J-10 also mounted Thunderbolt-17, the PLA may redefine the air combat！

Not long ago, a J-10C fighter jet was found to be carrying at least one PL-17 ultra-long-range air-to-air missile during a round-the-clock red-and-blue confrontation drill by a brigade of the aviation corps in China's southern theater of operations. “Bulgarian Military believes that compared to the J-16 and other twin-engine heavy fighters, which are mainly responsible for air-control tasks, the J-10C, a single-engine multi-purpose fighter mainly used for short- and medium-range operations, has a limited payload capacity, so the pairing with the PL-17 is surprising, but it also signals that the PLA may change the definition and mode of air combat in the future. The PL-17 is an over-the-horizon fighter.