Chengdu J-10

J-10 Vigorous Dragon F-10 Vanguard
A J-10A of the People's Liberation Army Air Force seen at the Zhuhai Airshow
Role	Multirole combat aircraft
National origin	China
Manufacturer	Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group
Design group	Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute
First flight	23 March 1998
Introduction	2006
Status	In service
Primary user	People's Liberation Army Air Force
Produced	2002 – present
Number built	~400
Program cost	500 million RMB allocated in 1982 (Project #10)
Unit cost	190 million RMB (27.84 million USD; 2010)
Developed from	Chengdu J-9

The Chengdu J-10 (simplified Chinese: 歼-10; traditional Chinese: 殲-10, NATO Code: Firebird) is a lightweight multirole fighter aircraft capable of all-weather operation, configured with a delta wing and canard design, with fly-by-wire flight controls, and produced by the People's Republic of China's Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) for the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).

The program was authorized by Deng Xiaoping who allocated ¥ 0.5 billion to develop an indigenous aircraft. Work on Project #10 started several years later in January 1988, as a response to the Mikoyan MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-27 then being introduced by the USSR, and F-15, F-16 already in service in the United States. Development was delegated to the 611 Institute, also known as the Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute and Song Wencong was nominated as the chief designer, as he had previously been the chief designer of the J-7III. The aircraft was initially designed as a specialized fighter, but later became a multirole aircraft capable of both air-to-air combat and ground attack missions.

The J-10 resembles the IAI Lavi The general designer Song Wencong said that J-10 was a development of the indigenous J-9 which preceded the Lavi. This was echoed by a PLAAF's major Zhang Weigang in a 2012 interview.