Chengdu J-10

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歼十 J-10 Fierce Dragon1 F-10 Vanguard 1- Note: The name "Fierce Dragon" is also used by the Chengdu FC-1 (JF-17 Thunder)
Type	Multirole fighter
Manufacturer	Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation
Designed by	Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute
Maiden flight	24 March, 1998
Status	Operational
Primary users	PLA Air Force & Pakistan Air Force (EIS late 2009)
Number built	100+
Unit cost	$41 million USD (PAF F-10)
Developed from	Chengdu J-9
Variants	Chengdu Super-10

The Chengdu J-10 (歼十, Jian-10) is a multirole fighter aircraft designed and produced by the People's Republic of China's Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC) for the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). Designed to be equally useful in both the fighter and light bomber roles, the J-10 is optimized for all-weather day/night missions.

The J-10 next-generation fighter program remained a top-secret classified project until 2006-12-29, in which the Xinhua News Agency officially disclosed its active duty status in the PLAAF.

Contents 1 History 2 J-10's relationship with Lavi 3 Design 4 Avionics 5 Variants 5.1 Other speculated variants 6 External loads and armament 7 Operators 8 Estimated specifications 9 References 10 Resources and external links 11 Related content

[edit] History

The program started in 1986,^[1] to counter new fourth generation fighters then being introduced by the USSR (namely, the MiG-29 and Su-27). Initially designed as a specialized counter-air fighter, it was later remade into a multirole aircraft capable of both anti-air combat and ground attack missions.

Having been designed under much secrecy, many details of the J-10 remain unknown and are subject to much speculation. The first flight of the J-10 took place sometime in 1996, but according to rumors the program suffered a major delay due to a fatal accident which occurred in 1997. However, the rumored crash has been openly denied by the government of China after the official governmental acknowledgement of the existence of J-10: on 2007-01-15, both the Xinhua News Agency and the People's Liberation Army Newspaper have claimed/reported the accomplishments of one of the test pilots of the J-10, Mr. Li Zhonghua (李中华), and, in these reports, one of the accomplishments quoted was that there was not a single crash since the project began. (Note, there is evidence, albeit inconclusive, that only one prototype was flying; the other was a ground static testbed. Hence, no crash occurred.) A redesigned prototype flew in 1998, resuming flight testing of the aircraft.^{[citation needed]} According to Chinese media reports, however, the first plane, "J-10 01", rolled out in November 1997, and the first flight of "J-10 01" was on 1998-03-23.^[1] No incident has been reported.^[2] After 18 years in development, the J-10 finally entered service in 2004.^[1][3].

The most frequently mentioned potential J-10 export customer is the Pakistan Air Force (PAF); in April 2006, the media reported that the Pakistani government intents to procure at least 36 J-10s (with designation of "FC-20" or "FC-10", depending on the report). The "Business Recorder" claims that the Pakistan official document it obtained said the Cabinet "has allowed PAF to set up Joint Working Group (JWG) with CATIC for procurement of 36 FC-20 aircraft". Other media reports cited Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid in saying the Cabinet has approved the purchase of J-10 from China, in addition to the JF-17 ^{[4] [5]}. On 2007-03-31, Pakistan Air Force Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed said, "PAF would soon induct fourth and fifth generation high-tech fleet of fighter-bomber aircraft with the aim to modernize the country’s air force which includes the induction of 2 squadrons of Chengdu J-10 aircrafts."^[6].

It was reported by Jane's Defence Weekly on 2006-01-09 that a more advanced version of the J-10 is planned, "referred to as the Super-10, with a more powerful engine, thrust-vector control, stronger airframe and passive phased-array radar.^[7]"

Although the existence of J-10 has long been reported both inside and outside of China, the Chinese government did not officially admit so until January 2007, when the first photographs of the J-10 were allowed to be published to the public by the Xinhua News Agency.

[edit] J-10's relationship with Lavi

There are many speculative statements about the Chengdu J-10's relationship with the Israeli IAI Lavi fighter program. In formal (official) Chinese sources, the J-10 is said to have been developed from the cancelled Chengdu J-9, which was a canard-configuration fighter program earlier than the Israeli Lavi ^[8] - a fact arguably counters the Lavi related speculations. In an interview, the general designer of J-10, Mr. Song Wencong (宋文骢) said, "Our nation's new fighter's external design and aerodynamics configuration are completely made by us and did not receive foreign assistance, this made me very proud and filled with pride. Our nation developed J-9 in the 1960s, this adopted the canard configuration. So, those statements that said J-10 is a copy of Israeli Lavi are just laughable."^[9]

However, there are persistent rumors that the J-10 project received Israeli assistance. One news article reported that when the U.S. government questioned Israel's Lavi technology re-exportation to China, the Director General of Israel's Ministry of Defense David Lari "acknowledged in an Associated Press interview that 'some technology on aircraft' had been sold to China and that some Israeli companies may not have 'clean hands'" ^[10]. It is still even popular on Internet forums and in some Western articles to claim that J-10 is a copy of Lavi, despite the fact that almost no formal military analysis went that far.

