JH-7 Flying Leopard
| Xian JH-7 FBC-1 Flying Leopard |
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| A Naval Aviation JH-7A on the runway at Chelyabinsk Shagol Air Base | |
| Role | Fighter-bomber |
| Manufacturer | Xian Aircraft Industry Corporation |
| First flight | 14 December 1988 |
| Introduction | 1992 |
| Status | Operational, in production |
| Primary users |
People's Liberation Army Navy People's Liberation Army Air Force |
| Number built | 240 (as of 2014) |
The Xian JH-7 (Jianjiji Hongzhaji – fighter-bomber); NATO reporting name Flounder), also known as the FBC-1 (Fighter/Bomber China-1) Flying Leopard, is a tandem two-seat, twin-engine fighter-bomber in service with the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF), and the People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). The main contractors are Xi'an Aircraft Industrial Corporation (XAC) and the 603rd Aircraft Design Institute (later named the First Aircraft Institute of AVIC-I).
The first JH-7s were delivered to the PLANAF in the mid-1990s for evaluation, with the improved JH-7A entering service in 2004.
In the early 1970s, the PLAAF required a new fighter-bomber to replace the Harbin H-5 and Nanchang Q-5. A request was duly submitted to the Ministry of Aviation Industry (later renamed to the Aviation Industry Corporation of China), which organized a domestic development program when efforts to secure a joint venture with foreign partners failed. The program was authorized on 19 April 1983 by then-paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. The program was also aiming to make use of newly imported British Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan engines at the time.
The PLANAF required a similar aircraft and the program set out to develop a variant for each set of requirements. The PLAAF variant would be a two-man all-weather deep strike bomber, with side-by-side cockpit seating, electronic countermeasures (ECM), and terrain following capabilities similar to the General Dynamics F-111. The PLANAF would receive a two-man all-weather, tandem cockpit, strike and reconnaissance aircraft. The PLAAF variant was dropped in the early 1980s, with the PLANAF variant becoming the JH-7.
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