Chinese Trainer Aircraft (JL-8, JL-9, JL-10 (L-15), etc.)

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

Interesting, K-8 is receiving a huge order

basically, it says that an Asian country put in an order for 60 K-8s. It looks like they are also purchasing an assembly line for K-8. Hongdu will produce 12 K-8s and all the software doc + hardware needed for producing K-8s.

My guess is that this is Iran. No other country in Asia that buys Chinese hardware would be capable of putting down this kind of order and be this secretive at the same time. I guess Indonesia is another possibility.

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

tphuang said:

Interesting, K-8 is receiving a huge order

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basically, it says that an Asian country put in an order for 60 K-8s. It looks like they are also purchasing an assembly line for K-8. Hongdu will produce 12 K-8s and all the software doc + hardware needed for producing K-8s.

My guess is that this is Iran. No other country in Asia that buys Chinese hardware would be capable of putting down this kind of order and be this secretive at the same time. I guess Indonesia is another possibility.

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Indonesia is quite broke... They have to scale down their Su-30MK plan.

This left only Iran.

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

tphuang said:

Interesting, K-8 is receiving a huge order

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basically, it says that an Asian country put in an order for 60 K-8s. It looks like they are also purchasing an assembly line for K-8. Hongdu will produce 12 K-8s and all the software doc + hardware needed for producing K-8s.

My guess is that this is Iran. No other country in Asia that buys Chinese hardware would be capable of putting down this kind of order and be this secretive at the same time. I guess Indonesia is another possibility.

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It doesn't leave many countries other than Iran but last time I checked Iran was developing its own light intermediate jet trainer, the OWJ Tazarv, I guess they're giving up perhaps?

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

Semi-Lobster said:

It doesn't leave many countries other than Iran but last time I checked Iran was developing its own light intermediate jet trainer, the OWJ Tazarv, I guess they're giving up perhaps?

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let's go through all the possibilities
Pakistan - not likely, since we would've heard something by now, it won't be this secretive
Indonesia - possibly, but the question is can they really afford 60 K-8s?
Malaysia - not likely, since they are also pretty transparent and we would have heard something by now. Just looking at the FN-6 and KS-1A fiasco, it doesn't seem too likely. Besides, they don't seem to buy Chinese hardware
Thailand - It's a possibility, but can't see them putting in an order this large
Myanmar/Sri Lanka - They are pretty much the same case, both already have a few, don't see the need for more imo
Bangladesh - Simiar to Thailand, don't see the requirement for 60 K-8s, although I do think they will eventually buy some k-8s
Iran - makes sense in every way in terms of order size, non-transparency and assembly line. The only question is the status of their own jet trainer.
Middle East countries - possibly, but I think they'd go with American options and they'd also be more transparent.

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

tphuang said:

let's go through all the possibilities
Pakistan - not likely, since we would've heard something by now, it won't be this secretive
Indonesia - possibly, but the question is can they really afford 60 K-8s?
Malaysia - not likely, since they are also pretty transparent and we would have heard something by now. Just looking at the FN-6 and KS-1A fiasco, it doesn't seem too likely. Besides, they don't seem to buy Chinese hardware
Thailand - It's a possibility, but can't see them putting in an order this large
Myanmar/Sri Lanka - They are pretty much the same case, both already have a few, don't see the need for more imo
Bangladesh - Simiar to Thailand, don't see the requirement for 60 K-8s, although I do think they will eventually buy some k-8s
Iran - makes sense in every way in terms of order size, non-transparency and assembly line. The only question is the status of their own jet trainer.
Middle East countries - possibly, but I think they'd go with American options and they'd also be more transparent.

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I think Bangladesh is pretty plausible actually as well.



Bangladesh is looking into a MAJOR air force upgrade within the next decade and are looking for aircraft to replace their aging trainer fleet (FT-6) so this is actually a fairly reasonable guess as well. But the main thing is purchasing an assembly line, very few Asian countries who buy from China have or have pretenses to such capabilities.

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

Hi Experts:

To my knowledge 60 trainers is a very big number. Do the nations you mention above have the ability and need to operate such a large number of trainers? You missed two things: First, you assume the news is 100% true, while I'd withhold some. Second, Egypt is another big operator of the K-8 and has the assembly line of the bird. If Egypt wants to acquire more K-8, do they need to buy kits from China?

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

SteelBird said:

Hi Experts:

To my knowledge 60 trainers is a very big number. Do the nations you mention above have the ability and need to operate such a large number of trainers? You missed two things: First, you assume the news is 100% true, while I'd withhold some. Second, Egypt is another big operator of the K-8 and has the assembly line of the bird. If Egypt wants to acquire more K-8, do they need to buy kits from China?

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Hongdu reported in the stock market as a standard company news release. All companies that deal with military do this to pump up their share prices. So, we can pretty much assume it to be true. As for Egypt, it can be them. They are not in Asia.

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

Lets not forget the central Asian former soviet republics. True they all operate soviet equipment, but most of that is pretty old and probably in need of replacement by now.

While Russia would be the natural choice for most to turn to for new arms, there are a few notable exceptions with some countries not being on the best of terms with Russia right now. The Ukraine kinda springs to mind.

They have been cooperating with China pretty closely on military tech in the past, and I seem to recall a recent interview where one of their leaders said they wanted to strength military ties with China more and also hinted at bilateral arms trade - as in both buying and selling to each other, which suggest there are Chinese systems they are interested in.

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

Good news, the L-15 trainer will become supersonic speed with the new license produced engine of ＡＩ－２２２－２５F from Ukraine.

There's even possibility L-15 can be onboard the carrier.

It's twin-engined light weight fighter.

Re: JL-15 and other trainers

lilzz said:

Good news, the L-15 trainer will become supersonic speed with the new license produced engine of AI-222-25F from Ukraine.

There's even possibility L-15 can be onboard the carrier.

It's twin-engined light weight fighter.

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This isn't really news at all, we've all known that for nearly a year now I think