J-10

[alyster]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/01/06/china.jet.reut/index.html

BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China has unveiled its Jian-10 multi-role indigenous fighter jet, marking a "historic leap forward" and narrowing a technological gap with major military powers, state media said on Saturday.

China is the fourth country in the world capable of developing its own advanced fighter aircraft, engines and air-to-air missiles, the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, said in a front-page story.

The newspaper did not identify the three other countries, but defense analysts said it was apparently referring to the United States, Russia and France.

"The Jian-10 is superior to the SU-27 but inferior to the SU-30," a military source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters, referring to Russia's Sukhoi fighter jets.

A five-minute video was shown to Chinese reporters in Beijing on Friday, revealing how the fighter takes off, lands, fires missiles and flies in formation, the official Xinhua news agency said. Foreign journalists were barred from the news conference.

The Beijing Daily, the Guangming Daily, the Farmers' Daily and Internet portals splashed pictures of fighters taking off and pilots marching past a row of fighters.

"It has increasingly become apparent the J-10 has the potential of becoming one of the most significant fighters in the next few decades," www.globalsecurity.org said on its Web site.

But Xinhua quoted unnamed military experts as saying the Jian-10 cannot match the performance of fourth-generation U.S. fighter jets, but its basic design and indigenous equipment are comparable to those of mainstream fighter aircraft in the West.

As many as 300 Jian-10 may be produced, sinodefence.com said.

The Jian-10 first flew in 1998 and entered the PLA Air Force service in 2003, sinodefence.com said, adding that the single-seat and twin-seat trainer are "all-weather, high-performance multi-role fighter aircraft capable of both air-to-air and air-to-ground roles".

"(It) marks a breakthrough in China's research and development of heavy fighter aircraft," Liu Gaozhuo, executive commander in chief of the Jian-10 program, told Xinhua.

According to China's defense-policy paper released last December, the air force is reducing the number of combat aircraft, giving priority to the development of new fighters as well as air and missile defense weapons.

The China Aviation Industry Corp. I, China's leading aircraft manufacturer, provided the armed forces with 90 percent of its airborne weapons.

AVIC I has produced 15,000 aircraft, 50,000 aero-engines and more than 10,000 missiles. Company sales rose for the sixth straight year last year, hitting 80 billion yuan ($10.3 billion), up 15.7 percent. Profits surged 42 percent to 3 billion yuan.

China has claimed Taiwan as its own since their split in 1949 amid civil war and vowed to attack the self-ruled democratic island if it formally declares independence.

The United States and Japan are to discuss in February joint plans for their troops to deal with a potential stand-off between China and Taiwan, Japanese media said.

Any comments? Or has webmaster already ordered himself the 301st J-10 as a traial for his online shop?
Anyhow what do you think are the chances for the exports with this plane? Pakistan? Iran?

[Raptor]

It's looks like the C&C Generals MiGs. Hmmm. I think most likely south-east asian countries excluding yours truly.

[Gripen]

the plane will most probably poorly built..

i read somewhere that a country ordered ships to be built in China, and after they were behind schedule and over the budget, the ships were so poorly built that the country had to dry dock them for extensive repairs, wich cost more money

[Raptor]

That's china for you. But did you hear about their super-suspension bridge. Not drifting here, talking about quality of Chinese built things. It held up very well. Much better than a certain USA bridge...

Moving on... No, the China communist effect is wearing off fast. Thus said, the quality of their planes, among other things, should be shooting up, so we should not be too quick to judge the J-10, should we now?

[Webmaster]

Pakistan is seriously thinking about acquiring the J-10. Talks are underway. With the Pak-Chino FC-1/JF-17, there's a good possibility of success. But I think Russia sells the engines only for domestic use by China, so unless China can successfully develop an alternative powerplant for it, the deal depends on the Russians.

Iran is under UN arms embargo at the moment I think?

[alyster]

Last I know only US embargos Iran. Maybe EU also. Russia just sold them anti air missile systems. Altough UN Security Council is talking about the embargo. But then again we're back to the old veto rights, where Russia and China will see first if they'd like to sell anything or not to Iran.

[Cobra2]

So is the J-10 in service yet?

[tigershark]

About the J-10 I found this but I'm not sure how many aircraft are in a Chinese regiment?   I also read on on other forums that the J-10s are beating in training/mock combat both Su-30s and J-11B (Chinese produced Flanker).    For myself and I think many others China needs to let this fighter be seen in air shows.   There are many unanswered questions about what it can really do and what's under the hood.   I wonder what the radar can do?   How many targets can it lock on at once, range, etc.   

August 2004: The first J-10 regiment was formed in the PLAAF 44th Air Division based at Mengzi AFB, Yunnan Province.

http://www.sinodefence.com/airforce/fighter/j10history.asp
http://www.sinodefence.com/airforce/fighter/j10.asp

[tigershark]

Another J-10 story
http://www.aviapedia.com/news/chengdu-aircraft-industry-corporation-introduce-j-10-20070122

[Cobra2]

Thank you Nonpilot 

[Valiant1]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the Israelis had a lot to do with the J-10 project.  I think not too long ago, the Israelis, in an effort to better their relationship with China, aided the Chinese in building a fighter.  And this is the result - sort of a cross between and F-16 and Typhoon.

So, it may be safe to say that China would not have this fighter if it were not for the Israelis.  It doesn't matter anyway, I don't think it will have the capability of going against fighters like the Typhoon, Gripen and Raptor,  pilot skills being equal. 

[RecceJet]

Correct, Israeli Aircraft Industries was working on the Lavi (young lion) aircraft in the 80s, but the project didn't get enough funding so it stopped. I think there were two or three prototype aircraft built.

Israel intended them in a Close Air Support (CAS) role, but the Chinese seem to want to push them into some kind of interceptor role.

This sharing of technology with China may have been influenced by how the US barred Israel from selling the Phalcon system to the Chinese.