The Falcon has not been known to carry weapons, until the Hongdu video was released and made the rounds on Chinese websites earlier this month. In the video, the jet can be seen with a centered-fuselage pod carrying a 23 mm cannon, PL-5II air-to-air missiles, and underwing fuel tanks.
Hongdu, a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), had originally developed the L-15 as a lead-in fighter trainer (LIFT), and according to company literature that version featured "afterburning engines, high-performance fire control radar, and weapons-carrying capacity for combat missions."
According to airforce-technology.com, the current iteration of the Falcon is a little over a decade in the making.
"The initial prototype was rolled out in September 2005 and took its maiden flight in March 2006," the site states. "The second prototype completed its first flight in May 2008. The first and second prototypes are powered by two ZMKB-Progress (Lotarev) DV-2 engines. An improved version, the DV-2F, which boasts of afterburner capabilities, was fitted in the third model. Ukraine's Ivchenko-Progress AI-222K-25F turbofan engines with afterburner are incorporated in the later L-15 versions."
At the Singapore Airshow in February, International Assessment and Strategy Center senior fellow Richard Fisher said the LIFT was already being redesigned as a multirole craft. The model seen at the airshow had a Luoyang SD-10 self-guided medium range air-to-air missile (AAM) and a PL-5 short-range AAM, along with a precision-guided bomb.
"As the chined nose of the L-15 has not been modified on this model, it could also be that AVIC/Hongdu intend to equip the L-15 with a small active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, which would boost its combat potential," he said, adding that the Falcon currently comes with pulse-doppler radar.
The craft will be used by the China's People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) under the name JL-10. The PLAAF first ordered four Hongdu L-15 trainer aircraft in April 2006. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has expressed interest in the L-15 as a replacement for its K-8 Karakorum jet trainer. Venezuela recently announced plans to order 24 of the craft, and the Zambian Air Force ordered 6.
