Well they are planes and they do fly.

Hey, I never heard that China will export I-10 to Pakistan. Are you serious?

I heard 36 were to be bought but little has come from it yet mainly because China isn't keen on exporting it yet. China according to the Chinese forum has around 95 models produced but all with the Russian AL-31 Flanker engine and a Chinese made radar. Some say the WS-10 engine has been tested and seen on some J-10s but its difficult to really know. Nothing is really know about the radar, weapons systems, etc and the fanboy talk is its better then A/B/C/D Viper lower Blocks. The Viper is a older design but for me I need more proof to date China hasn't produced anything on par with even a Block-15 Viper on their own yet.

There Flankers are still from Russian kits but their learning and throwing billions of dollars into R&D so they will get it at some point. The J-10 and their home grown J-11B Flankers are great strides in the right direction. China hasen't bought any new fighters in years or any radar sets so for me I take that as a sign their making progress thus no need to important such items. Russian tech isn't ground breaking anymore and with China deals with AirBus I look for a French-Chinese thing to happen in five years or so. Sounds crazy but I think a few bricks have been placed already in this path.

Ah, come on, J-10 isn't as capable as an F-16 Blk-15 now? Please!

It's not exactly state of the art alright, but let's at least give the Chinese the credit they deserve. J-10's a good 4th gen fighter that can do everything that a Blk-30 Viper can do, and then some. It may have Russian engines, but tell me what western aircraft manufacturer doesn't outsource components? Believe me, there are a lot more "made in China" items in Russia then there are "made in Russia" items in China. As said, China is pouring a lot of money and resources into this project and sooner or later, it'll start flying with a well-performing Chinese engine, bringing the total ratio of indigenous components in J-10 to over 90%.

Originally Posted by Lunatik

Ah, come on, J-10 isn't as capable as an F-16 Blk-15 now? Please!

It's not exactly state of the art alright, but let's at least give the Chinese the credit they deserve. J-10's a good 4th gen fighter that can do everything that a Blk-30 Viper can do, and then some. It may have Russian engines, but tell me what western aircraft manufacturer doesn't outsource components? Believe me, there are a lot more "made in China" items in Russia then there are "made in Russia" items in China. As said, China is pouring a lot of money and resources into this project and sooner or later, it'll start flying with a well-performing Chinese engine, bringing the total ratio of indigenous components in J-10 to over 90%.

Yeah ,I hope that day is coming. We can not trust its reliability without a more reliable engine , and moreover that's why J-10 is criticaled all the way since it was born as Pakistan don't need a jet can not be maintened by its origin country.