It is easy to treat “JH-7” as a single aircraft, but the difference between the original JH-7 and the later JH-7A is large. The first-generation JH-7, fielded by the Navy from the early 1990s, was produced only in small numbers and is widely described as having had reliability and systems shortcomings. The JH-7A, in service from about 2004, was a comprehensive redesign: a reinforced yet lighter airframe with more composite structure, digital fly-by-wire flight controls, a glass cockpit, additional weapons pylons and a new fire-control radar able to cue precision-guided weapons. Most Flying Leopards in service today are JH-7A or later, and it is this variant that turned a promising but limited prototype-era aircraft into a mainstay of Chinese strike aviation.

In 1975 China contracted with Rolls-Royce to licence-produce the Spey Mk 202 turbofan, a design already in British service. A batch was assembled from British-supplied parts, but fully indigenous production — under the designation WS-9 Qinling — proved difficult and dragged on for many years, with reliable Chinese manufacture generally reported only in the mid-2000s. The long delay is often cited as one reason the original JH-7 was produced in such small numbers, and why the mature JH-7A arrived well over a decade after the type first flew. It is a striking example of how hard it can be to fully absorb a foreign engine technology.

The early JH-7 was essentially an anti-ship platform, carrying YJ-8K missiles and little else in the way of guided weapons. The JH-7A broadened this considerably: reporting credits it with the longer-ranged YJ-83 anti-ship missile, the YJ-91 anti-radiation missile for suppressing enemy air defences, laser- and satellite-guided bombs, unguided bombs and rockets, plus short-range PL-5 and PL-8 air-to-air missiles for self-defence. A twin-barrel 23 mm cannon is fitted for close-in work. The exact loadouts and missile performance figures come largely from Chinese sources and defence-analysis outlets, and specific numbers should be read as reported rather than confirmed.

There is no reliable public unit-cost or cost-per-flight-hour figure for the JH-7. It is a Chinese state programme built for the PLA rather than sold on an open market, and Beijing has disclosed neither procurement prices nor operating costs. The export FBC-1 was marketed internationally but attracted no confirmed foreign buyers, so even an export price point is speculative. Production totals are likewise uncertain: open-source estimates commonly range from around 200 to more than 270 aircraft across all variants, but these are inferences, not official data.