Out of pure curiosity, I’d like to ask: does the J-11B Batch 09 actually exist?
My understanding is that Batches 01-07 were manufactured as legacy J-11B equipped with the Type 1493 Radar. However, Batches 08 and later were likely newly built as J-11BG variants. Theoretically, wouldn’t Batch 09 also be a J-11BG? (I haven’t seen any images of Batch 09 myself)
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yep, I actually think so too. Unlike the legacy J-11B, features like the dorsal antenna being changed to a low-visibility type confirm that Batch 08 is definitely the J-11BG.
What concerns me is that Batch 08 remains largely unobserved (only 2 unit, 70305 and 70306, in my photos), and even whether Batch 09 is being produced is unclear.
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+1 Very elegant images
Batch 09 does not exist. In fact, Batches 07 and 08 were restarted between 2017 and 2019 to fill the gap before J-16 production ramped up. J-11B production had been halted long before that, and later SAC shifted its entire production capacity to manufacturing the J-16.
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