1. a few other major developments have happened in the weeks after the Zhuhai air show
- Two 6-gen stealth fighters were filmed in their test flights. Some very interesting innovations are being speculated on including super stealth, high-mach speed, sophisticated air-intake, UAV teaming, etc.
- WZ-9 Divine Eagle - stealth long range high altitude long endurance (20 hour flight duration) drone specifically designed to detect stealth fighters like F22, F35, B2 from hundreds of kilometers away
- KJ-3000 AWAC aircraft - Y-20 based early warning aircraft that provides 360 degree airborn radar coverage and electrical warfare capabilities.
2. the pipeline of new manned and unmanned military aerial and space weaponry is highly classified but industry insiders are confident 2025 will be just as busy as 2024. Chinese military technological innovations will be a tidal wave as its EV cars have done in the automotive industry. If anything has been learned about Chinese industry in the past 20 years, it is that the country excels in scaling and mass production. Expect a pile-on cascade of new launches from a mil-tech industry that have become uber competitive.
3. Chinese military advances, like its advances in other fields of science and technology, are based on a set of critical foundational stones laid over the past 2 decades -
- State investment and whole-of-national committment to build the most modern military - remember the 4 Modernizations concept Deng highlighted in the 1980s? The last modernization is military modernization and China is executing on that grand strategy
- Investment in talents: the 7 sons of national defence research universities (Beihang, Northwestern Polytechnical University, etc.) and China Academy of Sciences (CAS) have produced generations of world-class technical talents with generous state funding and the most competitive student intakes in the country
- Investment in technical infrastructure such as the world's most advanced wind tunnel labs
- Investment in foundationl scientific R&D in material science, hypersonic, aircraft engine, thermal physics, quantum communications and sensing, AI, drone technology, etc.
As China's investments in these foundational assets reach critical mass, the explosion of cutting eduge military innovations will continue.
a few things worth pointing out -
1. a few other major developments have happened in the weeks after the Zhuhai air show
- Two 6-gen stealth fighters were filmed in their test flights. Some very interesting innovations are being speculated on including super stealth, high-mach speed, sophisticated air-intake, UAV teaming, etc.
- WZ-9 Divine Eagle - stealth long range high altitude long endurance (20 hour flight duration) drone specifically designed to detect stealth fighters like F22, F35, B2 from hundreds of kilometers away
- KJ-3000 AWAC aircraft - Y-20 based early warning aircraft that provides 360 degree airborn radar coverage and electrical warfare capabilities.
2. the pipeline of new manned and unmanned military aerial and space weaponry is highly classified but industry insiders are confident 2025 will be just as busy as 2024. Chinese military technological innovations will be a tidal wave as its EV cars have done in the automotive industry. If anything has been learned about Chinese industry in the past 20 years, it is that the country excels in scaling and mass production. Expect a pile-on cascade of new launches from a mil-tech industry that have become uber competitive.
3. Chinese military advances, like its advances in other fields of science and technology, are based on a set of critical foundational stones laid over the past 2 decades -
- State investment and whole-of-national committment to build the most modern military - remember the 4 Modernizations concept Deng highlighted in the 1980s? The last modernization is military modernization and China is executing on that grand strategy
- Investment in talents: the 7 sons of national defence research universities (Beihang, Northwestern Polytechnical University, etc.) and China Academy of Sciences (CAS) have produced generations of world-class technical talents with generous state funding and the most competitive student intakes in the country
- Investment in technical infrastructure such as the world's most advanced wind tunnel labs
- Investment in foundationl scientific R&D in material science, hypersonic, aircraft engine, thermal physics, quantum communications and sensing, AI, drone technology, etc.
As China's investments in these foundational assets reach critical mass, the explosion of cutting eduge military innovations will continue.