JF-17/FC-1 Fighter Aircraft thread

Kristian said:

Near finesst air planes. What is the name or is it FC-1 howe remine about one nuclear country how will buy those from other nuclear nation or China buy those???

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I don't think I understood your question completely buddy , but this aircraft has two names , JF-17 Thunder is used mainly by Pakistanis and FC-1 is internal Chinese designation ( Chengdu Aircraft Corporation designation) .

China so far didn't purchase JF-17 for PLAAF or PLANAF , but that doesn't mean they would not in the future, especially when Chinese domestic engine WS-13 becomes available . After all, they have a lot of J-7s that need replacement .

thunderchief said:

I don't think I understood your question completely buddy , but this aircraft has two names , JF-17 Thunder is used mainly by Pakistanis and FC-1 is internal Chinese designation ( Chengdu Aircraft Corporation designation) .

China so far didn't purchase JF-17 for PLAAF or PLANAF , but that doesn't mean they would not in the future, especially when Chinese domestic engine WS-13 becomes available . After all, they have a lot of J-7s that need replacement .

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I think that the PRC is more likely to replace those old legacy aircraft with J-11Bs and J-10Bs than with the JF-17/FC-1.

I believe the Thunder is made for export to allies and friendly nations of the PRC. And I believe, once this first sale outside of Pakistan goes through that we are apt to see a lot more of them.

But that's just my opinion.

thunderchief said:

China so far didn't purchase JF-17 for PLAAF or PLANAF , but that doesn't mean they would not in the future, especially when Chinese domestic engine WS-13 becomes available . After all, they have a lot of J-7s that need replacement .

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How many J-7 (and Q-5) are actually left ?
My guess would be that only 400 to 500 J-7 and 100 to 200 Q-5 are still active.
I think that in the last years about 70 of these would have been replaced by J-10,J-11 and JH-7 variants each year, with J-10/J-11 variants replacing J-7 and JH-7A replacing Q-5.

Continuing like this would replace all 500 to 700 of these old planes in 7 to 10 years time.
If we assume that WS-13 is ready for serial production in 2 years, this would leave 350 to 550 planes to replace. If 20 JF-17 were produced each year for PLAAF in addition to the other planes, after 4 to 6 years of production there would be no really old planes to replace anymore
and the PLAAF would only have received ~100 JF-17.
Considering logistics and maintenance, I don't think PLAAF would want a fighter with a different engine in this small number.

But if the PLAAF stops procuring the JH-7 and uses newly built flankers not to replace J-7 but to replace strike aircraft and build up carrier wings, then replacing the remaining J-7 with J-10 alone might take too long and building ~200 JF-17 might make more sense.

I don't know what the start of regular production of J-20 might do to production rates of other airplanes. If it means that in the first years only a small number of J-20 would be produced instead of a big number of J-10, this might favor building JF-17s. On the other hand one can argue that instead of setting up a production line for JF-17s, resources would be better spend in setting up a production line for J-20s in addition to the existing production of J-10s.

In short, I don't think it makes sense for PLAAF to purchase a small number of J-17s, so I agree with Jeff Head that the remaining J-7 will most likely be replaced by J-10/J-11.

It is also likely, as with the US and other nations, that they will not do a one for one replacement.

These new aircraft are much more capable.

So, 700 existing aircraft may be replaced by 400-500 new aircraft.

We will just have to wait and see what the PLAAF does.

The way I see it, J-10s are still using Russian engines , and part of the Flankers too. Also, Flanker is too big and expensive to replace J-7 in sufficient numbers .

China needs low-end , relatively inexpensive fighter to give sufficient quantity to PLAAF . But strategically it would not be very wise to base such fighter on foreign engine , no matter how good relations between the countries are. J-7 was perfect example of such policy, having somewhat obsolete but completely domestic engine, making it sanctions proof .

What would happen in the end would depend primarily on progress of WS-13 vs WS-10B . If WS-10B beats WS-13 , then most likely J-10 would gradually replace J-7 , probably not in 1-to1 basis , but in sufficient numbers . On the other hand if WS-13 matures first and it is offered for export, it is quite possible that China would introduce this plane in its service as a logical successor to J-7 .

thunderchief said:

The way I see it, J-10s are still using Russian engines , and part of the Flankers too. Also, Flanker is too big and expensive to replace J-7 in sufficient numbers .

China needs low-end , relatively inexpensive fighter to give sufficient quantity to PLAAF . But strategically it would not be very wise to base such fighter on foreign engine , no matter how good relations between the countries are. J-7 was perfect example of such policy, having somewhat obsolete but completely domestic engine, making it sanctions proof .

What would happen in the end would depend primarily on progress of WS-13 vs WS-10B . If WS-10B beats WS-13 , then most likely J-10 would gradually replace J-7 , probably not in 1-to1 basis , but in sufficient numbers . On the other hand if WS-13 matures first and it is offered for export, it is quite possible that China would introduce this plane in its service as a logical successor to J-7 .

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I don't believe so. Replacing hundreds of j7s is a huge and major undertaking and I believe that decision has already been made long time ago by the PLAAF. I don't believe the maturity of either the ws10b or even the ws13 played a key role in that decision making provess.

Jf17 IMHO wold make good aggressor squadrons for combat training but I think the j10s will form the bulk of plaafs strike/attack fighter force just like the f16 was/is in the USAF.

It would be be highly illogical for fc1 to go into service in vast numbers when j10B is almost good to go.

there is a rumor at PDF that the buyer is Sri Lanka

nice... i love seeing ws-13 but no specification detail yet? did it improve jf-17 speed? it'll be fun seeing mach 2 jf-17

btw, very good news indeed...

LonE_WolF said:

there is a rumor at PDF that the buyer is Sri Lanka

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Yes, but the poster couldn't or wouldn't provide the source.

General Raheel Sharif, Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army called on the Commander of the Air Force, Air Marshal Kolitha Gunatilleke, this morning (08 June 2015) at Air Force Headquarters Colombo.
The Interesting thing is the JF-17 model in the back with SLAF Patch on the wing