According to information finally released in 2006 by China, the fire control technology of JL10A was partially based on AWG-9 of F-14 Tomcat. At least one complete set of AWG-9 was obtained from Iran in the 1980s, and China attempted to reverse engineer the American system. However, the Chinese was so technologically behind that it could neither completely decode the embedded software and nor produce the microelectronics needed. It was not until late 1990s, more than a decade later for Chinese technologies to mature enough to have a relatively complete understanding the detailed design of AWG-9, and by this time, identical copy of the American system was considered inefficient because the 1960s electronics and analog computer technology were obsolete despite the advanced design principle / philosophy. As a result, the JL-10A adopted solid state electronics and fully digitized computer technology instead. China, however, still faced great technological gaps in the late 1990s which had limited its capability to produce a system that matches AWG-9 on equal terms, resulting in the number of targets JL-10A can simultaneously tracked and engaged are still significantly lower than that of AWG-9, which is able to simultaneously track 24 targets and engaging 6 of the 24 tracked. In comparison, JL-10A can only simultaneously track 15 targets and engage 6 of the tracked. Due to the same reason, the range of JL-10A is also much shorter than that of AWG-9: in comparison to the 300 + km[citation needed] range of AWG-9, the range of JL-10A is only 104 km. Other technologies benefited from the AWG-9 included the compatibility with electro-optics such as IRST. Similar to the American AWG-9, JL-10A is part of a larger airborne fire control system that integrade other sensors such as IRST, and the Chinese system is designated as AMFCS, short for Airborne Multi-targets Fire Control System, which works exactly with the identical principles of similar system on F-14 Tomcat, from which AMFCS is developed from. AMFCS is developed by CLETRI, the developer of JL-10A, and the system has already been installed on J-10 and JH-7A Flying Leopard.
