SinoDefence Forum

isthvan · 06-04-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by pngwerume

This recent purchase of 12 F-7s is the ONLY F-7 purchase Nigeria has done. Am I correct? Nigeria had Mig-21s but not F-7s?

Yes you are right; Nigeria had MiG-21MFs if I’m not mistaken… Western sources speculated that F-7N was actually refurbished ex. PLAAF examples… Naturally since that are speculations I was interested could that be true?

Also as I had said price tag seems quite high even whit weapon and maintenance… If I’m not mistaken Bangladesh paid almost the same price for MiG-29s…
Does anyone know is Nigeria really bought only 19 air to air missiles and which missiles are they bought; PL-8 or PL-9?

pngwerume · 06-04-2006

I guess if i were the Air Force head (Zimbabwe, Nigeria or which ever country), I will leave people to speculate/guess as to the exact specifications of my equipment. Does enybody know/have confirmed infomation on the versions? i have searched hi and low in the internet but nothing on F-7IIN. Some say Zimbabwe does have F-7Ms but the few photos i have seen show the boom at the from located at the bottom. Only about 3 or 4 AFZ F-7s have been photographed.

Anybody subscribes to www.scramble.nl ?

Considering the price, and that we don't know which version the Nigerians purchased, why should one proposed refurbished 2nd hand planes?

Why is it not possible that maybe Nigeria got the much advanced spec F-7s and likely new?

Considering they were already operation Mig-21s, maybe they choose a high spec F-7 because they could use common facilities as were/are used by the Migs, saving on training, maintenance and infrastructure.

Just a thought!

Apologies for spreading my posts/replies. After I finish one, I come up with another question.

DRC (Congo - Kinshasa) bought some F-7s. Any hints which ones version they are?

tphuang · 07-16-2006

Continuing on the F-7 news, there has been a slight update on huitong's site regarding F-7.
http://mil.jschina.com.cn/huitong/F-7_J-7_J-8.htm
"The latest rumor claimed that North Korea ordered 6 (F-7KG?). "

Yeah, I'm not sure where he got the rumour that the North Koreans got some F-7s, but it's there.

spc_ace · 07-25-2006

This thread clearly shows many countries can only afford cheap and effective fighter aircrafts below USD 5 million for their defence. Not to mention foreign fighters, latest Chinese aircrafts such J-8H, JF17 and J10A are clearly much too costly for countries with budgetary constraints. Therefore I think that China should continue to upgrade J-7 because of the huge market potential.

Dupsovzet · 08-07-2006

Great information

tphuang · 08-22-2006

alright, there was some rumour on Chinese forums that China was building F-7s for not just Bangladesh and Nigeria, but also North Korea and Zimbabwe. Here is an article that confirmed that order.
http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/army14.14602.html

Quote:

ZIMBABWE will splash millions of dollars on 12 military aircraft from China, parliament heard Tuesday.

Six of the 12 aircraft are already in the country, with the remainder set to be delivered in two months, defence officials said.

Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary Trust Maphosa made the revelations during a hearing of the joint Senate and House of Assembly Parliamentary portfolio committee on defence and home affairs.

Maphosa was part of a high powered army delegation that included army commander general Constantine Chiwenga and Airforce of Zimbabwe chief Air Marshall Perence Shiri.

The total cost of the deal with China is unknown, but defence officials revealed a payment of US$4,6 million had been made to the Chinese manufacturers of the aircraft.

The army officials did not disclose the types of aircraft acquired.

Maphosa said: “We are grateful to the RBZ governor Gideon Gono for availing US$4 669 065,72 towards our plan. We will be receiving six aircraft from China sometime this year."

He added: “We are expecting that deliveries would be made in September or October. The six together with the other six we already have would make a full squadron."

Several western countries, notably Britain, have imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe over complaints about human rights violations in the southern African country.

President Robert Mugabe has reacted to the targeted sanctions on his regime by urging the country to 'Look East', reference to Asian countries which have pledged their support to his regime.

Chiwenga told the same hearing that the army was acting on reports of rampant indiscipline within its ranks. Several reports have been made of army details brutalising civilians.

Chiwenga blamed the violence on younger members of the defence forces whom he said “liked behaving as cowboys”.

