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

Deino said:

I don't think so !

If it would be the modernised H or F with their new radar and esp. the PL-12; YES ... but in this form it is nothing more - IMO more likely even less - than an old F-4 with still its original radar in use today.

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It can still be used as a drone once you rigged it.

kwaigonegin said:

what has that got anything to do with anything? regardless of what 'type' it is these fighters are old and antiquated and would not be too useful in the modern battlespace or against modern AA systems.

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well ..... as an interceptor (J-8) very very unlikely it would face enemy SAM, its purely for defensive posture

kwaigonegin said:

what has that got anything to do with anything? regardless of what 'type' it is these fighters are old and antiquated and would not be too useful in the modern battlespace or against modern AA systems.

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It along with the J-7 variants J-8 won't be going on the offensive into any modern battle space. They will stay well within the borders of PRC. J-7G armed with HMS + PL-8B will be in WVR battles while J-8F armed with PL-12 will do some BVR fights within PRC. They don't have much use beyond local defence/engagements.

Hyperwarp said:

It along with the J-7 variants J-8 won't be going on the offensive into any modern battle space. They will stay well within the borders of PRC. J-7G armed with HMS + PL-8B will be in WVR battles while J-8F armed with PL-12 will do some BVR fights within PRC. They don't have much use beyond local defence/engagements.

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Logically that make sense however if it comes to a point where china has been 'invaded' by a foreign force and you have opfor aircraft flying all over the skies of Beijing I'm sure more hmmm 'drastic' measures would've been used long before this nullifying the first point.

Also the initial argument was that these aircraft are still effective against lesser countries which again is moot since a lesser country wouldn't be meeting these aircraft in the first place 'as u said they are confine inside Chinese borders'.

OTOH if Beijing is intending on using the interceptors outside of china than they would be subject to modern AA etc.
The quicker they are phase out the better because they are just taking up resources etc and doesn't really have much 'intended' combat value anymore.

nope, J-8 is still useful as China is not an aggressive country, so put some squadron of J-8 at the border of most of countries would deter any intrusion from them.

China wouldn't put J-20 to deter intrusion from Kazakhtan, Tajikistan, Krygystan, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, etc. J-8 and J-7 are good enough for them ... very cost effective

Franklin said:

Are you guys sure about those numbers ? Wasn't the PLAAF fighter fleet reduced to just 1300 fighters ? If you look at how many J-11, J-10A/B/C, JH-7 and Russian build Flankers there are in the fleet. Then the J-7's and J-8's in the PLAAF couldn't be more than just a few hundred.

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I think the 1300 figure refers to modern fighters, so JH-7 / J-10/ Flanker & J-11-16 variants.

kwaigonegin said:

Logically that make sense however if it comes to a point where china has been 'invaded' by a foreign force and you have opfor aircraft flying all over the skies of Beijing I'm sure more hmmm 'drastic' measures would've been used long before this nullifying the first point.

Also the initial argument was that these aircraft are still effective against lesser countries which again is moot since a lesser country wouldn't be meeting these aircraft in the first place 'as u said they are confine inside Chinese borders'.

OTOH if Beijing is intending on using the interceptors outside of china than they would be subject to modern AA etc.
The quicker they are phase out the better because they are just taking up resources etc and doesn't really have much 'intended' combat value anymore.

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Clearly they don't have enough J-10/J-11 to phase-out all the remaining J-7/J-8. Time and cost of new J-10/J-11 as well as necessary infrastructure, pilot training etc, etc, are multiple magnitude higher than those old J-7/J-8. So phasing out those J-7/J-8 completely won't happen anytime soon. Until then the best they can do is upgrade some of the existing J-7/J-8 like J-8D/H to J-8F standard (Type-1492, PL-12, etc).

PLAAF & PLAN have about, 324 J-7E/L, 80 J-7G, ~150 J-8II (B/D/H/F) and an unknown number of the older J-7. Thats a lot of planes to be replaced. At one time there were over 300 J-8 and about a 1000 J-7.

no_name said:

I think the 1300 figure refers to modern fighters, so JH-7 / J-10/ Flanker & J-11-16 variants.

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I think 1300 is their entire fleet. If they had 1300 J-10's, J-11's and JH-7's they wouldn't need to keep around another 1000 J-17's and J-8's.

Rare photos of the J-7 in USAF service as part of their program to evaluate foreign technology:

SinoSoldier said:

Rare photos of the J-7 in USAF service as part of their program to evaluate foreign technology:

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Rare stuff indeed! Love that photo of 2 MiG-21/J-7 being flanked by 2 F-14s.