China\u27s Military Aviation Industry: In Search of Innovation

Prolonged systemic challenges continue to strain and divide China’s military aviation industry, especially over structural consolidation, institutional reorganization, and lack of technological sophistication. Nonetheless, the sector’s overall modernization drive is among the most prominent of China’s defense industries. During the past decade, China’s military aviation industry has been gradually transforming its defense, science, technology, and innovation capabilities and narrowing the once-wide technological gaps with advanced aviation powers. In the fighter aircraft arena alone, it has been modernizing its ‘legacy’ fighters while developing a diverse portfolio of new indigenous designs, including modern fourth-generation fighters, and preparing to break into the fifth-generation aircraft market. The recent unveiling of China’s next-generation fighter aircraft prototypes the J-20 and J-31, along with accelerated modernization of the Chengdu J-10 and Shenyang J-11 fleets, shows not only the increased sophistication of Chinese combat aircraft but also, more importantly, the ongoing transformation of China’s military aviation sector