Replacing the Legacy J7 and J8 fighters

HKSDU said:

Major thought is. What major positive and negatives does the JF-17 offer over the J-10, which is already in full production, with production lines already running. J-10 is better in the JF-17 in all areas, why provide something that will require replacement soon after production? J-10 has more potential and can remain in service longer

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One reason could be cheapness, but I have doubts the savings from buying JF-17s in place of J-10s will offset the operational costs of having two different platforms requiring different maintenance.

latenlazy said:

One reason could be cheapness, but I have doubts the savings from buying JF-17s in place of J-10s will offset the operational costs of having two different platforms requiring different maintenance.

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I notice is also. But the advantage of performance benefits outweigh that in the JF-17, and with the PLA budget increasing substantially year by year, it ain't running low on money. The J-10 isn't that much more expensive. It's most likely x1.5 JF-17 the price (1.5 was calculated from the export price of the 2 platforms) but add to that the J-10 has all the machinery tools and production line open already. The cost would of the J-10 unit price would be dropping.

HKSDU said:

I notice is also. But the advantage of performance benefits outweigh that in the JF-17, and with the PLA budget increasing substantially year by year, it ain't running low on money. The J-10 isn't that much more expensive. It's most likely x1.5 JF-17 the price (1.5 was calculated from the export price of the 2 platforms) but add to that the J-10 has all the machinery tools and production line open already. The cost would of the J-10 unit price would be dropping.

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PLA budget is increasing, but hardly as much as it needs to be. They're still strapped for cash in a lot of areas.
Jf-17 offers performance too similar to J-10 and isn't a good financial decision for PLAAF -- I think Tphuang's assessment in his blog of a cheap, small fighter with some BVR capability is a good one and should replace the J-7s en masse --JF-17 is still a relatively medium end fighter. PLAAF needs a low end fighter while J-10 and J-11 variants take the medium end -- it should be cheap, modular, and have commonality with some fighters already in production.