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

mys_721tx said:

If

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

, only 18th (Lanzhou, J-7H), 97th (Urumqi, J-7E), and 99th Brigade (Urumqi, unspecified variant) fly J-7.

Considering J-7E is several years newer than J-7H, I am leaning on 18th Brigade.

Click to expand...

I must admit, even if it sounds arrogant, I would thrust my own work () more than Wiki. None of these assignments seem to be correct: The 18th is subordinated to the Ürümqi Base, whereas both the 97th and 99th Brigades as subordinated to Lanzhou Base.

Concerning the 18th I agree with You and it would have been my favourite, but given a post in the PDF by "Icloo":

No detail info on location other than Western Theater, flat land and scattering mountains in far away background may indicate somewhere in North West China.

Click to expand...

I'm no longer sure ... In the extreme far-North west there are no J-7 units, the westernmost ones are assigned to the 108th Brigade at Changji or the 112th Brigade at Malan all subordinated to Ürümqi Base.

siegecrossbow said:

“Comrades! Hopefully you are excited about your new replacement aircraft --- second hand J-8IIs!"

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Why the sad face???

Click to expand...

Ha! 3rd guy from right is like ” Am I a joke to you? "

So... Is there an up to date list of J-7 and J-8 units that remain in use today?
If true, the above news that a J-7H unit traded in their planes for a newer type might signal that no plane older than J-7H remains in service. So basically all those J-7II and that one unit of J-8B should be retired by now. Leaving at most 3 more units of J-7H alive. (there were four of them according to Scramble, so minus this one leaves three)

But do we have any sort of confirmation for such an assessment?

I see Scramble.nl using J-7L name. That's new to me. What version is L? I assume it's some kind of modernized older J7II, but what sort of modernization are we talking about? And when was it carried out, when did that "L" first start popping up?

The same website currently lists
3 units using J7G
4 units using J7E
2 units using J7L
4 units using J7H
1 unit using J7D
and 9 units using J7II

I must say I find that distribution highly unlikely. J7Es should be more numerous, given that we know they were produced in higher numbers for PLAAF. Plus some years ago there were indeed more E units listed, something like 7+. So it's likely that scramble updated the units trading in their E models for newer planes (like J10 or whatever) but they could not track where those E models went to. So they just left the old J7II in some units which should have, by all logic, received those hand me down J7Es.

There's a chance L model is in fact E model but that alone doesn't make the math work either. Plus it's debatable if J7Es would get modernized further now that they're fairly close to end of their service.

Nope, the J-7L is an updated J-7E with some systems from the J-7G

Ah, so those J7G that i know were made by upgrading E models to G standard are not in fact labeled as G anymore but they have retroactively received a new name - the L model. (I am talking about china watchers here, of course PLAAF themselves might have used the L name right from the start, 10 years ago)

Anyway, are some of those unit type numbers out of date now, Deino? 9 units still using J7II and 1 unit still using J7D sound most likely to be incorrect. Especially if it was true that a unit sporting J7H switched to J-8. I mean, what happened then to those J7H? Did a 30 year old J7H airframe go to yet another unit, changing owners? Sure, retraining time would be minimal with an unit already using J7II but still...

Totoro said:

9 units still using J7II and 1 unit still using J7D sound most likely to be incorrect.

Click to expand...

Seems to me it's because those "J-7II"s are those used for training and conversion. There are quite some units of that category.

Static displays at Changchun.

Planform...

(1379 × 2048)

J-7Bs say happy Chinese New Year!