Guizhou and Hongdu both unveiled their AJT projects and had maiden flight around the middle of last decade. At the time, GAIC started the JL-9 project earlier and also had a simpler design, so was expected to finish quickly. Hongdu was more complex as a project with more advanced layout, higher specifications and powerful turbofan engine.
By IndraStra Global Editorial Team
On October 25, 2015, a news article in China Daily mentioned about introduction of third-generation supersonic trainer
aircraft which has been introduced to the People's Liberation Army Air Force's
flight schools－a move experts said will shorten pilots' training time and prepare them for advanced fighter jets. It also mentioned
that PLA Air Force Aviation University deployed an undisclosed number of JL-9
Mountain Eagle two-seater trainer jets this month and has started to use them
to train students, PLA Daily reported.
Image Attribute: JL-9 Advanced Jet Trainer in flight
The JL-9 made its maiden flight on December
13, 2003, only two years after the start of the project, making it the shortest
development time for an aircraft in Chinese aviation history, while
successfully keeping costs down. In June 2005, Chinese newspapers stated that
the JL-9 would be part of the People's Liberation Army's eleventh five-year
procurement plan. With all of the progress that's made in China's military
aviation industry, the progress amongst advanced jet trainers have been rather
slow, with Hongdu's products L-15/JL-10 and CJ-7 being the slowest and most
frustrating.
Guizhou and Hongdu both unveiled their AJT
projects and had maiden flight around the middle of last decade. At the time,
GAIC started the JL-9 project earlier and also had a simpler design, so was
expected to finish quickly. Hongdu was more complex as a project with more
advanced layout, higher specifications and powerful turbofan engine.
Recent news from Guizhou that they are producing
3 types of AJTs: JJ-7A, JL-9 and JL-9G. Now, it’s quite interesting Chinese are
still producing JJ-7A, but that may just indicate JL-9 series itself has taken
longer than expected to be produced. As early as 2005, JL-9 was
already undergoing testing in CFTE, but had to undergo some changes there after. It
seemed like JJ-9 was delivered to FTTC for evaluation by the end of last
decade.
Image Attribute: JL-9 , 3 Views - Top View, Side View, Front View (anti-clockwise)
It seemed to have taken another 4 years after
the tests and evaluations, for the first regiment to be delivered with JL-9 in 2013 even after
achieving design certification in 2011. It's quite possible that more changes
were made during this time based on issues found by FTTC. Since 2014, more JL-9
was delivered to both PLAAF and PLANAF, which would indicate the program is
finally on track and have satisfied PLA requirements.
At around the time CV-16 project was picking
up speed, work for a naval trainer also started with JL-9G. It's unclear to me
at this point if this variant is only aimed for naval aviation since tail hook
is no longer installed. It's possible to imagine the proposed FTC-2000G design could
bring in sales in numerous countries that are currently using J-7s and K-8s. So
while if we would place GAIC below other major AVIC1 design bureaus like CAC and
SAC, it has still managed to develop an effective aircraft.
On June 10, 2011, images of the PLANAF
version of the JL-9 were revealed for the first time on Chinese state
television. Several improvements were made to allow JL-9G to handle the greater
stress and higher takeoff/landing requirements of naval aviation. At the
moment, it has only entered service with PLANAF. Based on the greater payload
of JL-9G vs. JJ-9, it seems like an aircraft that could also be adapted for
light attack roles. It is a very low cost platform ($8.5 million each based on
recent Chinese reports) and also extremely cheap to operate even compared to
other AJTs.
The naval version of the JL-9 for advanced carrier training is
similar to the PLAAF version, with the exception of four modifications for
advanced carrier training:
(1) The twin lower nose lateral air intakes
were replaced with two smaller mid-air intakes mounted above the front of the
main wing to prevent engine stalls when making carrier landing approaches at
high angles of attack;
(2) For better control at lower landing
speeds, the vertical tail surface was redesigned and enlarged;
(3) A larger leading-edge extension on the
inner section of the main wing was added to enable a low landing speed when
landing on a carrier; and
(4) The two rear fins (needed only for supersonic
stability) were deleted so that a tail-hook could be fitted instead
Hongdu is a different story. It has been over
10 years since L-15 was displayed in the 2004 Zhuhai air show and almost 9
years since it made its maiden flight in March 2006. To this day, it still has
yet to join service with PLAAF. Through much of this time, only 4 flying
prototypes were produced. If it was not for the steady cash flow of K-8 series,
it would be hard to see how this company could really survive the lack of
progress in its next major project.
Image Attribute: Hongdu L-15 in flight / Source: Military-Today.com
The interesting part is that Hongdu did get
order for 6 L-15s from Zambia in 2012 and 3 L-15s recently did test flights
since the turn of New Year. It’s quite possible that they will all be delivered
to Zambia in the first half of this year. There were also reports that
Venezuela ordered 24 L-15s.
Image Attribute: L-15, 3 Views - Side View, Front View, Top View (anti-clockwise)
Similar to the K-8 project, L-15 will most likely
be delivered for export before even getting evaluated by PLA. JL-10, which is
the Chinese version of L-15 AJT, had its maiden flight in 2013. Apparently, a
small batch of JL-10 will be produced and delivered to FTTC this year for trial
and evaluation. Only after that and possible more modifications will JL-10 join
service with Also, there is always the question of engine. JL-8 did not join
service with PLA until the domestic WS-11 engine available. It's quite possible
that will also be the case with JL-10.
Image Attribute: JL-8 / K-8 Line Up
As shown in the JJ-9 project, it took
several year of trial and evaluation along with changes before it went into full rate production.
If that happens, one can expect JL-10 to join service after the first J-20
regiment gets formed. By then, the domestic Minshan engine might be ready for
JL-10 project.It indeed speaks for Hongdu's ability as a design bureau that
an AJT takes this long to get developed for PLAAF, but they do seem to be
really good at selling their product. The K-8 project is still selling well
after 300 export and 400 domestic order. L-15/JL-10 program can certainly
follow K-8's path, because it is a fairly advanced AJT design that could also
be adapted for other roles.
Conclusion:
China has finally moved on
from JJ-7 series of advanced jet trainers. Even so, JL-10 project is still a
couple of years away from really joining service, but sooner a large proportion of PLAF/PLANAF new pilots will
operate third-generation J-10s, J-11s and JH-7s as soon as they join combat
units. An advanced trainer aircraft was needed badly to connect flight students
with available inventory of Chinese fighter jets. Typically a fighter student take a lot of time to learn and practice in JJ-7s, but
ultimately prove to be useless because the third-generation aircraft they will eventually fly have different takeoff and landing procedures. So, Introduction JL-9 is one of the important first steps to bridge the gaps in the training and provide a good transition towards the 5th generation fighter jet that China is developing with keeping future in mind.
AIDN: 001-11-2015-0494
