List of Chengdu J-7 variants

This is a list of variants and specifications for variants of the Chengdu J-7, which differed considerably between models in its 48 years of production run. Production ceased after delivering of 16 F-7BGI to Bangladesh Air Force in 2013.
Development.
Production of Chengdu J-7 lasted nearly half a century, beginning in November 1964 when Shenyang Aircraft Factory (SAC) started components manufacturing for J-7, and eventually ended in May 2013 when production finally ceased. State certification of the first J-7 for series production was received on December 28, 1966, after Cultural Revolution started, and as a result of the political turmoil caused, early production J-7s suffered quality issues that lasted into the 1980s, well after the end of the Cultural Revolution. More than 2400 have been built in approximately seven and half a dozen different models of J-7 listed below.
Type 1962/62 series.
Due to Sino-Soviet split, MiG-21 were not used in China, and referred as Type 1962 instead. Designation Type 62 is subsequently used to refer to those Chinese license assembled MiG-21F-13 from kit provided by former-USSR.
J-7 series.
J-7 series were the first group of J-7 produced. MiG-21F-13 directly imported from former USSR were the earlier production batches of MiG-21, but the kits for license assembly in China were later production batches with numerous improvement. Decision was made to reverse engineer to the standard of the latest production batch. Coupled with the inability of Chinese aerospace industry to produce some of the components, design went through four major changes. The initial production of J-7 was serious affected by the political turmoil at the time, namely, Cultural Revolution, which delayed the planned production run. Due to the urgent need of the fighter, original plans of some early models had to be scaled back to less ambitious scale by producing what could be done at the time, and then make improvement later when technologies matured.
J-7I series.
J-7I is the improvement of earlier J-7, with production started in March 1969 after the order was formally given on August 25, 1968. However, the original goal proved to be too ambitious for Chinese aerospace industry at the time, especially during the political turmoil of Cultural Revolution. The program only succeeded after Tu Jida obtained the permission to drastically reduce the originally planned six major upgrades by half to merely three, when he was named as general designer at the end of 1969 to resolve the production problems and quality issues. Mr. Tu would later become the general designer of many more different models of J-7.
J-7II series.
J-7II is series is the one with the second most numerous models within the series. The general designer of most models of the J-7II series is the same one of J-7I, Tu Jida.
J/F-7M Air Guard series.
J/F-7M Air Guard series is the one with the most numerous models within the series. Originally intended for domestic use but the plan was cancelled after the budget was cut, the series became a major export success, and received the name Air Guard. Most models of the series are equipped with British avionics, which are later produced in China as part of the technology transfer deal. The general designer of most models of within the series is the same one of J-7I & J-7II, Tu Jida. Due to the need to meet the urgent delivery schedule of the first customer, it was decided to take a multipronged approach to speed up the development: Several different kinds of prototypes were developed to test different subsystems of the aircraft. Program first initiated at the end 1978 and negotiation begun on March 3, 1979. After 10 rounds of negotiation that lasted 16 months, deal was signed on June 30, 1980, which included technology transfer. The entire J-/F-7M Air Guard program took six years to complete, and various models produced are listed below:
F-7MP/P Sky Bolt series.
Pakistan did not purchase any F-7M and later returned all 20 F-7Ms to China after evaluation to require China to provide a better fighter, which eventually resulted in F-7MP/P Sky Bolt series (PAF does not distinguish the two types from each other after F-7MP is upgraded to F-7P, and refer both as Sky Bolt). Evaluation by PAF has led to the conclusion that with the exception of range, F-7 Sky Bolt series outperforms Dassault Mirage 5 in every aspect. The initial improvements over the original F-7M required by PAF totaled 24, making the F-7MP/P sufficiently distinct from earlier F-7M series to form a series of its own:
J-7III series.
J-7III series are the first J-7s to be equipped with fire control radar and thus the first all-weather fighter models of J-7s. However, due to the limitation of Chinese avionics industry in the 1980s, the performance of the domestic Chinese fire control radars were not satisfactory, because due to their relatively large size, the nosecone had to be enlarged, resulting in decrease in aerodynamic performance of the series. As a result, only very limited numbers of this series were built.
