The FGFA will be in IAF service by 2020 at the latest. And any sane person can reasonably expect the FGFA to be far superior to the J-31/20 in qualitative terms. The FGFA will be built on the decades of Russian aerospace expertise and then will mate world-class sub-systems from the West and India to produce a superb machine.
The Chinese are good but they're not that good!
Also the MKI right now is superior to the MKK and J-11. When the "super" upgrade takes place- forget about it!
But the Chinese don't just operate the basic J-11. They operate the J-11B, which, after its AESA upgrades, with its composites that save over 700 kg of mass, RAM, MAWS, IRST, and new cockpit, should be more than a match for the Su-30MKI.
And then you have the J-15 and J-16 which feature even more upgrades.
Here's why the FGFA won't be "far superior" to the J-31/J-20:
- FGFA and T-50 have pretty bad stealth shaping, due to its lack of planform alignment, lack of smooth profile, lack of saw tooth edges, lack of single piece canopy, and protruding surfaces like the IRST.
- J-20's radar would feature 1800+ T/R modules and is generally believed to be on par with that of the AN/APG-77. China has had far more experience with AESA radars, has more companies to produce it, and has built and deployed far more models of them than Russia.
- J-20 also has EODAS, giving it a 360 degree passive detection ability. Only one other plane uses an all-aspect system like this, and that is the F-35.
Any sane person can deduce that it would be erroneous to judge a country's present capabilities purely based on its history. Russia may have had a glorious record, and perhaps China was nothing but a fly on the wall back in the Cold War, but that certainly does not necessarily represent the situation today.
Yes the Russians are not stellar at electronics and this is how the MKI and now FGFA have come about, the Indians take a superb airframe with some world-class electronics and then go to others to source the best all-round product. So you will see French, Israeli and Indian electronics on the FGFA that makes up for any perceived Russian weakness in this area. To say the Chinese are ahead in this arena (avionics/mission systems) is pretty debatable and I'd argue false.
China has far more experience dealing with AESA radars than any of the aforementioned countries. They have more companies which manufacture them, allowing the PLAAF to select through competition, and they've built and deployed a larger number of variants and models of AESA radars as well.
Asia Times
It seems there was active help till 89 i guess.
I think the Israelis denied that they have anything to do with the program; the J-10 designer claims that it was developed from the canceled J-9 design.