Deka Ironwork Simulations appear to be changing up their J-8 project

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Announced back in 2023 as part of a flurry of developer announcements, recent news coming from the r/Hoggit community is relaying word that the DCS World third party developer is changing the specific model of the Shenyang J-8II that they intend to develop. We haven’t heard much from the developer in quite some time so let’s see what the latest word is.

Changing the “Finback”

The J-8 Peace Pearl (or PP) variant was announced back in 2023 as the variant that Deka Ironwork Simulations was planning to do for their next DCS World project. The Pearl Pear version was a controversial decision driven mostly by available documentation on the radar and avionics of other variants of the J-8II. The Peace Pearl version was fitted with largely US based avionics as part of a short lived thaw in relations between the US and China. The controversy was largely because the Peace Pearl version was limited to just a couple of prototype jets and tensions soon rose again and the aircraft was never finalized.

Now, a post from the developer released on Chinese social media platform Bilibili appears to suggest a change in course. The post, made on r/Hoggit, translates to read:

After announcing the J-8PP, we’ve been listening closely to everyone’s feedback. During the development of the J-8PP, timing happened to work in our favor. At the same time, both the community and the team increasingly wanted a more authentic, “true-to-original” J-8 variant—and with BVR steadily becoming the mainstream in PvP, we reconsidered the plan again and again. In the end, we’ve decided to switch to the J-8DF instead.

DIS announced that it will launch the J-8DF instead of the J8-PP

The J-8DF that they intend to offer seems to have some confusion over exact capabilities but it looks like it will have a mix of IR and radar homing missiles including the PL-11 which is roughly analogous to the AIM-7. There’s some dispute in the comments on if it will have that capability or if it will be limited to IR only missiles.

More as this develops.

14 responses to “Deka Ironwork Simulations appear to be changing up their J-8 project”

  1. CanadaOne Avatar
    CanadaOne

    Interesting. I’m looking forward to see this in more detail

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  2. Reinhard Avatar
    Reinhard

    Good news indeed. I like the part where it says it’s more bvr capable.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Petrel76 Avatar
    Petrel76

    I hope Deka will prove to be more reliable than Razbam and Polychop. J-8 is an interesting plane developed from MiG-21

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    Reply
  4. JImbo Avatar
    JImbo

    Pro- Deka did the JF-17. Credit where it’s due.

    Con- Nothing since the JF-17 and this has been languishing for years.

    Either way it’s not my thing but it’d be nice to see another plane added.

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    1. Magpie Avatar
      Magpie

      To be fair, I don’t think languishing is the right word if they’ve built a whole J-10 MCS in that period

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
        ShamrockOneFive

        Yeah absolutely. Their J-10 project seems to have consumed some time and resources but at present they aren’t able to show it at a consumer level. Maybe that will change in time.

        Liked by 1 person

    2. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      They seem to have been busy doing professional products in the interim. Recently it came to light that the company did a full module for the J-10. They seem to have wanted to bring it to the consumer side of things but so far haven’t been able to get permission to do so. If that ever changes, I can see them surprise dropping a J-10 on the community. That’d be interesting.

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      1. JImbo Avatar
        JImbo

        While that’s fair for them to do, it also shows where their priorities are. It’s no different than if a company decides to do MSFS instead of DCS. That’s fine and they’re doing something. I never said they’re doing nothing. Just that they haven’t been working on DCS projects. Again, that’s fine for them to do as it’s their choice. It just doesn’t to me show any priority for DCS projects so I won’t hold my breath waiting for this to come to DCS. While we’re in the realm of “someday”…maybe by then some of the other Chinese focused products that are floating out there will solidify into the game and it’ll enable some good PRC scenarios. Although don’t expect it to be anywhere near Taiwan. My personal suggestion would be for someone to work on a SE Asia map of Vietnam/Southern China to satisfy both the Nam gamers and the Chinese assets fans.

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  5. Kai WU Avatar
    Kai WU

    In fact，the J-8DF variant is the late model of J-8. And it is capable to launch PL-12, the original variant of SD-10.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      Have any reading I can do on that? Various sources online seem to offer contradictory information on if the PL-12 is available on this aircraft. There may be a couple of sub variants with different radars and different capabilities perhaps? I’ve done some digging and only gotten more confused 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. Tarawa2019 Avatar
        Tarawa2019

        The J-8DF is basically modified J-8D with avionics of J-8F standard. The latter is actually the first Chinese made fighter jet with fox3 capability, when the early examples of J10A can only use PL-11.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Urgent Siesta Avatar
    Urgent Siesta

    well, we know they do GREAT work, so I’m looking forward to this one!

    the MiG-29 has been a breath of fresh air and having another modern-ish RedFor jet will make things even more interesting 🤙

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  7. PaperPilot Avatar
    PaperPilot

    I hope they do the J-10C one day, though I think their next aircraft after the J-8DF should be the J-7G, the most modern variant of the J-7 Fishcan, developed from the MiG-21 and ultimately the most advanced version of the Fishbed. What do you think?

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    1. ShamrockOneFive Avatar
      ShamrockOneFive

      So it appears that they have done a J-10 and is offering it up as a professional product. Apparently they don’t (yet anyways) have the permission to offer it to consumers. Maybe one day that will change.

      Liked by 1 person

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