JH-7A ready from development

By Yihong Chang, JDW Correspondent, Toronto

A source from China’s Xian Aircraft Company has revealed to Jane’s Defence Weekly that development of the company’s new JH-7A fighter was successfully completed last year.

Developed to meet the specific requirements of the Chinese air force, the aircraft will this year undergo a series of test flights, said the official. The new aircraft is expected to become part of China’s combat force in 2004.

Powered by two licence-built Rolls-Royce Spey Mk 202 turbofan engines, the fighter will share common maintenance equipment with China’s current JH-7 fleet, offering reduced costs.

XAC sources have confirmed that the new fighter features greater reliance on Russian subsystems than its forerunner, particularly with regard to weapon systems such as the X-31P (AS-17 ‘Krypton’) anti-radiation missile and the 350kg KAB-500 laser-guided bomb.

The external appearance of the JH-7A has also been further altered from the JH-7, with the removal of two winglets and an increase from seven to 11 weapon stations. This is partly attributed to the use of composite materials. The aircraft’s control system has possibly been enhanced from triple- to quadruple-fly-by-wire, while it could also have been equipped with the JL-10A ‘Shen Ying’ pulse-Doppler radar featuring a larger-diameter Russian planar array.