All production J-20s whether demo flights/flypast or aggressive training with other PLAAF aircrafts appear to carry Lunenberg lenses. Even the later prototypes (especially #2017) used Lunenberg lenses. These are very young birds and early days for the PLAAF when using 5th gen aircraft and they will do everything to hide its true RCS. There were rumors (from SDF?) that J-20 had to use Lunenberg lenses even when going up against aggressors comprising of KJ-500 and J-10B as well as ground based assets including S-300. And these newly released footage suggests that maybe true. PLAAF will be extremely protective of the J-20 and will not be risking it near the border of any country without masking its RCS. They might (stress the might) fly near a border of a country if the RCS is heavily masked and their motive was to test the J-20 passive senors. J-20 is packed full of senors of varying types with 360 degrees. It is a signal sucker/leech. Any aircraft that flashes its radar at the J-20 probably compromised itself by doing so. But again the PLAAF is unlikely to risk the J-20 flying near borders of other countries. They will first use it against J-10B/C, J-16, Su-35, KJ-500, KJ-2000, etc extensively before sending it out on risky mission. It will take the PLAAF years to develop tactics for 5th gen warfare. I mean how long did it take the USAF to adapt to the F-22?
My thoughts exactly. There’s no way the J-20 would have flown close enough to the indian border, or any other border, without some form of attempt at masking its true RCS, i.e. with a Lunenberg lens or something similar. The J-20 has appeared with the Lunenberg lens almost every time when flying against other platforms in DACT, or when flying in non-restricted public airspace. I don’t even think they would fly the J-20 near an adversary border, even at this early stage, in an attempt to test its passive sensors. They could readily simulate and test this without taking that risk.
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