Had there been any more info on the J-11BG upgrades? Do we know if the upgrades continued or did they abandon it? The J-11Bs are relatively young air frames so not upgrading them (making them less useful) seems counterintuitive. At least for less challenging scenarios; China doesn't exactly need J-20s against India for example.
China Flanker Thread III (land based, exclude J-15)
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
J-16 pilot Chen Jiangnan.
Not like China lacks J-20 any longer. I.e. deploying flankers to Himalayan airfields doesn't have particular sense.
Flankers aren't cheap to operate - i.e. they should bring to the fight something J-20 can't.
Originally flankers were long range fighters in PLAAF(but also mainline air superiority; not by design, but rather vis being strongest aircraft available).
Mainline air superiority is gone; long range is becoming increasingly precarious since F-35s are now quite entrenched in Philippines.
What's left of the fontline mission set is payloads carrier and 2nd day multirole; neither role is a particular J-11 strength.
More broadly, there's the urgent need to deploy drone interceptors...and that's a mission set J-11BG can be very suitable for.