China Allows International Sale of PLA’s Fighter Jets

China has allowed the PLA to export its domestically developed J-10 fighter jet as the country looks to attract buyers at the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corp. booth at the Singapore Airshow 2016, which kicked off on Tuesday, Feb .16, according to a report China Daily.

The report said that a large-scale model of the FC-20, the export version of the J-10, was on display at the six-day airshow.

Since it is an unspoken rule in China’s defense sector that weapons solely designed for the People’s Liberation Army are never displayed at foreign exhibitions, the model’s appearance in Singapore is an indication that the country now wants to promote the warplane to the international market, the report said.

The J-10, which was designed and produced by Aviation Industry Corp. of China, is a third-generation, multirole combat aircraft. It has a canard delta wing design and a fly-by-wire flight control system. Military experts regard it as one of the best fighter jets in the world.

The plane first entered service with the PLA Air Force in 2004 as the J-10A and then it was declassified in 2009.

British think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that the PLA Air Force and PLA Navy’s aviation units had at least 260 of the jets in operation as of Feb. 2014.