[edit] Design

The J-10 is a single-seat, delta winged aircraft powered by a single, Russian-built AL-31FN turbofan (maximum static power output of 12,500 kgf (123 kN, 27,600 lbf)) or Chinese-built Woshan WS-10A "Taihang" turbofan (13,200 kgf (129 kN, 29,101 lbf)). However, after the government's official acknowledgement of the existence of the J-10, an interview with J-10 pilots (such as test pilot Mr. Li Cunbao (李存宝)) revealed that a domestic engine is highly unlikely to be equipped in J-10s in the near future^{[citation needed]}. In this interview publicized in January 2007, the pilots claimed that though the domestic Chinese engine could match the performance of the Russian one in every parameter, there was a very serious drawback: the domestic Chinese engine, the WS-10, took much longer to reach the same level of performance as its Russian counterpart. (According to Mr. Li Cunbao's experience, as well as other pilots who flew the J-10 with the WS-10A, it took at least 50% longer, and in many other aspects, almost 100% longer.)^{[citation needed]} Although this difference only meant a minute-time differential at most, it was more-than-enough to make a difference between allowing the pilots to safely recover the aircraft by restarting the engine than abandonning the aircraft in a forced ejection. Another problem of the domestic Chinese engine is its lack of FADEC, which is needed for having a same or better aircraft performance when compared with an aircraft with a Russian engine. However, the current WS-10 version available with FADEC is not reliable enough to be accepted into service, and currently all of the matured WS-10s lack FADEC.

The airframe possesses a large vertical tail, as well as canards placed near the cockpit. The air intake is rectangular in shape, and is located beneath the fuselage. Construction likely incorporates much use of composite materials, as well as more conventional metals. Performance is generally speculated to be within the class of a late-model F-16, although maneuverability is thought to be superior (possibly within the range of some early fifth-generation Western fighters). A bubble canopy provides 360 degrees of visual coverage for the pilot. The aircraft is designed by the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute, a subordinate research institute of Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation, but in a rather unusual arrangement, the single seat version of the J-10 and the twin seater version of J-10 were designed by two different general designers: the general designer for the single seater version of J-10 was Mr. Song Wencong, while the twin seater version of J-10 was designed by a younger person, the general designer of the JF-17 Thunder Mr. Yang Wei (杨伟). Mr. Yang is the chief designer of the fully digitized fly-by-wire control systems for both versions of J-10. This is disputed by analyst Richard Fisher[2] who credits Israeli consultants for developing the system[3]. For both single seater and twin seater versions, the chief engineer was Mr. Xue Chishou (薛炽寿), who was also the deputy general manager of Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation, and the chief test engineer was Mr. Zhou Ziquan (周自全), who was also the deputy director of Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute.

It was rumoured that in November 2005 the first batch of Russian AL-31FN thrust vectoring engines had already been received for use in J-10s. A second batch was supposed to arrive later that year, and the rest would arrive by mid-2006. On 2006-01-09, it was claimed that these new engines were actually termed AL-31FN M1, and would be used in a new advanced version of the J-10 called the "Super-10". Regardless of how they are eventually used, thrust vectoring will undoubtedly boost the J-10's maneuverability.

CAC is negoiating and rumoured to have sold 36 J-10 fighters to Pakistan, slated to enter service in the Pakistan Air Force in 2009-2010. It is estimated to cost $1.5 billion USD total with a flyaway price of $41 million USD for each J-10 fighter with maintenance and parts inclusive.

[edit] Avionics

A digital, quadruplex fly-by-wire system aids the pilot in flying the aircraft. Information is provided visually to the pilot, in the form of three liquid crystal Multi-Functional Displays (LCD MFDs) within the cockpit. Western-style HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) controls are incorporated in the J-10's design.

The radar type equipping the J-10 is not yet known; possible candidates include the Russian RP-35, the Israeli EL/M-2035, the Italian Grifo 2000 and the Chinese/Pakistani JL-10A. (Note: most likely, the production version is fitted with a 147x series fire control radar from NRIET.) In January 2007, scientists/engineers at Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation revealed to public that the current radar of J-10 is slotted planar array with capabilities to simultaneously track 10 targets and engaging 4 of the 10 tracked. However, the scientists/engineers stopped short of revealing the exact designation of the radar, only claimed that development was in progress to arm the aircraft with a passive electronically scanned array airborne radar. It is rumored the passive phased array radar is either Russian or jointly developed with Russian. A comprehensive ECM (Electronic Countermeasures) package is likely to be present, including active jammers.

