>>64412525
as far as i can tell the patch may have appeared first on weibo with the text 'patch of J-36 fighting plane' from an account not affiliated with any official sort of agency or group. i believe it's more like a morale patch produced for sale, but i didn't find the listing anywhere unfortunately. it appears to be a response to the patch someone started selling which is supposedly a 420 FTS patch(its not). however, this patch made the rounds on a lot of chinese social media and really freaked people out, so maybe it's even a case of people just fabricating a story to feel better off of something blown way the fuck out of proportion and looking for any sign of hope.

i did briefly wonder what you might have as other design considerations if the J-36 is a drone tender platform, the possibility of added radar equipment in the nose would perhaps explain some of the design shape we see, with the platform perhaps meant to act as a sort of forward-looking AWACS. however, there's no reason to even try and pretend to make it stealth then, as that would just open it to long-range HARMs, and a three-engine design would imply that speed is a serious consideration, and you don't want your AWACS or mothership to be charging into the kill envelope of enemy craft.