J-10 Thread IV

[siegecrossbow]

Right, I just got back from a week’s trip in China, and was lucky enough to stay a few days in an area with a J10 unit.

It was the first time I saw J10s in the wild with my own eyes, and it was a great feeling the first few times (its amazing how quickly something like that became ‘ordinary’, although the sortie rates might have had something to do with it, that and the heat!)

I mostly saw them on take off, and they tended to head straight out to sea for proper training, so nothing special to see, except the sortie rate.

Those boys were putting up serious sorties rates the few days I was in the area, with multi-ship launches pretty much standard. Multiple twin ship flights were going up within an hour, and they were doing this pretty much all day from early morning into dusk, with a major mass launch just as the sun was setting (although it was pretty quiet the next day, so maybe they were winding down after such an intensive burst of activity).

There were also FT2000s, and those went up in numbers alongside the J10s, I’m guessing for DACT.

Locals didn’t seem particularly impressed by any of this, so it seems to be pretty standard.

This fits in pretty well with the heavy JH7 sortie rates I saw last time I was back a couple years ago.

It looks to me like the PLAAF is taking training extremely seriously in recently years.

The planes were too far for me to get much details when they were in the air, and I only managed a split second glimpse of a J10 in a hanger when my flight was taking off (they have stepped up their game with opsec at the airport, which is dual civilian and military, giving civilian passengers almost no chance to see much on arrival or departure), but I distinctly remember a grey radome, which suggests J10Bs or Cs, although that was the only J10 I saw, so cannot say if the whole unit based there are B/C equipped, or if it’s a visiting plane from a different unit.

Edit,

Just to add, I rarely saw J10s go up with tanks, and many if not most seemed to be packing dual rail PL12 loadouts (again, hard to see definitely at the ranges I was from them, but the rails/missiles under the wings were definitely the same length and very close to each other).

FT2000s often packed tanks, and looked a lot sleeker live than in photos. So much so I didn’t recognise them until the second or third time I saw them.

No photos?

 

[latenlazy]

Right, I just got back from a week’s trip in China, and was lucky enough to stay a few days in an area with a J10 unit.

It was the first time I saw J10s in the wild with my own eyes, and it was a great feeling the first few times (its amazing how quickly something like that became ‘ordinary’, although the sortie rates might have had something to do with it, that and the heat!)

I mostly saw them on take off, and they tended to head straight out to sea for proper training, so nothing special to see, except the sortie rate.

Those boys were putting up serious sorties rates the few days I was in the area, with multi-ship launches pretty much standard. Multiple twin ship flights were going up within an hour, and they were doing this pretty much all day from early morning into dusk, with a major mass launch just as the sun was setting (although it was pretty quiet the next day, so maybe they were winding down after such an intensive burst of activity).

There were also FT2000s, and those went up in numbers alongside the J10s, I’m guessing for DACT.

Locals didn’t seem particularly impressed by any of this, so it seems to be pretty standard.

This fits in pretty well with the heavy JH7 sortie rates I saw last time I was back a couple years ago.

It looks to me like the PLAAF is taking training extremely seriously in recently years.

The planes were too far for me to get much details when they were in the air, and I only managed a split second glimpse of a J10 in a hanger when my flight was taking off (they have stepped up their game with opsec at the airport, which is dual civilian and military, giving civilian passengers almost no chance to see much on arrival or departure), but I distinctly remember a grey radome, which suggests J10Bs or Cs, although that was the only J10 I saw, so cannot say if the whole unit based there are B/C equipped, or if it’s a visiting plane from a different unit.

Edit,

Just to add, I rarely saw J10s go up with tanks, and many if not most seemed to be packing dual rail PL12 loadouts (again, hard to see definitely at the ranges I was from them, but the rails/missiles under the wings were definitely the same length and very close to each other).

FT2000s often packed tanks, and looked a lot sleeker live than in photos. So much so I didn’t recognise them until the second or third time I saw them.

Might take a page out of your book next time I’m back in China. I don’t like visiting my extended family much, but a lot of them do live in Cangzhou, and I’ve never visited the airbase there before. Might just be able to get a sense of usage rates with their J-20s if I go.

 

[plawolf]

No photos?

Most of this I saw from the air-conditioned comfort of indoors, as it was just way too hot to be outdoors for me, never mind to wait for them outside at a discrete location.

Getting outside in time to see them fly past is one thing, but waving a phone or camera around would be been a bit too conspicuous for my liking, and I didn’t want to risk getting anyone in trouble.

 

[by78]

A grainy magazine scan of J-10C, likely from the movie Sky Hunter...

(1920 x 1440)

 

[jobjed]

Guilin got J-10Cs?

Secondhand most likely, judging from the lack of inlet MAWS.

 

[Pampa]

Guilin got J-10Cs?

Secondhand most likely, judging from the lack of inlet MAWS.

MAWS (both inlet side and top tail) can be seen in the first J-10C of the flightline.

Regards

 

[jobjed]

MAWS (both inlet side and top tail) can be seen in the first J-10C of the flightline.

Regards

Looks like I mistook them for something else.

 

[Inst]

The recent J-10s, in their own way, actually look better than the J-20s. Very clean, lack of abrupt surface breaks for subsystems.

 

[Figaro]

The recent J-10s, in their own way, actually look better than the J-20s. Very clean, lack of abrupt surface breaks for subsystems.

I don't see how the J-10 looks "way better" than the J-20 ... the latter looks much nicer for me, especially its serrated nozzles for the WS-10X version.

 

[Deino]

Guilin got J-10Cs?

Secondhand most likely, judging from the lack of inlet MAWS.

So the 5th Air Brigade also got some J-10C!? ... but IMO not necessarily "secondhand", since the C is the only one in production and I have a bit of the feeling that several units received at first a few J-10B and later additional C-models.