He said the Military Police were carrying out a probe on the recent assaults on commuter omnibus drivers and touts by members of his force in Harare Central Business District (CBD).

He added that another army commander in Matabeleland had been transferred and disciplined after assaulting a civilian who had missed a deadline during joint work on Operation Maguta.

F-7 may not be a modern plane, but it definitely serves the needs of most African countries and is pretty cheap

pngwerume · 08-23-2006

They are buying K-8s.

Here is a link to a more detailed articles: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/army14.14602.html and the intro reads:

"ZIMBABWE will splash US$240 million on 12 K-8 jet trainer aircraft from China, parliament heard Tuesday.

Six of the 12 aircraft are already in the country, with the remainder set to be delivered in two months, defence officials said."

tphuang · 08-23-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by pngwerume

They are buying K-8s.

Here is a link to a more detailed articles: http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/army14.14602.html and the intro reads:

"ZIMBABWE will splash US$240 million on 12 K-8 jet trainer aircraft from China, parliament heard Tuesday.

Six of the 12 aircraft are already in the country, with the remainder set to be delivered in two months, defence officials said."

yeah, I read this article this morning when I got to work. I probably shouldn't have just assumed the exported plane is F-7.

Yossarian · 08-25-2006

J-7II and J-7IIN together :12
and 2 J-7BZ (trainning plane)

pngwerume · 08-25-2006

Looking at Zimbabwe, does it make sense to have 12 K-8 trainers and then 12 F-7s? Shouldn’t the number of trainers be a lot less than the real combat aircraft? Unless they intend to make more use of the K-8s secondary light ground attack role.

Also www.sinodefence.com/airforce/trainer/jl8.asp say the JL-8 is a basic trainer while a few sites call the K-8 an advancedtrainer. They are supposed to be the same aircraft. Can anybody explain?

eecsmaster · 08-25-2006

K-8 is a basic trainer. It's not a lead in advanced trainer like the JL-9/L-15. K-8 does have a secondary ground attack mode, and since the plane is probably easier to fly than a J-7 and Zimbabwe doesn't really have any pressing foreign threats, I suspect COIN is one of the reasons why it's chosen.

isthvan · 08-25-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by pngwerume

Looking at Zimbabwe, does it make sense to have 12 K-8 trainers and then 12 F-7s? Shouldn’t the number of trainers be a lot less than the real combat aircraft? Unless they intend to make more use of the K-8s secondary light ground attack role.

Also www.sinodefence.com/airforce/trainer/jl8.asp say the JL-8 is a basic trainer while a few sites call the K-8 an advancedtrainer. They are supposed to be the same aircraft. Can anybody explain?

Well since F-7 isn’t much better then K-8 in ground attack role I wouldn’t be surprised that Zimbabwe intends to use its K-8s in light attack role. As a matter of fact K-8 is much cheaper to operate and quite well suited for COIN/CAS.

It is quite usual in some African and Asian air forces to use larger number of trainer/light attack jets as supplements to small number of fighters.

As for basic/advanced trainer question this is never easy to define. Today most countries don’t use advanced supersonic trainers like T-38.
So you could say that K-8 is basic trainer compared to T-38 or J-15... On other hand Egyptians will use K-8 as advanced trainer together whit L-59, UK (among others) uses Hawk in that role…
So it depends on training procedure in different countries, for example:
- air force A :basic training - PC-9 – two setter version of frontline fighter
- air force B :basic training - PC-9 – Hawk - two setter version of frontline fighter
- air force C :basic training - PC-9 – Hawk– T-38 - two setter version of frontline fighter

pngwerume · 08-25-2006

Thanks eecsmaster.

Thanks isthvan.

pngwerume · 11-06-2006

This is on Google Earth, location 19°26'34.18"S 29°51'12.18"E. Looking at the two F-7s between the hangers, do they look different or is it that the resolution is not good enough? If they are different, can anybody indetify the two verisions? The one to the south seems to have a shorter wingspan.

Thanks.

crobato · 11-07-2006

Camouflage patterns. Nice, you don't see that often with J-7s or J-8IIs.

Honestly I think these may not be J-7s but J-8IIs. Their nose seems a bit extended and their wings even more acutely swept.

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