China stole F-22 secrets to create their own J-20 stealth fighter, ex-official ... trends now
A former Department of Defense official from the Trump administration has warned that China relied heavily on stolen US technology to build its J-20 Mighty Dragon stealth fighter, calling for greater safeguards on secret weapon systems.
Former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson said China has pilfered US secrets for many years, basing the J-20 on technology from the F-22 Raptor and Joint Strike Fighter program.
'What we know is that because of the espionage efforts, the J-20 is more advanced than it otherwise would be, and that's the important point here,' Anderson told Fox News Digital in an interview published on Thursday.
China's extensive espionage efforts targeting the F-22, which first entered service in 2005, are well documented. In 2016 a confessed Chinese spy was sentenced to 46 months in US prison for stealing designs for the Lockheed Martin fighter jet.
'They have profited greatly from their thievery over the years... They've put it to good use, and they've come up with an advanced fifth-generation fighter,' said Anderson of the Chinese J-20.
The US F-22 and Chinese J-20 are compared above. China is accused of stealing US technology to design its fifth-generation stealth fighter jet
A J-20 stealth fighter jet performs during the 12th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition, also known as Airshow China 2018, in the city of Zhuhai
Former Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Policy James Anderson (seen in 2020) said the Chinese have pilfered US secrets for many years to create the J-20 fighter
The J-20, which first entered service in 2017, is widely regarded as a direct copy of the F-22.
Aside from the J-20's forward canard wings, the two fighters are visually very similar, and are believed to have similar flight capabilities and armaments.
Experts have said the J-20 represents a massive leap forward in China's ability to project power in Asia, warning it could compete on par with US military technology.
However, Anderson noted that it's 'hard to say, short of actual combat,' how the J-20 would measure up against the F-22 in a real-world confrontation.
The US built a total of 187 F-22s before ending the program in 2011 in favor of the F-35 Lightning II, a fifth-generation fighter jet built by Lockheed Martin under the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.
JSF was also a known target of Chinese espionage, and in 2009 the Wall Street Journal reported that suspected Chinese hackers had penetrated the program and stolen 'several terabytes of data related to design and electronics systems.'
Anderson said China spent 'well over a decade' targeting the Joint Strike Fighter, and has used stolen elements in the design and construction of the J-20.
