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The Xi'an JH-7 ( – fighter-bomber;
NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...
Flounder), also known as the FBC-1 (Fighter/Bomber China-1) Flying Leopard, is a
tandem Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...
two-seat, twin-engine
fighter-bomber A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, wh ...
in service with the
People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force The People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF; ) is the naval aviation branch of the People's Liberation Army Navy. Overview Historically, the PLANAF's main role has been to provide the navy's warships with air defense coverage. Part of ...
(PLANAF), and the
People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...
(PLAAF). The main contractors are
Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation, also known as Xi'an Aircraft Company Limited (XAC), is a Chinese aircraft manufacturer and developer of large and medium-sized airplanes. It is based in Yanliang District, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, adjac ...
(XAC) and the 603rd Aircraft Design Institute (later named the First Aircraft Institute of AVIC-I). The first JH-7s were delivered to the PLANAF in the mid-1990s for
evaluation Evaluation is a systematic determination and assessment of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, design, project or any other intervention or initiative ...
, with the improved JH-7A entering service in 2004.


Development history


A new fighter bomber

In the early 1970s, the PLAAF required a new fighter-bomber to replace the
Harbin H-5 Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...
and
Nanchang Q-5 The Nanchang Q-5 (; NATO reporting name: Fantan), also known as the A-5 in its export versions, is a Chinese-built single-seat, twin jet engine ground-attack aircraft based on the Shenyang J-6. The aircraft is primarily used for close air suppo ...
. A request was duly submitted to the Ministry of Aviation Industry (later renamed to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China), which organized a domestic development program when efforts to secure a joint venture with foreign partners failed. The program was authorized on 19 April 1983 by then-
paramount leader Paramount leader () is an informal term for the most important political figure in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), often hol ...
Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...
. The program was also aiming to make use of newly imported British
Rolls-Royce Spey The Rolls-Royce Spey (company designations RB.163 and RB.168 and RB.183) is a low-bypass turbofan engine originally designed and manufactured by Rolls-Royce that has been in widespread service for over 40 years. A co-development version of th ...
turbofan engines at the time.


JH-7

The PLANAF required a similar aircraft and the program set out to develop a variant for each set of requirements. The PLAAF variant was conceived as an all-weather, long-range bomber/strike aircraft, with a two-seat, tandem cockpit,
electronic countermeasures An electronic countermeasure (ECM) is an electrical or electronic device designed to trick or deceive radar, sonar, or other detection systems, like infrared (IR) or lasers. It may be used both offensively and defensively to deny targeting info ...
(ECM), and
terrain following Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin wo ...
capabilities (similar to the
General Dynamics F-111 The General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark is a retired supersonic, medium-range, multirole combat aircraft. Production variants of the F-111 had roles that included ground attack (e.g. interdiction), strategic bombing (including nuclear weapons c ...
). The naval version differed in that it was conceived as a dedicated reconnaissance/strike aircraft. The PLAAF variant was dropped in the early 1980s, with the PLANAF variant becoming the JH-7. Six
prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
s were built by December 1988, and the PLANAF received 12 to 18 aircraft in the early 1990s for evaluation. The first aircraft used imported Rolls-Royce Spey Mk.202 engines, later replaced by a license-built copy, the WS-9. They were equipped with the Type 243H multifunction radar, which could detect ships at a maximum of , and
MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickna ...
-sized aerial targets at . The JH-7 was designed as an anti-ship fighter-bomber. As with the later JH-7A, its aerial combat capability was insignificant given the large number of specialist aircraft for that role.


