China's J-10B Fighter Aircraft To Enter Export Market

China  could possibly export its J-10B fighter to Pakistan, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Russia has agreed for a deal to sell its advanced AL31FN engines which will be fitted to the J-10B, Kanwa defense review reported Sunday adding that the first batch of the engines is expected this year.

The Russian engines will increase the life of the aircraft from the J-10A's 500 flight hours to the J-10B's 750 hours. As China will introduce more Russian engines in the future, all J-10B aircraft will be fitted with the AL31FN.

The upgraded version of the J-10 fighter, the J-10B is the first domestically designed aircraft fitted with a diverterless supersonic inlet to shield the engine compressor blades from radar waves.

The medium-scale 3.5-generation J-10B fighter has a maximum take-off weight of 19 tons, a bomb load between 6 and 8 tons, a combat radius of about 1,000 kilometres and a flight speed between 1 and 1.5 mach. It is equipped with an active phased-array radar and capable of carrying air-to-air missiles.

The aircraft can also carry out reconnaissance operations with infra-red search and track sensors.