The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force is set to decommission its J-7 fighter jets this year, according to a report from Global Times. The J-7, China’s first supersonic fighter jet, has been in use by the PLA Air Force and the People’s Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF) for many years, but has been gradually retired since 2018 as the country’s production capacity of new aircraft has increased.
China has been building 4.5-generation fighter jets like the J-10C and J-16, as well as the fifth-generation fighter jet, the J-20, in large numbers, and these will eventually replace legacy fighter jets like the J-7. At the end of December last year, major Chinese military aircraft manufacturers announced the completion of their annual production plans, which observers say laid a solid foundation for the aviation forces of the PLA in 2023.
The J-7 fighter jets have significantly contributed to China’s air defense, and many variants including the JL-9 trainer jet were developed based on the J-7. The J-7 also sold well on the international market, according to Chinese military expert Wei Dongxu. The retired J-7s could be reserved for training and testing or modified to become drones and play new roles in modern warfare.
The J-7 is a Chinese fighter jet that was developed in the 1960s as a domestic version of the Soviet MiG-21. China acquired several complete MiG-21s and parts and technical documents from the Soviet Union, however upon receiving the kits, parts and documents, it was discovered that some technical documents were incomplete and that some parts could not be used.
China then set about to engineer the aircraft for local production, successfully solving 249 major issues and reproducing eight major technical documents that were not provided by the Soviet Union. One major modification was to the fuel storage, increasing the aircraft’s stability, and another was the replacement of the Soviet ejection seat. The re-engineering effort was largely successful, as the Chinese-built J-7 showed only minor differences in design and performance from the original MiG-21.
However, mass production efforts were hindered by the Cultural Revolution and it was only achieved during the 1980s, by which time the original aircraft design was showing its age. The J-7, although a successful domestic version of the MiG-21, was no match for the more advanced Western fighter jets that were in production at the time, such as the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.
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