Jane's: JH-7A to enter service in 2004

Looks like I’m wrong to assume this project is dead:

China completes JH-7A development

YIHONG CHANG JDW Correspondent
Toronto

A source from China’s Xian Aircraft Company (XAC) 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. Rolls-Royce officials declined to comment on reports that the company is helping China to upgrade the Mk 202 power plant, but confirmed that it will “continue to support the [Chinese] Spey Mk 202 under a long-standing agreement”.

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 (NATO reporting name: AS-17 ‘Krypton’) anti-radiation missile and the 350kg KAB-500 laser-guided bomb (LGB).

Moscow-based sources told JDW that both ground-attack weapons were obtained independently. China has obtained a licence to manufacture the X-31P, with negotiations continuing regarding local manufacture of the latter system, which was designed and produced by Russia’s Region State Research & Production Enterprise and has an effective range of around 10km.

The JH-7A’s new integrated fire-control system is also compatible with a number of different targeting pods, including the forward-looking infra-red/ laser targeting system designed by the 603 Research Institute used with the KAB-500 LGB.

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.