attempt to reduce the visibility of military aircraft resulted in the German heavy bomber, the Linke-Hofmann R.I; this had a wooden structure covered with transparent material. The first true “stealth” aircraft may have been the Horten Ho 229 flying wing fighter-bomber, developed in Germany during the last years of World War II. In the closing weeks of the war the US military initiated “Operation Paperclip”, an effort by the US Army to capture as much advanced German weapons research as possible, and also to deny that research to advancing Soviet troops. A Horton glider and the Ho 229 number V3 were secured and sent to Northrop Aviation for evaluation in the United States, which much later used a flying wing design for the B-2 stealth bomber. The first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft was in December 1989 during Operation Just Cause in Panama. On 20 December 1989, two USAF F-117s bombed a Panamanian Defence Force barracks in Rio Hato, Panama. In 1991, F-117s were tasked with attacking the most heavily fortified targets in Iraq in the opening phase of Operation Desert Storm and were the only jets allowed to operate inside Baghdad’s city limits.

Stealth aircraft are typically more expensive to develop and manufacture. An example is the B-2 Spirit that is many times more expensive than the conventional bomber aircraft. The B-2 programme cost the U.S. Air Force almost $45 billion.

Stealth aircraft have been used in several conflicts: the United States invasion of Panama, the Gulf War, the Kosovo conflict, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the 2011 military intervention in Libya. To date, the United States of America is the only country to have used stealth aircraft in combat.

The first use of stealth aircraft was in the United States invasion of Panama, where F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft were used to drop bombs on enemy airfields and positions while evading enemy radars. The successful first deployment of stealth aircraft to a combat zone marked a milestone in military aviation. In 1990 the F-117 Nighthawk was used again in the Gulf War, where F-117s flew approximately 1,300 sorties and scored direct hits on 1,600 high-value targets in Iraq while accumulating over 6,905 flight hours. Only 2.5% of the American aircraft in Iraq were F-117s, yet they struck more than 40% of the strategic targets, dropping over 2,000 tons of precision-guided munitions and striking their targets with over an 80% success rate.

The sources pointed out that in the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia two stealth aircraft were used by the United States, the veteran F-117 Nighthawk, and the newly introduced B-2 Spirit strategic stealth bomber. The F-117 performed its usual role of striking precision high-value targets and performed well, although one F-117 was shot down by a Serbian Isayev S-125 ‘Neva-M’ missile. The new B-2 Spirit was highly successful, destroying 33% of selected Serbian bombing targets in the first eight weeks of U.S. involvement in the War.

During this war, B-2s flew non-stop to Kosovo from their home base in Missouri and back.

In the 2003 invasion of Iraq, F-117 Nighthawks and B-2 Spirits were again used, and this was the last time the F-117 would see combat.

F-117s dropped satellite-guided strike munitions on selected targets, with high success. B-2 Spirits conducted 49 sorties in the invasion, releasing more than 1.5 million pounds of munitions. The most recent use of stealth aircraft was in the 2011 military intervention in Libya, where B-2 Spirits dropped 40 bombs on a Libyan airfield with concentrated air defences in support of the UN no-fly zone. In future, it is likely that stealth aircraft will continue to play a valuable role in air combat. In future conflicts the United States is likely to use F-22 Raptor, B-2 Spirit, and the F-35 Lightning II to perform a variety of operations.

In Russia, the Sukhoi PAK FA stealth multi-role fighter is to be introduced in 2015, to perform a wide variety of missions. In India, the Sukhoi/HAL FGFA, the Indian version of the PAK FA, is to be introduced from 2017 in higher numbers, also to perform a wide variety of missions. In China, the Chengdu J-20 stealth multi-role fighter is to be pressed into service around 2018. A prototype was flown early this year.

The sources reminded that the only time a stealth aircraft has been shot down was on 27 March 1999, during Operation Allied Force. An American F-117 Nighthawk’s bomb bay had malfunctioned causing it to remain open for an unusually long time, allowing a Serbian Air Defence crew who were operating their radars on unusually long wavelengths to launch an Isayev S-125 ‘Neva-M’ missile at it, which brought it down.

The pilot ejected and was rescued and the aircraft itself remained relatively intact due to striking the ground at a slow speed in inverted position. A B-2 crashed on February 23, 2008 shortly after takeoff from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the sources added.

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By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir - The News, Pakistan

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DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Global Fighter Jets ~ Asia, The New Centre Of Gravity?

