The following is a list of variants and specifications for variants of the Chengdu J-7, which differed considerably between models in its 48 years of its production run. Production of the J-7 ceased after delivering of 16 F-7BGIs to the Bangladesh Air Force in 2013.
Production of the J-7 lasted nearly half a century, beginning in November 1964 when Shenyang Aircraft Factory (SAC) started components manufacturing for aircraft, and eventually ended in May 2013. [1] [2] [3] State certification of the first J-7 for series production was received on December 28, 1966, after Cultural Revolution started. As a result of the political turmoil caused, early production J-7s suffered quality issues that lasted into the 1980s, well after the end of the Cultural Revolution. [2] More than 2,400 have been built in the many different models listed below. [1] [3]
Due to the Sino-Soviet split, Soviet-built MiG-21s were not used in China, and the few that were imported beforehand were referred as Type 1962. Designation Type 62 was subsequently used to refer to MiG-21F-13s assembled under license in China from Soviet-supplied kits.
The J-7 series was the first group of the J-7 produced. These were reverse-engineered from the MiG-21F-13 kits supplied by the USSR. However, due to the inability of the Chinese aerospace industry to produce some of the components, the design went through four major changes. [1] [2] The initial production of J-7 was seriously affected by the political turmoil at the time, namely the Cultural Revolution, which delayed the planned production run. Due to the urgent need of the fighter, planned improvements for the early models were scaled back to allow production to begin sooner, allowing improvements to be made later when the technologies matured.
The J-7I was the improvement of earlier J-7, with production starting in March 1969 after the order was formally placed on August 25, 1968. However, the original goal proved to be too ambitious for the Chinese aerospace industry at the time, especially during the political turmoil of Cultural Revolution. The program only succeeded after general designer Tu Jida obtained the permission to drastically reduce the originally planned six major upgrades to merely three. [12] [13]
The J-7II series has the second highest model count within the series'. The general designer of most of the J-7II series models is also the designer of its predecessor the J-7I, Tu Jida.
J/F-7M Air Guard series has the most models within the series. Originally intended for domestic use but that plan was cancelled after the budget was cut, the series became a major export success, and received the name Air Guard. Most models of the series are equipped with British avionics, which were later on produced in China as part of a technology transfer deal. The general designer of most of these models is the same that of the J-7I & J-7II, Tu Jida. Due to the need to meet the urgent delivery schedule of the first customer, it was decided to take a multipronged approach to speed up development: Several different prototypes were developed to test different subsystems of the aircraft. Development began at the end 1978 with negotiation beginning on March 3, 1979. After 10 rounds of negotiation that lasted 16 months, a deal was signed on June 30, 1980, which included a technology transfer. The entire J-/F-7M Air Guard program took six years to complete, the models produced are listed below:
Pakistan did not purchase any F-7Ms and later returned the 2 F-7Ms to China after evaluation. Requiring China to provide a better fighter, which eventually resulted in the F-7MP/P Sky Bolt series (The PAF does not distinguish between the two, referring to both as Sky Bolt). Evaluation by the PAF led to the conclusion that with the exception of range, the F-7 Sky Bolt series outperforms the Dassault Mirage 5 in every aspect. [43] The number of modification requested by the PAF to the original F-7M totaled 24, making the F-7MP/P sufficiently distinct from earlier F-7M series to form a series of its own: [44] [45]
The J-7III series were the first J-7s to be equipped with fire control radar and thus the first all-weather fighter models of the J-7. However, due to the limitations of the Chinese avionics industry in the 1980s, the performance of the domestic Chinese fire control radars was not satisfactory. Due to their relatively large size, the nosecone had to be enlarged, resulting in an increase in drag. As a result, only a few aircraft of this series were built.
The F-7C series is the first J-7 series to adopt a side air-intake design with the intention to house a more powerful radar in the nosecone. Project was started in 1985 but none entered production. The general designer of this series is Tu Jida.
