https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... y-aircraft
China Seeking To Offload Surplus Military Aircraft
- November 28, 2018, 10:38 AM
China is intent on selling off a number of technologically advanced aircraft,
including radar platforms and interdiction and attack aircraft that apparently have fallen short of People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) expectations
after just a few years of operational service.
After being decommissioned, the aircraft have been handed over to Poly Technologies,
a company licensed by the government,
for rework into exportable versions and subsequent release to would-be foreign clients.
During the 12th China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, better known as Airshow China 2018, held earlier this month in Zhuhai,
the company had a large outdoor exhibition to showcase its wares.
Large-format banners and posters were devoted to the KJ-200, JH-7, A-5, J-7, and K-8,
describing them as decommissioned equipment available to interested foreign countries after repair, upgrade, and rebuild.
While the Chengdu J-7 and Hongdu A-5 and K-8 have been in PLAAF service for many years and are considered obsolete,
the KJ-200 and JH-7 represent modern and still highly capable aircraft.
Most intriguing is the offer of the Shaanxi KJ-200 airborne early warning aircraft,
which entered PLAAF service as recently as 2009.
It seems that a handful of KJ-200s have become redundant after the more advanced KJ-500,
based on the evolved Y-9 platform, became operational in 2015.
Poly Technologies is also promoting the Shenyang JH-7 interdiction aircraft that has had a production run of some 270 copies, most of which remain operable.
Developed in the 1980s, the initial version gave ground for development of the far more advanced JH-7А,
which became operational in 2004.
Apart from being China’s first computer-aided design,
the 28.5-tonne jet featured a glass cockpit and digital fly-by-wire flight control system.
Most of the earlier airframes were upgraded to the JH-7A standard.
Poly Technologies describes the aircraft as a twin-engine, tandem-seat, supersonic fighter-bomber
able to carry a bombload of up to 6.5 tonnes and capable of long-range strikes with precision-guided munitions.
The type was briefly marketed for export as the FBC-1 Flying Leopard,
but all production examples went to the PLAAF and PLANAF (Chinese naval aviation).
Now, with Shenyang having mastered production of the Sukhoi Su-30 twin-seat multirole fighter as the J-16,
the JH-7A is being phased out and thus has become available for export.
Unlike the JH-7, the Hongdu Q-5 low-level attack aircraft was delivered new not only to the PLAAF (from 1970)
but also to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Myanmar, and North Korea, with the export designation A-5.
Last year, the type was withdrawn from Chinese service but remains active with the last three of the overseas customers mentioned.
These and others may be interested in acquiring the A-5L,
the most advanced version with the ability to use laser-guided bombs.
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... y-aircraft