China discards Russian best engine from its Chengdu fighter.
China is making rapid progress in its national power plant development. There are still Chengdu fighters that are powered by foreign units. The single engine Chengdu J10 Vigorous Dragon is such. It uses the Russian Saturn AL31 engine. This is probably the most popular Russian engine. It powers the Su27, Su30, Su35, and Su57 fighter jets, as well as the Sukhoi S70B Okhotnik B unmanned attack drone.

he Saturn AL31 will no longer power the Chengdu J10 Vigorous Dragon. China has developed its own WS10B powerplant. This gave Beijing the reason to issue an order to eject the Russian engines from the Chinese fighter. Most interestingly, the WS10B is likely to prove superior to its Russian competitor as China retires the AL31 well before the end of its service life.

Even better news for the Chinese military is that as the WS10B begins to be installed in the J10, the J11B twin engine fighters will also receive a Chinese engine. Sources in China even claim that in January 2023, their installation in the J11B will begin. From a tactical point of view, the installation of the new power plant in the J11B is important, since this fighter during military operations overlaps the J10, as its version but with a longer range.

The J10 and J11 are the beginning of a new era in Chinese military aircraft manufacturing. The two were consecutively presented in the distant 2005 and 2008. Today, despite the availability of more modern and capable fighters, such as the J12 or even the Pakistani Jf17, the J10 and j11 remain an integral part of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army Air Force inventory.

During the Cold War, China produced quite good turbojet engines for single-engine fighters. This changed after the end of the cold war when Russia and the USA sharply raised the quality of their production. But in recent years, with the development of the WS10B, China has clearly entered a new era. This engine has been under development and testing for at least the last ten years. Over the years, it was first integrated as a test unit in the two Chinese fighter jets, J10 and J11. Even to be more specific the J11 was the first fighter to receive the WS 10B years ago.

But the WS 10B served to develop the WS10C, which powered the J20 fifth generation fighter and provided supercruise. Interestingly, in the beginning, the J20 was also powered by the AL31. Does this mean that even then the WS10B was better than the Russian fighter? Most likely, but simply China needed more time to test its units under the WS 10 series.

The phasing out of Russian engines from the J10 with the new Chinese WS10B power plant will most likely cover all operational fighters. China has produced over 540J 10 fighter jets, 25 of which have been sold to Pakistan.

Despite the scant information coming out of China, some sources claim that the new WS10B engine requires less maintenance. They also give the fighter excellent performance and greater reliability than its Russian competitor. Phasing out the AL31 from J10 units will help standardize the fleet of J10s, J11s, newer J16s, and J15s based on the aircrafts WS 10B variants.

Some sources in China claim that the J10 fleet will undergo another engine related modification. Rumor has it that by the end of the J10s life cycle, at some point the WS10B will be uninstalled and replaced by the engine currently under development, the WS15. This engine will also power the J20 stealth fighter in the future. It is claimed to be the most powerful engine ever developed.

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