<p >The year 2025 marks a decade since the entry into serial production of the fighter today being procured in greater numbers by a single service than any other in the world, namely the Chinese <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/chinese-ancient-qi-gong-train-elite-j20-pilots" target="_blank">J-20 Mighty Dragon</a> which forms the backbone of the country’s fleet. Following the first flight of the J-20’s first demonstrator airframe in January 2011, the program was able to progress to serial production in little over four years, which represented less than half the time of any other fighter of its generation. After the first prototype made its first flight in October 2012, the sixth and final J-20 pre-production prototype first flew in November 2015, by which time work on the first serial production airframes had been underway for months. With the designs of the demonstrators prototypes having changed significantly between models, as could be observed from their cockpit canopies, air intakes, and other areas, serial production models were visually distinct. Images of the first serially produced airframe – number 2101 – were first published in December 2015, with the aircraft making its first flight on January 18, 2016, before deliveries to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force began some time in mid-2016.&nbsp;</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/03/25/article_67e25eafe82364_44135484.jpeg" title="J-20 Fighter" ></p><p >The speed at which China’s defence sector was able to move between the first prototype and demonstrator flights, the initiation of serial production, and the bringing of the<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/china-s-j-20-stealth-fighter-marks-five-years-in-service-production-scale-expanding-as-upgrades-enhance-performance" target="_blank"> J-20 into service</a> in February 2017, bore a sharp contrast to rival fifth generation fighter programs in Russia and the United States, with the F-22, F-35 and Su-57 all seeing their first full units formed a full 14-15 years after the first demonstrator flights. This speed was key to allowing China to bridge the gap with the United States in its fifth generation fighter capabilities. The<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/china-surge-j20-120-f35s-48" target="_blank"> J-20’s production scale </a>would increase significantly from 2021, after incremental upgrades brought the fighter to a more satisfactory standard while development of the indigenous WS-10C engine ended reliance on a stopgap derivative of the Russian AL-31FM2 engine. The J-20 today is in production at over three times the scale of any other twin engine fighter at an estimated 100-120 aircraft per year, with only the much lighter F-35 being produced on comparable scale at approximately 140-150 fighters per year. With the F-35 being produced for over a dozen clients, however, only 40-48 of the aircraft join the U.S. Air Force every year, ensuring that China’s air force can build up its fifth generation fleet considerably more quickly as the sole client for the J-20.</p>