The JH-7 was designed as an anti-shipping fighter-bomber, and interestingly the first examples in the early 1990s used imported Rolls-Royce Spey engines. These were later superseded by locally-built copies known as the WS-9. The comprehensively improved JH-7A entered service with the PLANAF in early 2004, and with the PLAAF by the end of that year. Around 270 of the two versions are thought to have been built.