China’s Combat Tested J-10C Fighter Chief Designer Projects Major Upgrades and New Exports

Chief Designer of the J-10C ‘4+ generation’ fighter Li Jun, a senior researcher at the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, has confirmed plans to continue to enhance the aircraft’s capabilities, noting that it still has significant room for improvement, and will have a viable service and market life of at least two to three decades. While the future of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s own procurement plans remain uncertain, as the service is expected to begin procuring sixth generation fighters in the early 2030s, the J-10C program is expected to offer a growing number of new technologies and subsystems to meet the requirements of export clients. Regarding the fighter type’s considerable superiority over prior J-10 variants, Li elaborated: “The aircraft's avionics system has received a generational upgrade. Its Active Electronically Scanned Array radar system can rapidly detect and track targets, far outperforming traditional mechanically scanned radars.”

Elaborating on the J-10C’s capabilities, the aircraft’s chief designer observed: “The jet boasts powerful features including network-centric cooperative combat, beyond visual range multiple target engagement in intense electromagnetic scenarios, and multimode precision strikes. It can also prevail in medium- and low-altitude dogfights.” He added that clients were being offered a complete combat system with capabilities including early warning, command and control, and electronic warfare. “The J-10CE's combat record of shooting down multiple hostile aircraft with zero losses in actual combat is a clear testament to the advantages of its platform and the systems behind it.” Pakistan is currently the only foreign operator of the J-10C, with the fighter’s sole high intensity combat engagements occurring in early May, 2025, when they were used to engage Indian fighters and shot down multiple targets, including between one and four Indian Rafale fighters. 

Indo-Pakistani engagements have significantly further increased the already fast growing prestige of the Chinese fighter aviation industry, raising the possibility of further exports despite widespread Western political pressure on potential clients across much of the world. Although not elaborating on the likely potential clients for the J-10C, the fighter’s chief designer observed: “We are willing to export the aircraft to any friendly country that identifies with our development path and whose procurement requirements comply with the relevant laws and regulations of our country.” “The J-10CE can adapt to customers’ needs, including air superiority and strike against ground targets, and can be customised based on the environments and mission requirements of different users. We can also offer optional payload packages to clients,” he added.

Chinese government sources in early May for the first time reported the deployment of personnel to Pakistan to provide on-site technical support for the Pakistan Air Force’s J-10C fighters during engagements with Indian forces. One of these specialists, Xu Da, recalled regarding the support given to the J-10C: “We nurtured it, cared for it, and finally handed it over to the user. And now, it was facing a major test… As for the outstanding results the J-10CE achieved, we weren’t very surprised, and it didn’t feel sudden at all. In fact, it felt inevitable. The aircraft just needed the right opportunity. And when that moment came, it delivered exactly as we knew it would.” The Pakistan Air Force announced in early May that it had laid the groundwork for a wide range of procurements from China including an unnamed next generation fighter type, which is expected to be the J-35, as well as further squadrons of J-10C fighters.

Preceding Pakistani orders, it was widely reported in the late 2010s that Sudan has become the first client for the J-10C. The Western-backed overthrow of the Sudanese government in April 2019, however, which was followed by the country’s subsequent near economic collapse, and finally the outbreak of a Western-backed insurgency in 2023, prevented this from materialising. The Egyptian Defence Ministry was reported in 2024 to be planning to procure J-10C fighters, although considerable Western leverage over Cairo was expected to present a major obstacle to ordering non-NATO standard fighters. In October 2025 Indonesian Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin and multiple other local officials confirmed that the Defence Ministry had placed an order to procure 42 J-10Cs, which represented the largest Chinese fighter export deal ever announced. Indonesia is reported to have since come under sustained Western pressure to cancel procurement plans.