Beijing expo display offers strongest public hint yet that China is developing airborne laser systems for advanced fighter aircraft
3-MIN READ3-MINGabriel DominguezPublished: 8:00pm, 18 Sep 2026China may be aiming to equip its sixth-generation fighter jets with laser weapons that experts say could help defend them against incoming missiles.
According to social media posts, the booth display said the system weighed less than 380kg (838lbs), although key performance figures were partly obscured.
10:01What do we know about China’s two next-generation aircraft?Transmission power was listed as “*00kW” – implying at least 100kW if the asterisk concealed a single digit – while the system’s dynamic tracking accuracy, a measure of how precisely it could maintain its aim over time, was redacted as “* μrad (RMS)”.
