China test flies its second stealth fighter

(Beijing) Whilst President elect Trump opines publicly about replacing the second US stealth fighter, the F-35 (in production, in service with the Marine Corps and with over 180 world wide flying), with the F-18E aircraft which first flew in 1995 (21 years ago) in which to save money,

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Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016

China test flew its second stealth fighter today, the Shenyang J-31, which due to its stealth capabilities would be able to defeat any 4th generation plane flying today, that includes the F-18E Super Hornet that President elect Trump is looking at. This is an aircraft that China is looking to export, and with the likes of North Korea, Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Sudan willing to hand over the cash in which to own their very own stealth fighter, it wouldn't be long before the military advantage in the air is passed over from the West to nefarious third world countries.

The above pictures are what the J-31 looked like a few months ago. The Chinese have tinkered away with the first iteration aircraft and today test flew their updated version.

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Second FC-31 takes to the air: https://t.co/tB7YXm4xhY pic.twitter.com/VMOWJr83X6

— CombatAir (@CombatAir) December 23, 2016

Sometimes it makes sense for politicians to allow the people in the know (in this case the military) to do the job they are paid to do. I mean just look at how under Obama the US stopped at 187 F-22 aircraft in the mistaken belief that nobody would be able to field a stealth aircraft for at least 20-30 years. Well, here we are a mere six years later and Russia, China, Japan and Korea are all building stealth fighters. The first 3 have stealth planes flying, with the first 2 looking at production runs.