Chinese officials recently unveiled a new, high-tech stealth fighter that could pose a significant threat to American air superiority — and some of its technology, it turns out, may well have come from the U.S. itself.Apparently, the Chinese went around buying up pieces of the wreckage. At the time, I was upset that we didn't drop a daisy cutter on the wreckage to keep it secret.
Balkan military officials and other experts have told The Associated Press that in all probability the Chinese gleaned some of their technological know-how from an American F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999.
Still, we did retire the plane. And I believe I read on Strategypage that the stealth technology was too old to work against modern detection systems. Clearly, it wasn't worth it to try and update the small number of F-117s that we built.
So if the Chinese are copying that technology rather than learning from it to build something better along with more recent technology (Bought from Russia? Stolen from us?), it is just a propaganda weapon.
One day, China will catch up to our technology levels in combat aircraft. Heck, there was a time--before the F-15, F-16, and F-18--when Soviet planes were more than a match for ours in terms of performance design (apart from our superior training and support services, of course).
But the J-20 prototype unveiled is not the sign that this day has arrived.
