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

by78 said:

An old image of J-8s that was lost to time.

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One more.

by78 said:

One more.

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the good ole workhorse still can throw some heavy fatal punches

davidau said:

the good ole workhorse still can throw some heavy fatal punches

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With better missiles, it would have been a nice tanker killer with his dash speed. Still a good stop-gap measure for the PLAAF for his time.

Is China planning to replace these older planes like the J-7‘s and J-8‘s with J-16‘s and J-20‘s one on one. Or is the fighter fleet going to shrink.

Franklin said:

Is China planning to replace these older planes like the J-7‘s and J-8‘s with J-16‘s and J-20‘s one on one. Or is the fighter fleet going to shrink.

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I personally think the fleet will increase and will increase greatly after a successful high power engine. Reason is that China has external threats from .......

With current peoduction rate approaching 150 combat planes a year, it's plausible very few j7 and j8 are left. Probably less than 200. There were already rumors 2023 would be the last year for the j7 fleet (not including trainers). At that rate we might also see j8 retired in 2024 (not including recon types)

Such procurement rate also indicates future fleet growth, rather than shrinkage. Than again thats not strange, considering US aicraft fleet has also been growing a little.

Bird strike tests on what appears to be a J-7 canopy.

Taking apart a retired J-8.

What plane/concept is this? Does anyone have more information?

^^^ A variation of the Chungdu J-9VI-2?