Is China planning to convert hundreds of obsolete fighters into suicide drones?

 

Chinese Chengdu J-7 fighters. The Daily Mail/Getty.

China may be planning to convert its massive fleet of Chengdu J-7 fighters into suicide drones. The Daily Mail. The J-7's are China's copy of the old Soviet MIG-21 and are decades out of date. They are expected to be fully retired as manned aircraft in 2023. In a hypothetical war between China and Taiwan the converted aircraft could be used to strike targets and overwhelm Taiwanese air defenses. The rumor was first reported in the Global Times, a Chinese state sponsored news outlet. It is also possible that the aircraft will used for training or in a reserve role. China has around 400 of the jets. 

The Global Times article can be found here. 

My Comment:

The MIG-21 derived J-7's are obsolete but it's not like MIG-21's aren't in service in other countries. Even India used them against Pakistan in their 2019 skirmish, but they ended up losing one of them to the more advanced Pakistani fighters. They are still being used by other countries besides China, despite them being extremely old and out of date. 

I do think that this is a good idea for China if it turns out to be true. There isn't much else that these old fighters would be useful for. Even in a reserve role they would not do much against 5th or even 4th generation fighter jets. And I doubt they would survive in a modern AAA environment for very long. 

But that weakness becomes a strength if these fighters are turned into drones. The idea is that Taiwan would be forced to shoot these drones down, depleting their air defenses. They wouldn't have much choice as even if the planes are only loaded with fuel, they could cause a lot of damage crashing into things. And I think you could easily convert them to hold a large amount of explosives. 

Taiwan would then be struck in an impossible choice. Do you let the drone fighters through and let them cause massive damage or do you shoot them down, thus wasting air defenses that might be better used against China's actual fighter jets and more conventional drones?

Of course you could probably have similar effects with more conventional drones, but the problem with that is that you have to build the air frames. You don't need to do that with these old J-7's. I don't think it would take too much effort to convert these fighters to drones and it probably would be less expensive as well. 

The only problem is how old these fighters are. Most of them were made years ago, though supposedly China was still making them as late as 2013. The airframes might not be in the best shape and some of them might be better off being scrapped. Still, it should be a good weapon if they can convert them. 

However, I am not sure it is even going to happen. China is certainly building up forces for a potential war with Taiwan, but the sourcing on the rumor is pretty thin. I mean, Global Times is Chinese propaganda so if it came from them it could very well be true. But the source is just some random military expert who could just be speculating. We probably won't know the truth until we either find a better confirmation or when war with China breaks out...