A plane believed to be a Chinese J-20 stealth fighter is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan [Reuters - FILE PIC]
Balkan military officials have reported that China may have gleaned some of its technological knowledge for its recently tested stealth fighter from a US F-117 Nighthawk that was shot down over Serbia in 1999.
China's J-20 stealth fighter took its first test flight earlier this month, just days before a visit to Beijing by Robert Gates, the US defence secretary.
The Nighthawk, which belonged to the world's first ever range of stealth fighters, was shot down on March 27, 1999, during NATO's aerial bombing of Serbia in the Kosovo war.
"At the time, our intelligence reports told of Chinese agents crisscrossing the region where the F-117 disintegrated, buying up parts of the plane from local farmers," said Admiral Davor Domazet-Loso, Croatia's military chief of staff during the Kosovo war.
"We believe the Chinese used those materials to gain an insight into secret stealth technologies ... and to reverse-engineer them."
Sumber: Aljazeera.net, 31/1/2011
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