Chengdu J-10B
The 'Super-10' — a diverterless intake, a longer radome for an electronically scanned radar and an IRST · First flight 2008 · In production 2013
The J-10B, first identified in the West as the 'Super-10', reworked the airframe's front end. The ramp-type intake gave way to a lighter and stealthier diverterless supersonic inlet, the nose radome was lengthened for a new electronically scanned radar, an infrared search-and-track sensor with laser rangefinder was added ahead of the windscreen, and a new electronic-warfare pod sat on top of the fin.
The first J-10B flew no later than December 2008 and was revealed in March 2009. Radar development delayed the programme: Chinese accounts say a passive-array set was dropped for poor performance before the CETC 14th Institute's active array was adopted. Production aircraft use the AL-31FN M1; one J-10B flew with a Chinese WS-10A in July 2011, but that engine was not chosen for the production batch.
Serial production began in mid-2013 and, by analyst estimates, ran to a single batch of about 56 aircraft before the J-10C took over. A thrust-vectoring demonstrator based on the J-10B, powered by a WS-10B with a vectoring nozzle, showed post-stall manoeuvres such as the Cobra at Airshow China in 2018.
