I am still not getting it. Why J-8? Last time I checked it was an almost pure A-A interceptor. Why would anyone go the lengths of upgrading such unsuitable aircraft for the A-G role when there is the JF-17 to buy off the shelf?

Hi MSphere, here is my reasoning:

the JF-17 would have range limitations. In any given war scenario, range becomes important as a strike platform. We already have J-7s and some MiG-29s for air defense roles. If you look at the size and location of Myanmar, the most likely source of conflict, J-7s and MiG-29s wont have the range to effectively strike there.

Bangladesh is in the trough of the Bay of Bengal. With naval platforms having poor air defence capability, to stop a blockade attempt would be hard, as the supply chain is long and vulnerable. This becomes even more difficult without proper air defence in the seas.

Why not the JF-17? sure, that’s a possibility and perhaps the most feasible of courses, but I am not sure it has the range to payload capacities, or the combination of both to provide these two roles of extended air naval air defence and strike capability.

That’s the thing – BAF has point defence but does not have a strike capacity. In a fantasy scenario, one could replace the J-7s with the JF-17, and one could buy J-11s / F-15s / Su-35s / Superhornets, but what is the next best alternative to that with budget constraints being considered?

Here are a list of aircraft that I think could play that role given the budget constraint: F-4, J/H-7A, MiG-27, J-8, and that seems about it. or one could go for F-16s, that would also fill the role nicely. Or perhaps Tornados…

Let us take a simple case of say, a hypothetical bombing run on Rangoon (Yangon), Myanmar. Would the JF-17 have the range and payload combination to pull this off? Would it have the speed to strike and get away, given the close proximity of Burmese air bases along the coast? Clearly, while at first sight JF-17 seems to be the logical choice, on evaluation of such a scenario, it doesn’t seem to have that capability.

Of course I am very fond of the JF-17 and they are an ideal replacement for the J-7s and even the MiG-29s. But they just don’t fit the bill when it comes to the scenario I am looking at, the capability matrix we are considering.

Most of the other aircraft are either two expensive (i.e. F-15, Su-27) or don’t come with chinese munitions (i.e. F-4, MiG-27, F-16s). This means that there is virtually no reasonable aircraft that can meet the requirements of the capability matrix we are looking at. Perhaps the only candidates are J/H-7A and J-8IIs. Of these two, the J/H-7A would not be a very survivable platform as they are meant to be escorted, and we won’t have escorts.

Would love your input on what aircraft fits the bill here. There just doesn’t seem any. Perhaps my mind is trying to make a sinofied F-4 Phantom…

Bangladeshis used to be responsible for filling manpower in UN missions that nobody else would commit bodies towards. They should aim for lighter air force that is western integrated. Are they in position to go with non-Russian upgrades to their MiG-29’s like the Polish and Germans? It would be interesting to see them go Gripen.

The majority of the equipment we buy is Chinese…

What I think Bangladesh lacks is a strike capability, and naval air defense. In my amateur opinion, an upgraded J-8, perhaps with a conformal belly fuel tank could fill that role at a very, very low cost.

It’s not a new form of warfare.

Well sir, that is debatable both ways, but we would drag the thread in the wrong direction if we debated it here…

Sorry to bring back a thread from the dead, but this topic greatly interests me.

So how good are the latest variants of the J-8? They seem capable of having a radar as good or better than a J-10 FIREBIRD. With the right upgrades, they should remain decent interceptors at a bargain basement price tag.

Another question I have is if they can carry anti-ship missiles. That would be an added advantage. Payload wise they do seem to have the capacity for it…

Can China still produce these? How much would they cost?

Thanks for the info Buran

Ali Khedery on how the US gave up Iraq to Shia and Iran, pretty much on a platter:

“Ali Khedery is chairman and chief executive of the Dubai-based Dragoman Partners. From 2003 to 2009, he was the longest continuously serving American official in Iraq, acting as a special assistant to five U.S. ambassadors and as a senior adviser to three heads of U.S. Central Command. In 2011, as an executive with Exxon Mobil, he negotiated the company’s entry into the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
To understand why Iraq is imploding, you must understand Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — and why the United States has supported him since 2006.

I have known Maliki, or Abu Isra, as he is known to people close to him, for more than a decade. I have traveled across three continents with him. I know his family and his inner circle. When Maliki was an obscure member of parliament, I was among the very few Americans in Baghdad who took his phone calls. In 2006, I helped introduce him to the U.S. ambassador, recommending him as a promising option for prime minister. In 2008, I organized his medevac when he fell ill, and I accompanied him for treatment in London, spending 18 hours a day with him at Wellington Hospital. In 2009, I lobbied skeptical regional royals to support Maliki’s government.

By 2010, however, I was urging the vice president of the United States and the White House senior staff to withdraw their support for Maliki. I had come to realize that if he remained in office, he would create a divisive, despotic and sectarian government that would rip the country apart and devastate American interests.

America stuck by Maliki. As a result, we now face strategic defeat in Iraq and perhaps in the broader Middle East….”
Read more here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-we-stuck-with-maliki–and-lost-iraq/2014/07/03/0dd6a8a4-f7ec-11e3-a606-946fd632f9f1_story.html

PS: always fact check anything a Shiite tells you, they have something called “taqiya” which basically legalizes lying for them. A good part of what they say is verifyably false with a few minutes of google search.

Well, I recently came back from Syria, where I worked as an aid worker. The jihadis there are actually not an American creation. There arwe groups however that are, but they dont play a significant military role. These lands are vast and the US has good intel on the ground. However, too many targets and ROEs would be complicated. About Ramadi (never been to Iraq but…) They didnt come with flags and tanks in convoy. They came in twos and threes in civilian cars and used the dust storm as cover.

I dont generally support ISIS or the sect that almost exclusively breeds the jihadis (they are called Salafi Jihadis), but I have seen enough and researched enough to know they are, for Sunni Muslims, the lesser evil of the two (i.e. Shias / Iran / Hezbollah).

I think you guys should read up on Ali Khedery, he knows his stuff as concerns what happened, why and what’s happening from a neutral perspective, as he is the longest servong American diplomat in Iraq.

Western air power is playing a pivotal role, without them, today there would be no kurdistan and Baghdad would be surrounded.

The US is making a lot, and I mean a lot of sunni enemies. Even their 2nd closest ally there, saudi arabia is now essentially out of its orbit. Obama is a monumental foreign policy failure…