J-6 officially retires today

According this Xinhua article, J-6 (chinese Mig-19) has been officially retired from the PLAAF service today.
It also mentioned that J-6 scored 20+ to zero during 1964 to 1968. However, no mention about 1967/01/03 engagement against Taiwanese F-104s, two J-6 (or maybe Mig-19) were shot down by sidewinders (first sidewinder kill I believe). There was one f-104 lost too.


今日上午，国产歼-6战机正式退出空军编制序列。

歼6战机为我国自主生产第一代超音速战机，从1964年首架交付使用，1986年停产，曾是我国空军装备数量最多、服役时间最长、实战中击落敌机最多的国产喷气式超音速战机。

从1964年到1968年，歼6战机共击落20多架各型战机，而自己没有一架被击落。

小资料：歼-6战机

歼-6型飞机是中国沈飞工业公司制造的单座双发超音速战斗机，主要用于国土防空和夺取前线局部制空权，也可执行一定的对地攻击任务。

歼-6是根据前苏联米格-19仿制和发展的，1958年初开始研制，1960年投入批生产，1964年，首批歼-6战斗机交付中国空军使用。是第一种国产超音速战斗机，曾是解放军空军和海军航空兵装备数量最多、服役时间最长、战果最辉煌的国产喷气飞机。歼-6生产了近4000架，在近40年的服役时间里，立下了赫赫战功，1986年停产。

该机采用头部进气，后掠翼，正常式布局，具有尺寸少、重量轻、推重比大、机动性好等特点，适用于近距空战格斗，除装备中国的空军和海军外，还向国外出口。

该机有歼-6Ⅰ、歼-6Ⅱ、歼-6Ⅲ、歼教-6、歼-66甲等多种改型。

It is about time for J-6 to retire. The good old plane has been in service for over 40 years!

siegecrossbow said:

It is about time for J-6 to retire. The good old plane has been in service for over 40 years!

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i agree
next up, J-7. I wonder when?

I wonder how long they'd keep J-8s in service

and they need to replace Q-5 with more abled attack aircraft

damn...can they be converted into drones still?or are they too old for that as well

pla101prc said:

damn...can they be converted into drones still?or are they too old for that as well

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Why this obsession with turning J-6s into drones? What's the point in turning an old fighter into a drone? Drones are useful because they're relatively cheap and light. Converting a J-6 wouldn't result in either.

It would be much more effective to design and build a purpose-made drone to fulfill whatever criteria the PLA have - or a couple of types for different missions if one isn't enough.

To be specific these are not combat J-6s (those were withdrawn a long time ago) but JJ-6 trainers

I think J-7 would go the same path as well when the PLAAF decides to JF-17 or some other lower end fighters en-mass. As for J-8 I think PLAAF will keep upgrading the platform until there are sufficiently J-11s/Su30MKKs to supplant it as a naval fighter.

siegecrossbow said:

I think J-7 would go the same path as well when the PLAAF decides to JF-17 or some other lower end fighters en-mass. As for J-8 I think PLAAF will keep upgrading the platform until there are sufficiently J-11s/Su30MKKs to supplant it as a naval fighter.

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It seems the replacement of J7 would be J10 series, which are not on the lower end after all. I guess PLAAF is departing from the hi-lo combo pattern (which is still prevalent in PLA army), the J10/11 combination is essentially the balance between air-superiority and multirolr fighters, or from the mission type perspective, air defence & penetration missions.

The implecation is J7 will not retire very soon due to the high cost of replacements, my guess is at least another 10 years to go. J8 may receive upgrades for some mission sorts but J7 will just stay there to maintain the ranks.

Also as we know this last batch of J6 got retired are JJ6, and the new trainer JL9 is a derivative of J7, would it be a stretch to say J7's second half of career has just started?

EDIATH said:

Also as we know this last batch of J6 got retired are JJ6, and the new trainer JL9 is a derivative of J7, would it be a stretch to say J7's second half of career has just started?

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I am pretty sure that JL9 is a new design. It employs side intakes and is designed to train Flanker/J-10 pilots. The trainer based on J-7 is JJ-7 and is a relatively old plane.

Maybe again a typical Deino-question ... does anyone know what unit for both the PLAAF and PLANAF used the last J-6 in the fighter role ???