China’s ‘dark factory’ more than doubles production efficiency for J-20 jets

AdvertisementScienceChinaScienceChina’s ‘dark factory’ more than doubles production efficiency for J-20 jets

The plant producing fifth-generation warplanes is designed to operate with little to no human involvement

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Victoria BelaPublished: 5:00pm, 12 May 2026

China has more than doubled the production efficiency of stealth fighter components in a “dark factory”, where autonomous vehicles and AI-driven machinery operate nearly 24 hours a day.

The process once required employees to monitor its round-the-clock operations, but the plant can now produce the “skeleton” of an aircraft in near darkness, according to the official Science and Technology Daily.

Dark factories are facilities designed to operate with little to no human intervention, thereby removing the need for lighting, cutting energy consumption and operational costs.

AdvertisementThe “lights-out factory” now produces the components for China’s most advanced fighter jets, including the J-20 or “Mighty Dragon” – seen as the country’s answer to the American F-22 Raptor.

Standing as a symbol of Beijing’s military modernisation, the fifth-generation J-20 jet designed by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, a subsidiary of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, was declared combat-ready in 2018. Mass production of the fighters began two years later.

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The J-20 contained thousands of unique components, Song Ge, head of the Chengdu factory’s digital manufacturing centre, told Science and Technology Daily.

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