Let's talk about the J-8II

The original purpose of J-8 no longer applies to today's situations. Today's PLAAF no longer faces threats of supersonic bombers from two superpowers. J-8II is superior to J-8 in every aspect, but it still retain it's predecessor's characteristics: big, fast, high-flying, but not very manuverable, especially compared with newer fighers like Su-27. Even the older J-7 is more agile. As far as I know, after extensive upgrades the J-8II is approaching early 3rd generation fighters like F-14 in term of overall capabilities. I have read a Chinese article that talks about the J-8 program. It says that the J-8II faces a uncertain future. In some ways the J-8II is a low cost alternative to more expensive fighter aircrafts like J-10 and J-11. It is being considered a multi-role fighter instead of a interceptor, and is being used by both PLANAF and PLAAF due to its ground strike and maritime strike capabilities. But the plane is showing its age. It may not stand a chance against 3rd generation fighers, especially in dog fights.

5 hardpoints seems a bit low for ground strike missions. I am not sure if I would use it for such a mission either. It was designed for high altitude. Unless we see a major upgrade, I don't think it should stop playing HawkerHurricane with J-7s.

the aircraft is hopelessly outdated.it need replacement.

Might as well give the J-8II's mission to a specialized variant of the Super-10 (if such a project does exist) or the J-XX. Saves a lot of money by using a common airframe.

I'm trying to find the other J-8II threads and merge them into this one. In the meantime, these pics show a J-8F under construction. Looks like a labor intensive plane with all the riveting needed.

And more.

sumdud said:

5 hardpoints seems a bit low for ground strike missions. I am not sure if I would use it for such a mission either. It was designed for high altitude. Unless we see a major upgrade, I don't think it should stop playing HawkerHurricane with J-7s.

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So far as I know, the J8II has 7 hard points, 6 under wings and 1 under fuselage. I think you missed the two hard points for small missiles (I think AAM) right in front of its main landing gears.

Well the current role of the J-8II is to provide low cost support to more higher end aircraft (J-10 and J-11) and to lower end aircraft (J-7), essentially, during the 1990s, the goal was to give the J-8II true BVRAAM capabilities, something the J-7 can never completely achieve. You can sort of equip a MiG-21 with BVRAAM with the correct upgrades like India and the MiG-21bis Bison but the payload would be limited and the actually range of any BVRAAM, particularly targetting and tracking abilities would always be suspect, especially given the ceiling requirements to properly deploy a BVRAAM. In essence, the main strength of the J-8II and especially of the J-8F, is its size, wich allows it to carry the Type 1492 PD radar and can carry a substantial amount of anti air and ground ordinance. The purpose of the J-8II upgrades is to provide cost effective fire support to other aircraft, the J-7 in particular, which will probably be in service for a number of more years. While the J-7G is a marvellous little dog fighter (I've read Pakistani reports of its turning abilities rivaling that of the F-16) it is a light, low to the ground sort of fighter and would be at a serious disadvantage to any sort of heavier, BVRAAM equipped modern fighter before the J-7 could ever get close enough to unload its short range missiles which is why the J-8II is necessary. The other otherhand, the J-11B and J-10 still only make up a small portion of the PLAAF, the new J-8F fighters and the J-8H upgrades are there to fill the gap and while not the most agile aircraft in the PLAAF can fill the multi-role niche effectively enough and can be seen as having the capabilities of older, late 80's multi-role aircraft such as the early MiG-29 and Mirage 2000-5

The J-8II can still toss around GPS directed glide bombs, which would make it a valuable strike platform to complement the JH-7As and various H-6 models. It also has the benefit of being faster than either one of the other aircraft.

When's the production line going to shut down?

Skywatcher said:

The J-8II can still toss around GPS directed glide bombs, which would make it a valuable strike platform to complement the JH-7As and various H-6 models. It also has the benefit of being faster than either one of the other aircraft.

When's the production line going to shut down?

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As far as I know, as of 2007, they've built about 120 J-8Fs starting in 2001, so thats about 20-30 and given Shenyang's slow but steady introduction of the J-11B and the rate of converting existing J-8Ds and J-8Bs I guess we can forseeably see a slow decline in production within the next several years with the lion share of Shenyangs production would logically fall to the J-11B but then again, its not like Shenyang has huge amounts of exports orders it needs to fill. I can see the J-8F serving for a while. It will certainly still be in production in some capacity after the J-7G/G2 retires