Well over a thousand J-7s and J-8s still in service.
The Q-5, J-7, J-8 and older PLAAF aircraft
- Thread starter adeptitus
- Start date
Well over a thousand J-7s and J-8s still in service.
kwaigonegin
Colonel
what has that got anything to do with anything? regardless of what 'type' it is these fighters are old and antiquated and would not be too useful in the modern battlespace or against modern AA systems.
Are you guys sure about those numbers ? Wasn't the PLAAF fighter fleet reduced to just 1300 fighters ? If you look at how many J-11, J-10A/B/C, JH-7 and Russian build Flankers there are in the fleet. Then the J-7's and J-8's in the PLAAF couldn't be more than just a few hundred.
Equation
Lieutenant General
It can still be used as a drone once you rigged it.
antiterror13
Brigadier
well ..... as an interceptor (J-8) very very unlikely it would face enemy SAM, its purely for defensive posture
Hyperwarp
Captain
It along with the J-7 variants J-8 won't be going on the offensive into any modern battle space. They will stay well within the borders of PRC. J-7G armed with HMS + PL-8B will be in WVR battles while J-8F armed with PL-12 will do some BVR fights within PRC. They don't have much use beyond local defence/engagements.
kwaigonegin
Colonel
Logically that make sense however if it comes to a point where china has been 'invaded' by a foreign force and you have opfor aircraft flying all over the skies of Beijing I'm sure more hmmm 'drastic' measures would've been used long before this nullifying the first point.
Also the initial argument was that these aircraft are still effective against lesser countries which again is moot since a lesser country wouldn't be meeting these aircraft in the first place 'as u said they are confine inside Chinese borders'.
OTOH if Beijing is intending on using the interceptors outside of china than they would be subject to modern AA etc.
The quicker they are phase out the better because they are just taking up resources etc and doesn't really have much 'intended' combat value anymore.
antiterror13
Brigadier
nope, J-8 is still useful as China is not an aggressive country, so put some squadron of J-8 at the border of most of countries would deter any intrusion from them.
China wouldn't put J-20 to deter intrusion from Kazakhtan, Tajikistan, Krygystan, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, etc. J-8 and J-7 are good enough for them ... very cost effective
China wouldn't put J-20 to deter intrusion from Kazakhtan, Tajikistan, Krygystan, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, etc. J-8 and J-7 are good enough for them ... very cost effective
I think the 1300 figure refers to modern fighters, so JH-7 / J-10/ Flanker & J-11-16 variants.
Hyperwarp
Captain
Clearly they don't have enough J-10/J-11 to phase-out all the remaining J-7/J-8. Time and cost of new J-10/J-11 as well as necessary infrastructure, pilot training etc, etc, are multiple magnitude higher than those old J-7/J-8. So phasing out those J-7/J-8 completely won't happen anytime soon. Until then the best they can do is upgrade some of the existing J-7/J-8 like J-8D/H to J-8F standard (Type-1492, PL-12, etc).
PLAAF & PLAN have about, 324 J-7E/L, 80 J-7G, ~150 J-8II (B/D/H/F) and an unknown number of the older J-7. Thats a lot of planes to be replaced. At one time there were over 300 J-8 and about a 1000 J-7.