DTN News - DEFENSE NEWS: Global Fighter Jets ~ Asia, The New Centre Of Gravity?

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources By Richard A. Bitzinger - Eurasia Review

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 20, 2011:

Some of Asia’s aerospace industries are starting work on fifth-generation fighter aircraft. Despite huge technological hurdles, these countries could displace Western Europe as a leading centre of fighter jet development, and possibly one day give the United States some real competition in global markets.

FOR CENTURIES, North America and Europe have dominated the state-of-the-art when it comes to military technology. Nearly all the great breakthroughs in weaponry – from muskets to missiles – have originated there. And perhaps no field of military technology has been more consistently and overwhelmingly the purview of the occidental West than fighter jets.

Since the end of World War II, a handful of countries in the West – basically, the United States, the USSR/Russia, Britain, France, and Sweden – have controlled the global fighter jet industry. Many countries have tried to break into this business: Argentina in the 1950s, Egypt and India in the 1960s, Israel and South Africa in the 1980s; none were particularly successful, and some – such as the Indian HF-24 Marut – were spectacular failures. Even today, perhaps 90 percent of all fighter jets flown by all the world’s air forces are produced by these five countries, or are based on copies of their planes (such as the Chinese J-7 fighter, a virtual clone of the venerable Soviet MiG-21).

This Western dominance could begin to crumble, however, as Asia ramps up several new fighter jet programmes, all of which are intended to come into service over the next 10 to 20 years. Consequently, the centre of gravity in the fighter jet industry could gradually begin to shift from the North Atlantic closer to the Asia – a development that could have particularly grave consequences for Western Europe’s military aerospace sector and could eventually even challenge the US’s predominance in this sector.

Asia’s Fighter Jet Programmes: Who’s Up, Who’s Down?

Combat aircraft development in Asia is a decidedly uneven affair. Southeast Asia, for example, has hardly a player in this sector, despite the vainglorious efforts of B.J. Habibie to turn Indonesia into an aerospace powerhouse, or Singapore Technologies’ success as an aircraft maintenance and upgrade shop. In addition, Taiwan’s indigenous aerospace industry – which developed both an advanced trainer jet (the AT-3) and a frontline fighter (the Ching-kuo) – is for all practical purposes dead in the water, having not produced a new aircraft in over a decade.

Even Japan, Asia’s aerospace leader for decades (and the only country in the region to possess a military aircraft industry before World War II), is in a state of uncertain decline. Its current indigenous fighter jet, the F-2, has been a technological and programmatic dead-end: its all-composite wing is prone to cracks, and it is so outrageously expensive (three times the cost of the F-16 upon which it is based) that procurement was cut from 130 to only 98 planes. When the last F-2 is delivered this year, Japan will have no fighter aircraft in production – and no new programme to replace it.

Rising Centres: China, India, and South Korea

On the other hand, some Asian fighter aircraft producers are obviously on the rise, despite all odds. China startled the world in January with the first flight of its J-20 fighter. Not much is known about this aircraft, which in some ways resembles the US “fifth-generation” F-22, and one should be careful not to read too much into this programme. Nevertheless, the J-20 certainly demonstrates China’s ambitions – and the aggressive steps it is prepared to take – to claw its way up into the vanguard of fighter-jet producers.

China's J20?

India is also attempting to develop a fifth-generation fighter, in collaboration with Russia, based on the Sukhoi PAK FA (T-50) prototype. If this programme is successful, it would constitute a generational leap in India’s fighter jet technology, as well as atoning for its long-delayed and over-budget Tejas fighter.

Finally, South Korea is pressing ahead with not one but two designs for an indigenous fifth-generation “KF-X” fighter – a twin-engine, canard-type fighter, and a single-engine aircraft resembling the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Interestingly, both Indonesia and Turkey are keen to partner with Korea in developing and manufacturing one of these fighters.

What About Europe?

All of these fighter jets are intended to fly or even be fielded within a decade. Of course, these countries face tremendous challenges translating these programmes – some which are literally paper aircraft – into actual frontline fighters. India is heavily dependent upon Russian know-how and systems, while it is highly uncertain that South Korea possesses the technological base to indigenously develop a state-of-the-art fighter. If these countries should succeed, however, this would constitute a tectonic shift in the centre of gravity in the global fighter jet industry.

