Key points:
- Indian Air Force’s failure does not mean J-10C’s success.
- WS-10B engine comes with a lot of technical faults and 400 hours service life.
- Chinese missiles and munitions are yet to achieve maturity.
- A steel-aluminium airframe and lack of composite offer low service life for the J-10C.
China’s Chengdu J-10C fighter jet, also known as the “Vigorous Dragon,” has come to prominence following its involvement in this month’s conflict between India and Pakistan.
The single-engine, multirole aircraft flown by Pakistan’s air force was involved in the shooting down of one Indian Jaguar fighter jet, Pakistan’s foreign minister said.
The J-10C’s one success should be taken into context. The Indian Air Force failed to achieve air superiority due to poor mission planning, poorly trained pilots, Soviet-era early warning, and a lack of intelligence. In plain English, fighting against an adversary without combat experience does not prove a fighter jet’s worth.
Some of the downed Indian aircraft included the French-made Rafale fighter attributed to American AMRAAM, according to the Pakistan government’s news agency.
For the sake of propaganda, Pakistan may advertise that the J-10C is successful. However, Pakistan has little or no hope of purchasing any Western fighter other than Chinese jets. Pakistan is stuck with China for Belt and Road Initiative and debt trap, not just its military alliance.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that India and Pakistan has agreed a “full and immediate cease-fire” following US mediation.
About 80% of Pakistan’s military gear is made by China. In 2022, the country received its first batch of jets—upgraded versions of the original J-10—which can carry bombs, air-to-air missiles, and rockets.
Relentlessly upgraded since its debut in the 2000s, the J-10 is Beijing’s to develop the J-10C further. The J-10C has been instrumental in developing many electronics used in J-20 and J-35.
The Chinese-designed and manufactured jet could not prove to be a game-changer on the global arms market.
Think of the J-10C as roughly equivalent to an F-16 Block 50, with some features — like its long-range missile suite — that could give it the edge over a non-technologically superior adversary.
The J-10 was China’s first significant attempt to produce a homegrown combat aircraft. It entered service 2004 as the J-10A, a single-engine, multirole fighter with a canard-delta wing configuration.
The J-10 was designed to be flexible and equally capable in air-to-air combat and ground-attack missions. It can carry precision-guided bombs, anti-ship missiles, and medium-range air-to-air weapons.
While ultimately a homegrown Chinese project, it drew inspiration from abroad, including input from Israeli designers and Russian engine tech.
By 2008, the upgraded J-10B had a redesigned intake, a passive infrared search and track sensor, digital radar warning receivers, and a revamped cockpit featuring full-color displays and a wide-angle heads-up display.
The J-10C, which began rolling off production lines around 2015, marked another big step forward. This version introduced an AESA radar, a significant leap that boosted detection range, targeting precision, and electronic resistance.
However, J-10C lacks datalink systems, electronic warfare, satellite comms, missile approach warnings, and tweaks to reduce its radar signature even further. The J-10B fighter still has a Russian-made AL-31F engine, which is seen as a limiting factor, but more recent versions are reportedly testing the Chinese WS-10B engine with many technical faults.
Chengdu Aircraft Company stock soared by over a third this week on the Shenzhen stock market, suggesting investor confidence in the J-10C.
You may well see a very viable competitor to Western products entering contests for the purchase of new fighter aircraft.
That could pose a challenge for Western defence manufacturers, he added.
Although the J-10C is not China’s most advanced fighter — that distinction belongs to the fifth-generation stealth J-20 — it may be the most commercially viable.
Considering that China might be able to offer a J-10c for export at a unit cost of $50 to $60 million, this would make a lot of sense for African and Asian operators, especially those looking to supplant increasingly hard-to-maintain Russian-made types due to the Ukraine war.
That kind of price tag would make the J-10C “extremely competitive as an option for non U.S.- or non-European aligned countries that want to replace aging MiG-29s, Su-27s, and Su-30s, with something cheaper to buy and has compatibility with Chinese air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, and from a supplier that’s not under massive sanctions.”
© 2025, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
