Here’s a quick comparison between the back ends of AL-31F and WS-10 engined FLANKERs. Maybe this can help figure out what’s going on.

Quite possible that they may have changed the petals in the course of development. if you look at the shape of the engine cowling, it does not appear to have a flush or smooth fit with the rest of the body. Most pics of the Su-27 I have seen taking off usually have its petals wide open; this one is fairly closed. The thing is, a plane does not appear in the CFTE base in Xian unless it is once again doing basic flight testing and a mature design like the Su-27 isn’t in CFTE doing basic flight testing unless something radical is done with it. The original J-11 with the WS-10A engines is also based in the CFTE.

Some 300 AL-31FN variants have been ordered, thats enough to keep the J-10 production line going until 2010 if the chinese maintain a J-10 output of 5 a month.

Not really. Of the 300 engines, 54 was already delivered as the order made in 2001. Then you have the other 100 they are already in the process of delivery.

After this 100, which CAC could all finish consuming this year, it is up to China whether they will still use the next set of 150 engines for new production, or convert them to spares for the first 150 J-10s already made, or use them in any mix where a fraction goes to new production, the balance going to the spares pool. In other words, they can even finish all J-10 AL-31FN related production as early as this year. For that matter, all current orders of AL-31Fs for the J-11s can immedietely be switched to the spares pool, even as the J-11s switch to the WS-10A. I heard a report that China didn’t even use up the kits either. Once certain parts were picked off and used into the new production which are now mostly made without the kits, the remaining parts of the kits were sent to the spares pool instead.

I am quite puzzled by the darkened tips and edges in the tail fin. I can never understand why in some PLAAF Su-27s, these areas are dark, while light in others. Even among J-11s, there’s some that is dark, some light. But so far, these areas generally matched to the color of the body. The ones here are very dark, dark grey or black, almost to the color of the radome, which is dark and no longer has the styling cutout. Does this represent a change in the PLAAF color scheme? Oddly, the Su-30MK2 got white tail tips and edges, along with a white radome.

Changes could have been made during development. Somehow it does not look like the standard AL-31F petals to me as well, and the shape of the new engines seems more like a hot dog in shape rather than a cylinder, and the effects seems like two hotdogs sticking out in the rear. If you look at the picture closely you will see a more curved shape in the engine cowling. It looks to me that the new engines don’t seem to fit as slimly into the airframe and their dimensions seem to stand out. The color of the engines isn’t that way too, since I remembered the AL-31F to have this gunmetal blue on the rings before the petals.

Possible J-11B prototype with Taihang engines. Note the WZ-10 prototype minding its business.

maybe the KLJ-6?

but why wouldn’t Iran just go for the J-10..

From what I know the F-8IIM still uses the Type 1471 (KLJ-1) radar. But if indeed the plane can support the AshMs, then indeed the J-8H or J-8Ds which has this radar might be able to support AshMs in the naval role. I don’t know if there is additional letter suffixes added to the designation to denote improvements (KLJ-1G, KLJ-1H as possible hypothetical designations in mind).

Oh, the original F-8IIM with the Zhuk-8II radar is actually multirole, capable of using Russian PGMs and ASMs, though not Chinese. It does however, is capable of using PL-5s and PL-8/9s in addition to Russian AAMs, like putting an R-27 or R-77 in one pylon and then a PL-8 or PL-5 on the other.

KLJ-6E is the radar for the J-7G fighter. Very small, quite basic. RWS mode on top of your basic dogfight modes. KLJ-6F looks like another small radar but it has TWS and BVR capability. However, because of the size, I think it’s not for the J-8II, but for a smaller fighter.

The SD-10 does appear to be available for sale. But it appears to me the Chinese don’t want to release launch codes and programming interfaces to Russian or Western radar manufacturers to integrate the missile to their radar. So it looks to me if you want the SD-10, it comes bundled with the Chinese radar and fire control system. That is one reason why I think the Grifo S7 and Kopyo F offers for the FC-1 has dropped off. J-8IIM comes now as a package with the SD-10, FD-60 (PL-11B/C) and PL-9C support.