In November 1996, visitors to the first Airshow China crowded around two Russian Su-27 fighters and watched them perform the cobra, braking sharply in mid-air. China could not yet build a fourth-generation fighter of its own.
That first show ran from 5 to 10 November in Zhuhai, Guangdong. Thirty years on, the biennial event is the largest airshow in China, and its programme reads as a rough ledger of how far the People’s Liberation Army Air Force has come from buying foreign aircraft to showing off its own.
The home-built jets arrive
The seventh edition, in 2008, is the one to mark. The Chengdu J-10 and the Xi’an JH-7A both made their first public appearances. Roughly 4 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of deals were signed over six days, among them a sale of 25 ARJ21-700 regional jets by Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China to GE Commercial Aviation Services of the United States. By 2010 the August 1st aerobatic team was flying the J-10 in its first open show after renewing its aircraft.
Stealth followed. In 2016 a Chengdu J-20 low-rate initial production model flew past the crowd. Two years later a production J-20 performed, alongside the J-10B, billed as one of the world’s first serial aircraft with a thrust-vectoring engine. The 2018 show also featured a full-scale mock-up of the Tianhe core module for a planned large modular space station, and exhibits described as the world’s first quantum radar and air-cooled airborne radar.
Jammers, drones and new fighters
The 2021 edition was postponed from 2020 by the pandemic, and 700 companies took part, online and in person. More than 100 aircraft were shown. The FH-97 jet-powered drone and the Shenyang FC-31 were on the list. So was the J-16D, a two-seat electronic warfare jet derived from the Flanker and often compared with the U.S. Navy’s EA-18G Growler.
The J-16D has since been seen with several jamming pods, marked RKZ930-10, -22, -31 and -32. Each has a distinct shape, which analysts believe lets them cover different radar frequency bands, much as the U.S. Navy’s Next Generation Jammer does.
The 2022 show leaned toward air defence and long-range strike. The CASIC Anti-UAV System combined the DK-1 low-altitude search radar, the ZK-K20 control system, HQ-17AE and QW-12 short-range missiles and the ZR-1500 drone defence system. An export, air-launched version of the YJ-21 hypersonic missile sat on display, as did a JH-7A2 loaded with AKF-98 and AKF-88C missiles and a 1,000-kilogram bomb. There were also a ground display of J-20s and a concept for a sixth-generation fighter.
In 2024 the debut list included the J-35A stealth fighter, the J-15T and J-15D carrier-based jets, and a two-seat J-20S. Russia’s Su-57 stealth fighter prototypes were there as well, a mildly ironic contrast with 1996.
A jammer on a bomber
The latest curiosity came before the 2026 show. On 25 October, analyst Andreas Rupprecht reported that an H-6KG bomber had been seen with a large jamming pod. “Apparently the H-6KG is now using a new large jammer pod … looks almost like one the J-16D pods, namely the RKZ-930-22 or -32 albeit with a different front,” he wrote. He did not say where or when the aircraft was photographed.
The H-6K family is the most modern line of China’s H-6 bomber, a heavily modernised descendant of the Soviet Tu-16, with Russian D-30KP2 turbofans and long-range cruise missiles under the wings. A pod like this would let the bomber blind or confuse enemy radars by itself on its approach, rather than depend on escort jets. China has not commented, and it is unknown whether the pod is in service or still being tested.
It would not be the first time. In late 2017 state television showed PLA Navy H-6G bombers converted to carry countermeasure pods after nearly a decade of modification.
Sources
- In Focus | How the Zhuhai air show charted China’s path from catching up to flying high
- China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition
- China’s H-6 bomber spotted with a new large jamming pod
- Canada and More Countries to Gear Up for New Aviation and Airline Industry Shows This November for Every Industry Experts – Travel And Tour World
Photo: Stang (CC BY 4.0)