The J-7E (NATO reporting name: Fishcan-D [58] ) is the day fighter series of the J-7 that utilizes a double delta wing which greatly improved maneuverability from previous models. It was decided that in order to maintain good maneuverability, the series would not be equipped with fire control radar or medium range AAMs. [59] [60] Equipped with only ranging radar and close range AAM, new features of this series included utilization of a carbon-carbon composite brake that quadrupled the service life to more than a thousand landings. Utilization of an aluminum-lithium alloy that reduces weight by 17% and pressure ground fueling system replacing the gravity based ground fueling system that drastically reduced the time of fueling by 80% to 6 minutes from the original half an hour. [61] Deletion of the port side gun resulted in an increased fuel capacity by 100 liters, the ammo for the starboard side gun was reduced to 60 rounds. The WP-13F engine increased mean time between overhauls (MTBO) to 300 hours and the service life to 900 hours. [59] [60] Maximum payload is increased to 1.6 tons. Newer avionics replaced the older ones on earlier J-7's. The general designer of the J-7E series was Lu Yu-Ying (陆育英).
J/F-7F series is an alternative development to earlier F-7C series in that it inherits the design characteristic of eliminating the nose intake, but instead of side intakes adopted by the F-7C series, J/F-7F series utilizes under-chin intake. This series is mainly intended for research on under-chin intakes and has not entered series production.
In the 1990s, export of F-7 series had significantly dropped from its peak in the 1980s when China failed to secure any new orders in the decade. However, China was successful in completing two deals for MiG-21 and F-7 upgrades by Israeli Elbit Systems as its subcontractor, and experience gained from these subcontracting jobs enabled China to later develop more capable J-7 models. [74] [75]
After a nearly decade long hiatus on the internal military aircraft market in the 1990s, China attempts to return by marketing the F-7MG series fighters based on the J-7E series. As with earlier J/F-7M series, in order to speed up the development, it was decided to first develop different prototypes each with a different tasks of trials.
Although SSR radar is more advanced than its predecessor Sky Ranger 7M, it remains a ranging radar, which the PAF was not satisfied with. To meet Pakistani requirement of more capable airborne radar, a fire control radar was needed. In addition, PAF also required other improvements over the original J-7MG, which resulted in J/F-7PG series.
It is also equipped with a Super Skyranger radar, an FIAR Grifo-7 mkII radar (export) and a Type 226 PD radar.It also had the capability to fire western missiles like the sidewinder and R550 Magic. First batch of 20 were delivered at the end of 2001, with a total of 57 eventually delivered to PAF. [91] [92] [93]
J/F-7G series is the further development of earlier J-7E series. Contrary to many frequent but erroneous claims, the fire control radar is not the Chinese development of EL/M-2001B radar, because EL/M-2001B is a pulse Doppler ranging only radar. [64] Instead, the Chinese fire control radar for J-G is developed from EL/M-2032 fire control radar China obtained from Israel when it was a subcontractor for Elbit in the Romanian MiG-21 LanceR program described above. [74] [75]
F-7BG upgraded with J-7G technology for Bangladesh. Unlike other cheaper and downgraded export variants of J-7G, the F-7BGI (I for Improved) is in fact more advanced than J-7G it is developed from. Improvements of F-7BGI over F-7BG such as 3 MFDs and more powerful fire control radar would in turn, incorporated to J-7G2 developed later. The capability of F-7BGI is improved over earlier F-7BG resulted from upgrades listed below, [97] [98] and delivery of 16 was signed in 2011 and completed in 2013. [97] [99] Even with the latest J-7 technology, this aircraft does not have the capability to carry any BVR missile and is armed only with short-range, infrared homing air-to-air missiles for air to air combat, like other J-7s.
J-7 trainer variants are the Chinese developed trainer version for domestic Chinese uses, and this series is supplied to both PLAAF and PLANAF.
FT-7 trainer variants for export is characterized by the fact that nearly every trainer version is equipped with the same avionics and weaponry of its equivalent fighter version to minimizing transition process, and to maintain combat capability of the trainers.
Related development
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