I wonder whether retired J-7s will also be converted for the same purpose.
The Q-5, J-7, J-8 and older PLAAF aircraft
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J-6 in suicide drone just with their mass and speed would bring quite a level of destruction. Strapped with half a ton bomb you need to destroy them asap. A wave of hundred of these and most Taiwan SAM launchers need reload but making them fly all at the same time is more troublesome.
As large Supersonic jets, they might be more useful and very valuable as large UCAV drones to be used as CAS bomb trucks or ISR drones instead of just using them as a suicide drone against Air Defense. They r cheap to operate and maintain I assume. It might be cheaper to just use MLRS rockets to oversaturate Taiwan AD.
Moreover, in a WW3, China might lose its frontline planes quickly. War of Attrition requires high production numbers but also a strong storage of older planes, ships, tanks and everything. J-7, J-6 might become the backup fighters for Air Defense.
I know this questions gets asked repeatedly but are we finally near the point where j7 and j8 (not the R variant) are to be retired completely?
I can't imagine there could be more than a 100 of those, not with the super high new plane influx that's been going on for the last few years.
I can't imagine there could be more than a 100 of those, not with the super high new plane influx that's been going on for the last few years.
by78
General
A wooden mockup of JH-7. It was assembled in 1979.
A very old image of the first fully assembled JH-7 prototype. The banner reads: "handover ceremony for the first fully assembled JH-7".
A Pakistani J-6 from a very long time ago.
PAF F-6 training mission
F-6 in 1971 War
A-5 and F-7
J-8H?