Note: As of 2005, the JL-10A fire control radar (FCR) has been incorporated into the JH-7A (JH-7, the evaluation batch, uses Type 232H FCR). Some evidence suggests that a derivative of the Type 1421 on later J-8 models has been selected. This could be the KLJ-3 FCR.

[edit] Variants

There are currently 2 variants of the Chengdu J-10 fighter:

• J-10A: Single seater baseline Multirole model
• J-10B¹: Twin seater version, for Training, Electronic Warfare (EW), Mini-AWACS and possibly Ground Attack

1: Some analysts mark the twin seater version as J-10S. The export designation, however, remains J-10B.

[edit] Other speculated variants

• A possible naval version specialized for aircraft carrier operations
• A "stealth" twin-engined model
• A non-stealth vairant with thrust-vector control "Super-10"

[edit] External loads and armament

The wings provide 11 hardpoints for the attachment of up to 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) of weaponry, fuel tanks, and ECM equipment. Built-in armament consists of a 23 mm cannon, located within the fuselage. External weaponry may include: short-range infrared air-to-air missiles (Chinese PL-8, or the Russian R-73), medium-range radar-guided air-to-air missiles (Chinese PL-11, PL-12, or the Russian R-77), laser-guided and un-guided bombs, anti-ship missiles (Chinese YJ-9K), and anti-radiation missiles (PJ-9).

[edit] Operators

•  China
  • People's Liberation Army Air Force - 100⁺ J-10A/B on active duty
•  Pakistan
  • Pakistan Air Force - 36 F-10A/B on order, EIS late 2009

[edit] Estimated specifications

General characteristics

• Crew: 1 (basic), 2 (trainer variant)^[3]
• Length: 16.5 m (54 ft^{[citation needed]})
• Wingspan: 11.3 m (37 ft 2 in^{[citation needed]})
• Height: 6.0 m (15 ft 6 in^{[citation needed]})
• Wing area: 45.5 m² (490 ft²^{[citation needed]})
• Empty weight: 8000~9,730 kg (21,460 lb^[11])
• Useful load: 5,500 kg (9 920 lb^{[citation needed]})
• Max takeoff weight: 19,277 kg (42,498 lb^{[citation needed]})
• Powerplant: 1× Saturn-Lyulka AL-31FN or Woshan WS-10A "Taihang" turbofan
  • Dry thrust: 89.43 kN / 89.17 kN (17,860 lbf / 20,052 lbf)
  • Thrust with afterburner: 122.5 kN / 129.4 kN (27,557 lbf / 29,101 lbf)

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 2.0 at altitude ^[3]
• g-Limits: +9/-3 g (+88/-29 m/s², +290/-97 ft/s²^{[citation needed]}
• Combat radius: 750⁺ km^[3] (1000 nm,^{[citation needed]}
  • Maximum range: 2,940 km (1,370 nm,^{[citation needed]})
• Service ceiling: 20,000 m (65,617 ft)
• Minimum thrust/weight:
  • With afterburner: 0.89

Armament

• Guns: 1× 23 mm internal cannon
• Hardpoints: 11, 3 under each wing and 5 under the fuselage
• Missiles:
  • Air-to-air: PL-8, PL-11, PL-12
  • Air-to-surface: PJ-9, YJ-9K, 90 mm unguided rocket launcher pods
• Bombs: laser-guided bombs (LT-2), glide bombs (LS-6) and unguided bombs

[edit] References

[edit] Resources and external links

General information:

• Chinese Defence Today (SinoDefence.com) (English)
• Jane's All the World's Aircraft 2002-2003 (English)
• Chinese Military Aviation @ Stormpages.com (English)

News and magazine articles:

• MIW article on the J-10 (English)
• Combat Aircraft - The International Journal of Military Aviation, Vol. 7, No. 9, November 2006 (English)

Photo galleries:

• J-10 Pictures at DefenceTalk.com. Includes official press release photos (English)

Audio and video footage:

• Official J-10 video on YouTube. A press release showing the J-10's general capabilities (Chinese)
• Another YouTube video, showing the fighter's weapon capabilities (Chinese)

[edit] Related content

Related development

• Chengdu Super-10

Comparable aircraft

Aircraft with similar shape:

• Dassault Rafale
• Eurofighter Typhoon
• IAI Lavi
• Saab JAS-39 Gripen

Aircraft with similar performance:

• Su-30MKI
• Dassault Mirage 2000
• F-16 Fighting Falcon
• F/A-18F Super Hornet
• MiG-29 Fulcrum
• Mitsubishi F-2

Designation sequence

• J-7 - J-8 - J-9 - J-10 - J-11 - J-12 - J-XX