Reuters says in its report “China’s stealth fighter makes brief appearance in air force film” on February 27, “In the air force video, entitled ‘Heroes’ Sky’ and released on Thursday (February 26) on Chinese video-sharing websites, the aircraft can be seen very briefly taking off, interspersed between other images of older fighters amid stirringly patriotic slogans.”
It quotes China’s air force spokesman Colonel Shen Jinke as saying to the official Xinhua news agency, “The new fighter jets call for new-generation … flying stars.”
The video is a six-minute film for recruiting pilot trainees from among college students.
Chinese government’s TV station CCTV’s quote of Shen’s words in his interview with Xinhua perhaps reflect the air force’s ambition better. Colonel Shen said that in order to speed up the transformation of China’s air force into an air force with integrated space and air capabilities for both attack and defense, the force needs a large number of high quality pilots. New types of fighter are calling for a new generation of heroes in sky. The air force extends to the large number of ambitious youngsters the Chinese New Year greeting: You excellent youngsters, do not be afraid of being too prominent.
Reuter says, “China is still only in the early stages of testing stealth technology and any deployment is likely years away, it could eventually help narrow the military gap with the United States.”
J-20 stealth fighter conducted its maiden test flight in 2011. Since then its images have seldom been seen. Its appearance in the recruitment film is quite a surprise as according to US experience, J-20 must be in its early stage of development.
However, Reuters says in its report, “Some analysts have said that the J-20 photos suggest that China may be making faster-than-expected progress in developing a rival to Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor, the world’s only operational stealth fighter designed to evade detection by radar.”
In CCTV’s footage on the recruitment video, the TV anchor asked well-known military expert Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo, director of Navy Informatization Experts Committee, “What is your view on that event?”
Yin said, “First, people shall catch the information that J-20 will soon be in service….”
Source: huanqiu.com “Yin Zhuo: Appearance of J-20 in air force pilot recruitment video indicates its imminent commissioning” (summary by Chan Kai Yee)
Source: Reuters “China’s stealth fighter makes brief appearance in air force film”
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