Chinese sources state that the J-11A retains the existing N001 and only upgrades the FCS to guide the R-77.
Do we know which chinese sources say that? A search through Baidu doesn’t reveal any source that could be used.
Also, the PPT I mentioned is the one presented by PLAAF Senior Colonel Li Chunghua at Northwestern Polytechnical University about the Falcon Strike 2015 training, which is sufficient primary source and shows more clearly than other unreliable western sources that the radar in question was modified based on the N001, not the N001VE.
The powerpoint actually lists it as the Su-27. Western and Chinese PLA watchers described the planes participating in the Falcon Strike as the oldest Su-27SK in PLA service. Contemporary western sources indicated that only the initial batch was delivered with the N001E (which had the FCS upgrade), with the second batch onwards having the capability to engage two targets simultaneously. This information was gained from interviews with Phazotron representatives in 1997, which is as close to being a primary source a secondary source can get. In the same source, the Phazotron representatives indicated that the only limitation for not having the ability to engage 4 targets was software, not hardware (China’s Military Faces the Future, James Lilley and David L. Shambaugh, 1999).
China is gradually improving the electronic subsystems on their SU-27s. U.S. fighter/attack aircraft excel in the areas of advanced radar, fire control systems that allow one aircraft to attack multiple targets, and defensive electronic countermeasures (ECM) that confuse radar and missile threats. For example, the F-15C’s radar can detect targets out to 100 miles and can track and engage multiple targets. The Phazotron radar on China’s current SU-27s have a search range of over 62 miles and can track 10 targets, but can guide anti-aircraft missiles at only two of the targets. But at the 1997 Paris Air Show the Phazotron bureau announced that the next batch of Chinese SU-27s will be equipped with an improved radar. When software upgrades are complete it will be able to engage four targets.62
And at the Paris Air Show, Phazotron’s director said the third batch of Chinese SU-27s will have an improved radar with a larger antenna.93 At MAKS 97 Phazotron officials noted that within six months it could develop the software necessary to allow this radar to engage four instead of the current two targets. Instead of an upgraded Phazotron N-001, it may have already delivered a variant of the Zhuk-27 radar, which also may be able to fire air-to-ground munitions like the Zvezda Kh-31 supersonic anti-ship missile.94
There is nothing to indicate that the planes that participated in the Falcon Strike training were the J-11A, not a J-11 with upgraded FCS. I am also slightly confused as I was explicitly told by a technical mod that no assumptions could be made on sources yet the decision to not give two radar links seems to be made on an assumption that a single source was definitely referring to the J-11A? Even though it clearly states Su-27, does not indicate whether it was a domestic kit built J-11 or J-11A, does not indicate whether it was a fully assembled J-11 or fully assembled J-11A, does not indicate which batch of J-11 delivery it was, and most importantly of all, does not indicate whether it is a J-11A at all! Meanwhile, sources indicating that later deliveries of the SU-27SK had an upgraded radar and processor to allow for simultaneous engagement of 2 or more targets were knocked back because it only indicated that it was the second batch of delivery, and did not explicitly state that it was the J-11A! I simply do not understand the difference in treatment for these two sources.