Europe is the most at risk for losing its place to Asia in the global fighter jet hierarchy. Western Europe has basically not developed a new fighter in nearly 30 years. At present there is no money in the European aerospace sector to fund a fifth-generation follow-on to the Eurofighter Typhoon, the French Rafale, or the Swedish Gripen. Moreover, talk about a European UCAV (an unmanned combat aerial vehicle), which could constitute the region’s next-generation fighter programme, remains just that – talk.

Consequently, the future global fighter aircraft business could in time become a US-Asian duopoly. And while the US, with the F-35 JSF, is likely to dominate this sector for the next two decades – especially when it comes to international arms sales – some upstart Asian aircraft producers could eventually give it a real run for its money.

Richard A. Bitzinger is a Senior Fellow with the Military Transformations Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. Formerly with the RAND Corp. and the Defence Budget Project, he has been writing on aerospace and defence issues for more than 20 years.

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DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: Stealthy Sabre-Rattling ~ China's Secret Jet Completes Second Test Flight In Latest Show Of Military Strength

DTN News - CHINA DEFENSE NEWS: Stealthy Sabre-Rattling ~ China's Secret Jet Completes Second Test Flight In Latest Show Of Military Strength

*J-20 jet 'waggles its wings' in salute to watching crowd

*Latest test flight lasted more than 90 minutes

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources Daily Mail UK

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - April 20, 2011:

China has staged a second test flight of its new stealth fighter jet in its latest display of military strength.

Scores of people watched the prototype J-20 take to the skies at an airfield in Chengdu, in Sichuan province.

They cheered and applauded as it made several passes, waggling its wings ‘to salute the crowd,’ according to one onlooker.

Trial: The J-20 was caught on camera during its second test flight this weekend as China put on a show of its military might

Development: The jet took off from a base in Chengdu, Sichuan, and was watched by a cheering crowd

The stealth jet took off at 4.25pm and landed at 5.50pm, in a display timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the aviation industry.

An initial test flight, which took place on January 11 when U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates was in China, was comparatively brief at 18 minutes.

A slew of pictures of the J-20 prototype have been circulating on online military forums.

The flight was also reported in the Global Times, a popular tabloid owned by the Communist party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily.

It ran a picture of a grey fighter plane and a caption that read ‘an alleged J-20 prototype prepares to take off.’

China’s Defence Ministry has not commented on the story.

But the latest test flight, which took place at the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute’s airfield, pushes the burgeoning superpower closer towards America’s military might.

The U.S. F-22 Raptor is currently the only operational stealth fighter in the world, while Russia's Sukhoi T-50 jet is expected to enter active service in the next four years.

But pictures of China's J-20, which looks larger than the F-22 or T-50, will be of concern to the Taiwanese government, whose antiquated aircraft and radar systems would provide little resistance to radar-evading Chinese jets.

The U.S. has claimed China would not be capable of developing a stealth jet for years and production of the F-22 was recently capped.

But the J-20's successful test, coupled with reports of the development of an aircraft carrier and missile system, confirms China's growing military might.

Xu Yongling, one of China’s elite test pilots, told the Global Times that each test fight brings the craft closer to mass production.

‘The first 10 to 20 tests are meant to calibrate the entire aircraft, including its stability, handling qualities and performance. All of them are short in time, but the entire process will take years to complete,’ he said.

Sabre rattling: Scores of people gathered to watch China's J-20 stealth fighter jet complete a second test flight on Sunday

Original: America is the only country to have an operational stealth bomber

The development of China’s stealth bomber has been shrouded in secrecy and generated headline grabbing reports that the technology was gleaned from a downed U.S. fighter jet.

Military officials say it is likely the Chinese were able to develop the stealth technology from parts of an American F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999.

During Nato’s aerial bombing of the country during the Kosovo war, a Serbian anti-aircraft missile shot the Nighthawk. It was the first time one of the ‘invisible’ fighters had ever been hit.

The Pentagon believed a combination of clever tactics and luck had allowed a Soviet-built SA-3 missile to bring down the jet.

The pilot ejected and was rescued but the wreckage was strewn over a wide area of farmland.

Civilians collected the parts – some the size of small cars – as souvenirs.

‘At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers,’ says Admiral Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia’s military chief of staff during the Kosovo war.

‘We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies... and to reverse-engineer them.’

A senior Serbian military official confirmed that pieces of the wreckage were removed by souvenir collectors, and that some ended up ‘in the hands of foreign military attaches’.

China’s military strength and sophistication has been growing rapidly in recent years. There has already been much speculation that the country could be ready to deploy its first aircraft carrier in July.

This would be 12 months earlier than American analysts had anticipated. China has denied the report.

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