China’s new carrier-capable stealth fighter, the Shenyang J-35, is being touted as having a radar cross section (RCS) “smaller than a human palm.” The Global Times reported that state broadcaster CCTV credited the aircraft’s shaping and domestically developed metamaterial coatings as the primary contributors to this reduced radar visibility.
The same report quoted aerospace analyst Wang Ya’nan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge, who described the palm-sized RCS as “very small” for a fighter of this class. The disclosure followed a statement from the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) that the Type 003 carrier Fujian had completed electromagnetic catapult launches and arrested landings with the J-15T, KJ-600, and J-35.
