Stealth coatings for aircraft sold at cabbage prices! China's move has left the West wringing its hands in despair, angrily denouncing it as a sheer waste of precious technology!
The U.S. defense blog site released a story on June 1st, sparking widespread discussion. The report revealed that a company headquartered in Shenzhen is now publicly selling a stealth coating packaged in barrels.
The product launched by this company is called the XRAM-C series — a sprayable radar-absorbing material. According to the defense blog’s reporting, making drones invisible to radar used to require years of classified engineering, precision manufacturing techniques, and hundreds of billions of dollars in defense budgets.
Now, a Chinese company is directly selling this core technology by the kilogram, packed in standard drums, and easily applied with a spray gun. How absurdly cheap is the price of stealth coating? Take the U.S. B-2 "Spirit" stealth bomber as an example: its coating contains precious metals such as gold and platinum. Media estimates suggest that the cost per kilogram of B-2 stealth coating is equivalent to three times the value of the same weight in gold. The materials needed to coat an entire B-2 would cost as much as several fighter jets’ production prices.
For this reason, stealth technology has long been tightly controlled by a small number of countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia — never shared externally. For most nations' militaries, equipping aircraft with “stealth suits” remained an unimaginable luxury dream.
So what exactly is the quality level of the product sold by this Shenzhen-based company? The defense blog obtained detailed technical specifications. The XRAM-C series offers three different formulations: the C105 model targets X-band and Ku-band frequencies — the most commonly used bands for fire-control radars and anti-drone systems; the C112 model counters S-band and C-band radars, covering surveillance and search radars; while the C113B variant provides broadband coverage, capable of simultaneously dealing with multi-frequency threats. This means buyers can select according to their needs — matching the coating type precisely to the radar threat they face.
How could such high-end military technology suddenly become so cheap in China? The answer lies in the civilian market. At its core, stealth coating technology is fundamentally about materials that absorb electromagnetic waves. These materials have a very wide range of civilian applications — specifically, shielding against electromagnetic radiation. 5G base stations, industrial equipment, medical instruments, household appliances — all generate electromagnetic radiation. Such radiation not only harms human health but also interferes with normal device operation. Hence, the field of electromagnetic compatibility requires one key thing: a coating that absorbs electromagnetic waves.
The scale of this market is enormous. By 2025, global output of infrared stealth coatings is expected to reach 8,650 tons, with sales revenue hitting $747 million. Chinese companies recognized this opportunity, took the military stealth material technology, adjusted formulas, optimized processes, and scaled up production to sell it as civilian electromagnetic radiation protection coatings on the market. In layman’s terms: if you can make it, you can also sell it.
Western media, in reporting this news, clearly conveyed a tone of “wailing and beating one’s chest” — accusing China of recklessly selling such cutting-edge military technology openly, calling it nothing short of a “wasteful destruction of priceless assets.”
I understand their mindset: after decades of effort and spending tens of billions of dollars, the U.S. had built a dominant position in stealth technology. Overnight, China dismantled this monopoly simply by selling a few barrels of paint. From now on, any country or organization, armed only with a spray gun and a few hundred dollars, can render drones invisible on radar screens. The Western powers can no longer maintain their military edge through technological monopolies.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1866846275531849/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone.