Anyone have any sort of transcript of the pertinent part of the interview where the J10 was mentioned?
I was not aware that China was actively marketing the J10 to anyone, and is instead offering the JF17 as its main export offering.
If the J10 was to be made available, it would pretty much be competing directly with the JF17, and will be a more attractive offering to most prospective customers.
It is a little unusual for procurement decisions to go like this, with a potential bidder ruled out at such an early stage. You would think the Iranians would at least use the J10 as leverage to get better terms from the Russians first even if they have no intention of actually going for it. Unless, of course all of that has already happened behind closed doors already. Although given the timeframe from when sanctions were lifted till now, that seems awfully quick.
As others have already pointed out, it makes most sense for Iran to go for a heavy fighter at this stage.
They have a lot of airspace to cover, so a small number of heavy fighters would provide them the best coverage for money spent.
However, given how this deal is going down, I am more inclined to believe that the Su30 deal was pretty much pre-determined, as the price for Russian assistance in getting the nuclear deal agreed, and sanctions lifted.
In which case, the J10 would never have had a shot at winning the contract irrespective of the actual merits of the performance and terms of any offer.
That is why I am very curious to know the exact working regarding the J10 comment.
Firstly, China hasn't really been actively offering the J10 for export as far as I am aware.
Secondly, this was never really a real competitive bid, so even if the Chinese were pushing J10s, it seems like a looser bid not worth investing and time and resources in chasing to start with.
Lastly, China has little interest in picking sides in the whole Sunni vs Shia mess, not to mention its good relations with Israel. So going for such a high-profile arms deal that is likely to royally peeve off the whole Saudi gang, Israel, and probably Pakistan as well just seems like bad maths.
Russia, OTOH, is already effectively engaged in the struggle agains the Saudi-alliance in Syria, and is also already royally peeved at the Saudi led coalition for knocking oil prices into the basement, so arming Iran seems right up their alley.