The Q-5, J-7, J-8 and older PLAAF aircraft

J-8F are reported still in production. J-6 is no more in service. J-7 are no more in production and except JL-9, another variant of J-7 but expected to be quickly supersede by JL-10. J-7 are also reported to be retired quickly.

J-8F are expected to be in service in the continuous years. It has good range, payload , great high attitude performance and house a decent radar. It is the first multi role fighter produced by PRC. It is not as useless as many think.

Only the reconnaissance version JZ-8F is still in production. It appears that they are building a third JZ-8F regiment, in the new 20 Division (Guiyang-Leizhuang). The last J-8F fighters were built in 2006, for PLANAF 15 Regiment Jiaozhou.

The last MIG-21 version, J-7G, for PLAAF also stopped around 2006. But small batches have been built for export since then, the most recent being the 12 J-7BGI being delivered to Bangladesh right now. They will probably be the last, as there have been no reports on new orders.

China needs to Keep building J-7's! More J-7's sold to foreign countries, less F-35's for the US to suck big bucks from poor brothers in the world.

I do not really see J-7 as a competitor for F-35. The chances that poor countries like Bangladesh or Nigeria would buy F-35 are very slim. But the chance of Italy or Canada buying J-7 is even slimmer...

There are 30 J-7 brigades/regiments in PLAAF and 1 in PLANAF. Counting about 30 per regiment, that amounts to roughly 950.

There are 6 PLAAF and 2 PLANAF fighter regiments with 210 J-8 II variants.

The JZ-8F count is more difficult, because the plane is still in production, but 3 full PLAAF brigade/regiments would be about 60, plus 6 in PLANAF 15 Regiment.

The most recent GE image (18.03.11) of SAC Shenyang-Beiling 41 51 35 N 123 25 54 E shows 22 JZ-8F awaiting delivery. The previous one (06.04.10) showed just 13.

If the current pattern of about two fighter regiments per year continues, it would take about 18 years to replace them all, i.e. in 2030.

Didn't we say back on china defence that satellite images seem to point to 24 combat j7 per regiment? (a few more for a brigade) plus, of course, two seat jj7?

I would really recommend not counting in the twin seaters with regular j7s, at least not until we have some firm confirmation those have the same subsystems as combat planes.

A.Man said:

China needs to Keep building J-7's! More J-7's sold to foreign countries, less F-35's for the US to suck big bucks from poor brothers in the world.

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Developing countries might opt for the FC-17 instead of the J-7, so where's the demand for them?

Blackstone said:

Developing countries might opt for the FC-17 instead of the J-7, so where's the demand for them?

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These J-7 are ultra cheap and will not required much additional step up training from their current doctrine!

Depending on their nearby threat. Some countries even basically do not view BVR and datalink as essential for their airforce.

JF-17 is consider cheap to many western 4th gen fighter but you need to revamp the whole training program in order to maximise the JF-17 potential and all this will further add up cost. AWACS,datalink, develop BVR doctrine and procedure which means additional training besides dogfight. All this need additional sophisticated infrastructure to support 4th gen fighter.

I think lots of poor countries will still look for J-7 type of fighter.

Lion said:

These J-7 are ultra cheap and will not required much additional step up training from their current doctrine!

Depending on their nearby threat. Some countries even basically do not view BVR and datalink as essential for their airforce.

JF-17 is consider cheap to many western 4th gen fighter but you need to revamp the whole training program in order to maximise the JF-17 potential and all this will further add up cost. AWACS,datalink, develop BVR doctrine and procedure which means additional training besides dogfight. All this need additional sophisticated infrastructure to support 4th gen fighter.

I think lots of poor countries will still look for J-7 type of fighter.

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China has L-9 and L-15 trainer/light fighter-attack to sell the poorest countries, right?

Lion said:

J-8F are reported still in production. J-6 is no more in service. J-7 are no more in production and except JL-9, another variant of J-7 but expected to be quickly supersede by JL-10. J-7 are also reported to be retired quickly.

J-8F are expected to be in service in the continuous years. It has good range, payload , great high attitude performance and house a decent radar. It is the first multi role fighter produced by PRC. It is not as useless as many think.

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Please tell me it's for the export market because it boggles the mind what PLAAF is doing... why would you still be producing brand new J-8s when you've been producing the J-10 for so many years now and J-20, J-31s etc in the not so distant future?
It's like Boeing still producing F-4 Phantoms!

No, the JZ-8F is not being exported, they are strictly for PLAAF (and a few for PLANAF).

It is no doubt considered adequate for the recce job, it is presumably fairly cheap and it is very fast. I see no real problem in continuing to use and build it.