JH-7A

When the PLA examined the future role of air forces, it identified a need for precision air-to-surface capability. An improved JH-7, the JH-7A, was designed to meet this requirement. The JH-7A's general and deputy general designers were Tang Changhong (唐长红) and Wu Jieqin (吴介琴) respectively. The JH-7A had a lighter and stronger airframe than the JH-7, allowing the newer aircraft to carry a maximum ordnance load of 9,000 kg. In PLANAF, this allowed four
YJ-82 The YJ-82 () is a Chinese subsonic anti-ship cruise missile. It is manufactured by the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Third Academy.Gromley et al.: page 101 The YJ-82 is the submarine-launched version of the YJ-8 missile fam ...
anti-ship missiles to be carried, compared to the two on the JH-7. The JH-7A is equipped with domestic Chinese helmet mounted sight (HMS) for evaluation, and this HMS currently being tested is developed b
Xi'an Optronics Group (Xi Guang Ji Tuan 西光集团)
a member o
Northern Electro-Optic Co. Ltd (北方光电股份有限公司)
the wholly owned subsidiary of
Norinco China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, doing business internationally as Norinco Group (North Industries Corporation), and known within China as China Ordnance Industries Group Corporation Limited (), is a Chinese state-owned defense ...
, and the HMS on JH-7A was developed from the helicopter HMS manufactured by the same company, thus both share many common components. HMS tested on JH-7A is compatible with air-to-air/surface missiles, and it is also compatible with airborne sensors such as radars and electro-optics so that the sensors are slaved to HMS, enabling the fast tracking and aiming of the weaponry. The cockpit of JH-7A still retains some traditional single function dial indicators, but there are two large color
liquid crystal display A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat panel display, flat-panel display or other Electro-optic modulator, electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liqui ...
multi-function display A multifunction display (MFD) is a small-screen ( CRT or LCD) surrounded by multiple soft keys (configurable buttons) that can be used to display information to the user in numerous configurable ways. MFDs originated in aviation, first in mil ...
s which can be
monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, monochrom ...
if pilots choose. Other avionic upgrades of JH-7 include: replacing Type 960-2 noise jammer with BM/KJ-8605, replacing Type 265A radar altimeter with Type 271 radar altimeter, fully digitized
fly-by-wire Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires, and flight control co ...
flight control system A conventional Fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing aircraft flight control system consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction ...
, and in addition, Type 232H airborne radar is replaced by
JL-10A {{Short description, Type of aircraft radar The JL-10A airborne radar is a highly digitized pulse-Doppler radar with slotted planar array developed for the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) as a replacement for the older Type 232H radar cur ...
pulse-Doppler radar, enabling JH-7A to fire
laser-guided bomb A laser-guided bomb (LGB) is a guided bomb that uses semi-active laser guidance to strike a designated target with greater accuracy than an unguided bomb. First developed by the United States during the Vietnam War, laser-guided bombs quickly p ...
s and
Kh-31 The Kh-31 (russian: Kha (Cyrillic), Х-31; AS-17 'Krypton') is a Russian air-to-surface missile carried by aircraft such as the MiG-29 or Su-27. It is capable of Mach number, Mach 3.5 and was the first supersonic anti-ship missile that could be la ...
P
anti-radiation missile An anti-radiation missile (ARM) is a missile designed to detect and home in on an enemy radio emission source. Typically, these are designed for use against an enemy radar, although jammers and even radios used for communications can also be ...
s. The existing JH-7s were upgraded with JH-7A electronics. Two additional
hardpoint A hardpoint is an attachment location on a structural frame designed to transfer force and carry an external or internal load. The term is usually used to refer to the mounting points (more formally known as a weapon station or station) on the ...
s increased the total to 6 from the original 4, and one-piece
windscreen The windshield (North American English) or windscreen (Commonwealth English) of an aircraft, car, bus, motorbike, truck, train, boat or streetcar is the front window, which provides visibility while protecting occupants from the elements. Mo ...
replaced the original three-piece windscreen. The JH-7A was the first Chinese aircraft to use paperless design, and the software used was
CATIA CATIA (, an acronym of computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application) is a multi-platform software suite for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAE), 3D modeling and Product lif ...
V5.


