From Pakistan to Uzbekistan: how China’s J-10CE is widening its overseas reach

Battle-testing modern weapon systems can come at a steep price: a country must send its forces to war. But for China’s 4.5-generation J-10CE fighter aircraft, exports have opened another route.

Pakistan provided the aircraft’s first major combat test during its four-day conflict with India in May 2025, when Islamabad’s J-10CEs were used in an air battle. Two US officials told Reuters that at least two Indian aircraft were downed, including a French-built Rafale – though the precise losses, weapons and circumstances remain disputed.

That combat validation raised the jet’s foreign sales prospects, and it also set the stage for a wider overseas footprint.

As export deals materialise, each new operator could expose the fighter to different climates, basing conditions, combat doctrines and potential adversaries far beyond the East Asian environment for which it was originally developed. This could give China growing operational insight into the aircraft’s performance without having to deploy its own forces.

The fighter jet’s overseas reach is already widening. Uzbekistan has become its second confirmed foreign operator, introducing the J-10CE into a Central Asian air force long reliant on Soviet-designed aircraft, while Bangladesh has moved ahead with plans for a possible purchase, with a draft proposal submitted for government approval.

What began as China’s effort to develop a modern fighter for its own air force is gradually becoming a higher-end option for a small but growing number of foreign operators.