US defense officials “don’t know, frankly, much” right now about the sophistication of China’s J-20 aircraft, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Wednesday. Accordingly, it’s too early to hail this platform as a major, foreboding advance in Chinese aircraft design, he cautioned reporters during a briefing. “The J-20 stories, frankly, that I’ve seen over the past couple weeks . . . have been a little over the top,” he said. He continued, “I would just urge everybody to slow down a little bit on [the] characterizations of the J-20 at this point, given what little we know of it.” For example, defense officials “don’t know” if it features “a fifth gen engine” or if it is “as stealthy as they claim it to be,” he said. Any notion that the J-20’s emergence caught US defense officials by surprise are “off base,” he noted. (Morrell transcript)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.