Operational history

On its maiden flight on 14 December 1988, while en route back to the airport to land, the engines of the JH-7 prototype suddenly began to vibrate violently. The test pilot Huang Bingxin (黄炳新) decided to make an emergency landing, but as he approached the airport, the vibration was so great that two thirds of the instruments had been shaken off the instrument panel, and all of the connectors of the remaining third still attached to the panel had also been shaken loose, so none of the instruments worked; the pilot nonetheless managed to eventually land the prototype safely. On 8 June 1991, a JH-7 prototype suddenly began to leak fuel at a high rate. Lu Jun (卢军), a Russian-trained Chinese test pilot, managed to make a safe emergency landing when the fuel reserve had dropped to slightly more than 30 liters. Three years later, on 4 April 1994, a JH-7 prototype crashed during a test flight, killing Lu. On 19 August 1992, the entire rudder of a JH-7 suddenly fell off at an altitude of 5,000 meters, while carrying four live missiles. Against orders to jettison the missiles and abandon the aircraft, the test pilot decided to attempt an emergency landing. Using mainly differential thrust of the two engines, the test pilot Huang Bingxin (黄炳新) made it back to the airport and attempted to make an emergency landing, but a tire at the starboard side burst on touch down, causing the aircraft to veer off course. Using brakes as control, the test pilot made two attempts before finally releasing the
drogue parachute A drogue parachute is a parachute designed for deployment from a rapidly-moving object. It can be used for various purposes, such as to decrease speed, to provide control and stability, or as a pilot parachute to deploy a larger parachute. ...
to finally stop safely. The JH-7A entered service with the PLANAF in early 2004, and with the PLAAF by the end of the year. In 2007 JH-7s went abroad to participate in "Peace Mission" exercises of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is a Eurasian politics, political, economy, economic and security organization. It is the world's largest regional organization in terms of geography, geographic scope and world population, population, c ...
(SCO). In April 2012, multiple JH-7 aircraft joined a Russia-China joint naval exercise in eastern China. In 2013, JH-7s participated in a Russia–China joint exercise held on Russian territory. On 14 October 2011, a JH-7 crashed during an exhibition at an air show in
Shaanxi province Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), Ningx ...
, northwest China. On 5 June 2014, a JH-7 crashed during a training mission in
Yiwu Yiwu () is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jinhua in Central Zhejiang Province, East China. As of the 2020 census, the city had 1,859,390 inhabitants and its built-up (or metro) area, joined with that of the neighboring Dongy ...
,
Zhejiang province Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiangs ...
. On 22 December 2014, a JH-7 crashed near the city of
Weinan Weinan () is a prefecture-level city in the east central Shaanxi province, China. The city lies on the lower section of the Wei River confluence into the Yellow River, about east of the provincial capital Xi'an, and borders the provinces of Shan ...
in Shaanxi province, under unknown circumstances. At least two persons are said to have died in the crash. On 22 October 2016, a JH-7 crashed in
Liuzhou Liuzhou (; , IPA Pronunciation:) is a prefecture-level city in north-central Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The prefecture's population was 3,758,700 in 2010, including 1,436,599 in the built-up area made of 4 urban ...
,
Guangxi province Guangxi (; ; alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam ( ...
. According to pictures released on social media, the pilots ejected. On 12 March 2019, a JH-7 crashed during a training exercise in Ledong County,
Hainan Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
, killing two pilots on board. The crash of the normally high-altitude-usage, aged aircraft happened during a low-altitude training flight, the pilots gave up an opportunity to eject to avoid densely populated residential area and were killed when trying to avoid a school, they were hailed for their bravery as martyrs by local officials. On 18 May 2019, a JH-7 crashed in , Weihai City area,
Shandong province Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...
. A new variant of the Xian JH-7 fighter-bomber is in service with the PLAAF as of August 2019. The variant is designated JH-7AII.


Operators

; *
People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force The People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF; ) is the naval aviation branch of the People's Liberation Army Navy. Overview Historically, the PLANAF's main role has been to provide the navy's warships with air defense coverage. Part of ...
– 120 (). *
People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...
– 120 ().


Variants

* JH-7 – Initial production version of the PLANAF anti-shipping fighter-bomber. *JH-7A – Later production utilising composite structure to reduce weight, improved flying control system and improved avionics including the JL10A Shan Ying J-band
pulse-Doppler radar A pulse-Doppler radar is a radar system that determines the range to a target using pulse-timing techniques, and uses the Doppler effect of the returned signal to determine the target object's velocity. It combines the features of pulse radars an ...
. Weapon loads increased by the addition of two more wing hardpoints and two hardpoints under the intake trunking for mission pods such as targeting pods. *JH-7A2 – Improved variant with enhanced air-to-ground munitions and carrying capabilities. The variant was first observed in 2019. The fighter-bomber was official unveiled on
Zhuhai Airshow China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (), also known as the Airshow China () or Zhuhai Airshow (), is the largest airshow and aerospace trade expo in China. It has been held in even years in Zhuhai, Guangdong since 1996. Hist ...
in 2021. *JH-7E - Possibly export variant, shown at 2018
Zhuhai Airshow China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition (), also known as the Airshow China () or Zhuhai Airshow (), is the largest airshow and aerospace trade expo in China. It has been held in even years in Zhuhai, Guangdong since 1996. Hist ...
. *FBC-1 Flying Leopard – Export version of the JH-7. *FBC-1A Flying Leopard II – Export version of the JH-7A.


Specifications (JH-7)


See also


References


External links


Chinese JH-7 documentary, interview with Chief Designer



JH-7 at SinoDefence.com


{{DEFAULTSORT:Xian Jh-7 Aircraft first flown in 1988 1980s Chinese attack aircraft JH-7, Xian Twinjets
JH-7 The Xi'an JH-7 ( – fighter-bomber; NATO reporting name Flounder), also known as the FBC-1 (Fighter/Bomber China-1) Flying Leopard, is a tandem two-seat, twin-engine fighter-bomber in service with the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force ...
Fourth-generation jet fighter