F-7C series.
F-7C series is the first J-7 series to adopt side air-intake design with intention to house more powerful radar in the nosecone with increased the size. Project first begun in 1985 but none of the series has entered production. The general designer of this series is Tu Jida.
J-7E series.
J-7E series is a series of day time fighter of J-7 that utilizing double delta wing which greatly improved maneuverability. It was decided that in order to maintain good maneuverability, the series would not be equipped with fire control radar and medium range AAMs. Equipped with only ranging radar and close range AAM, J-7E series are still daytime fighter. New features of this series includes utilization of carbon-carbon composite brake that quadrupled the service life to more than a thousand landings, utilization of aluminum-lithium alloy that reduces weight by 17%, and pressure ground fueling system replaced gravity ground fueling system that drastically reduced the time of fueling by 80% to 6 minutes from the original half an hour. Deletion of the portside gun resulted in increase of fuel capacity by 100 liters, and the ammo for the starboard side gun is reduced to 60 rounds. WP-13F engine increased mean time between overhaul (MTBO) to 300 hours and service life to 900 hours. Maximum payload is increased to 1.6 ton. Newer avionics replaced the older ones on earlier J-7's. The general designer of J-7E series was Mr. Lu Yu-Ying (陆育英).
J/F-7F series.
J/F-7F series is an alternative development to earlier F-7C series in that the series inherits the design characteristic of eliminating the nose intake, but instead of side intakes adopted by the F-7C series, J/F-7F series utilizes under-chin intake. This series is mainly intended for research on under-chin intakes and has not entered series production.
MiG-21 upgrade subcontract.
In the 1990s, export of F-7 series had significantly dropped from its peak in the 1980s when China failed to secure any new orders in the decade. However, China was successful in completing two deals for MiG-21 and F-7 upgrades by Israeli Elbit Systems as its subcontractor, and experience gained from these subcontracting jobs enabled China to later develop more capable J-7 models. 
J/F-7MG series.
After nearly a decade long hiatus on the internal military aircraft market in the 1990s, China attempts to return by marketing the F-7MG series fighters based on the J-7E series. As with earlier J/F-7M series, in order to speed up the development, it was decided to first develop different prototypes each with a different tasks of trials.
J/F-7PG series.
Although SSR radar is more advanced than its predecessor Sky Ranger 7M, it remains a ranging radar, which PAF was not satisfied with. To meet Pakistani requirement of more capable airborne radar, a fire control radar was needed. In addition, PAF also required other improvements over the original J-7MG, which resulted in J/F-7PG series.
J/F-7G series.
J/F-7G series is the further development of earlier J-7E series. Contrary to many frequent but erroneous claims, the fire control radar is not the Chinese development of EL/M-2001B radar, because EL/M-2001B is a pulse Doppler ranging only radar. Instead, the Chinese fire control radar for J-G is developed from EL/M-2032 fire control radar China obtained from Israel when it was a subcontractor for Elbit in the Romanian MiG-21 LanceR program described above.
F-7BGI.
F-7BG upgraded with J-7G technology for Bangladesh. Unlike other cheaper and downgraded export variants of J-7G, the F-7BGI (I for Improved) is in fact more advanced than J-7G it is developed from. Improvements of F-7BGI over F-7BG such as 3 MFDs and more powerful fire control radar would in turn, incorporated to J-7G2 developed later. The capability of F-7BGI is improved over earlier F-7BG resulted from upgrades listed below, and delivery of 16 was signed in 2011 and completed in 2013. Even with the latest J-7 technology, this aircraft does not have the capability to carry any BVR missile and armed only with short-range, infrared homing air-to-air missiles for air to air combat, like other J-7s.
JJ-7 trainer series.
J-7 trainer variants are Chinese developed trainer version for domestic Chinese uses, and this series is supplied to both PLAAF and PLANAF.
FT-7 trainer series.
FT-7 trainer variants for export is characterized by the fact that nearly every trainer version is equipped with the same avionics and weaponry of its equivalent fighter version to minimizing transition process, and to maintain combat capability of the trainers.