China expands Lop Nur aircraft test site
The buildout could let China run multiple sensitive flight-test programmes away from routine observation as it races the United States on sixth-generation air power.
Monday, 7 September 2026 08:44
China is expanding the Lop Nur flight-test facility in Xinjiang to support development and testing of next-generation military aircraft, Times of India reported.
Citing South China Morning Post and satellite imagery, the article said the desert facility has four large hangars under construction, new taxiways, a circular pad believed to be used for engine testing or aircraft turnaround, and possible fuel-storage infrastructure. The expansion comes as China pursues multiple advanced combat-aircraft programmes and could allow simultaneous flight-test work away from routine observation.
J Michael Dahm, a retired US Navy intelligence officer and senior fellow for aerospace and China studies at the Mitchell Institute, told the South China Morning Post the buildout began around August 2025, when a tailless aircraft widely identified as China’s J-36 sixth-generation fighter was first observed there. “Seventeen days later, another next-generation aircraft, commonly referred to as the J-XDS or J-50, was spotted at the site,” Dahm said.
By February this year, the base had gained about 60,000 square feet (5,570 square metres) of additional hangar space and more than 300,000 square feet of other infrastructure, likely including testing and evaluation areas and accommodation for personnel, effectively doubling its size.
The facility already had a 5-km (3.1-mile) runway and has been associated with China’s reusable spacecraft programme since at least 2020. Lop Nur lies in a vast, sparsely populated part of Xinjiang, allowing sensitive flight trials away from major population centres. The expanded base could reduce pressure on existing flight-test facilities and let different aircraft programmes operate at the same time, depending on the size of aircraft housed in its hangars.
The development is part of a broader expansion of China’s aerospace-industrial infrastructure, including a new production complex about 16 km north of an existing facility in Shenyang, northeastern China, estimated to contain around 4 million square feet of manufacturing space. China and the United States are racing to develop a new generation of combat aircraft designed to work alongside advanced drones, sensors and long-range weapons. Beijing has not officially disclosed the missions, specifications or formal designations of the J-36 and J-XDS/J-50, while the Pentagon’s latest China Military Power Report described both aircraft as being in the “nascent stages of development” and projected they could become operational by 2035.
The Lop Nur work has also revived questions about the H-20, China’s long-rumoured stealth strategic bomber, which has not been publicly unveiled and whose designation has not been officially confirmed. The War Zone noted that three hangars on the southern apron each measure roughly 80 by 40 metres (262 by 131 feet), large enough for aircraft including the H-6 strategic bomber, which has a wingspan of about 33 metres. The hangars are substantially wider than conventional tactical-aircraft shelters, but The War Zone stressed there is no confirmed evidence linking them to the bomber.
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