“JF-17 Not As Advanced As LCA, But It Can Drop Bombs”: Nawaz Sharif

Air Cmde (Retd) Parvez H Khokhar served as India’s Air Advisor in Pakistan and is also former Project Director (Flight Test) on the Light Combat Aircraft programme


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Vayu

38 thoughts on ““JF-17 Not As Advanced As LCA, But It Can Drop Bombs”: Nawaz Sharif”

  1. Nawaz Sharif & 95% Pakistanis are illiterate. They don’t know anything about latest technologies and truth.

  2. Finally. the Pakis concede that LCA is light years ahead of their so called 4th Generation JF-17. And Pakis are going to induct these in large numbers, i doubt where the PAF will be going in years ahead and IAF is broadening their equipments and doctrine and areas of interests like anything.

  3. So they have acknowledged the ovbious. The truth is that India can spend more on avionics of LCA than Pak can spend on the entire JF-17. Pak has chosen the modest and cheap RDY-3 for the JF-17 upgrade. doubt if they can even afford this.

  4. nawaz shareiff is no expert on aircrafts. we have failed to decimate hafeez saeed,Jud chief,Ilyas kashmiri ,Lakhvi etc.. etc…The other day burkha dutt shamelessly interviewed musharaff who boldly told that LeT and saeed are strategic assets of Pakistan. on whom Pakistan use their strategic assets is any body's guess! musharaff simply eliminated Bugti to have control on Baluchistan!!!

  5. As per wiki.. JF17 is still going avionic and radar testing..we can also officially induct Tejas and keep working on the operational clearance.. LCA is an ambitious program to say least with an equally agressive test schedule.But we do have some lessons to take from pakis ..mayb another agency besides DRDO that takes in whats available ommercially on the world market and quickly come up with modest flying machine, similar to approach for IJT

  6. As I said earlier JF-17 is capable of operations only at Waziristan, Pakhtunkhwa and may be Baluchistan before being brought down.

    Carpenters of Sindh can make better plane than JF-17 and keep it stealthy too.

  7. Grant it to the neighbor. They have their child n are mighty proud of it as rightly all proud parents should be. No taking away from that. However, there is no point in comparing apples with oranges n then going gaga over mine's bigger/better than yours.

  8. Air Cmde Pervez Khokkar statement on the ISI and his experiences with them is very much true. They were a bane to him but he made it a point to be equally obnoxious to them, almost to the extent of risking harm to himself. As for the arrogant PAF young-uns in the early 90s, some of that bravado was apparently well founded as the PAF was gloating in F-16 heaven (albeit tapered by the Pressler Amendment) while the IAF was frantically trying to achieve technological parity with sputtering smoky MiG-29As and a handful of Mirage 2000s.

    All said, well done Khokkar Sir, and may you continue to be a pain and bane for the ISI in whatever way possible! 😉

  9. this case kind of reminds me of indo-china where its quality vs quantity…its the same case with lca & jf17…not that jf17 is bad or anything but if inducted in large numbers,can be used as a deterrent…

  10. Arjun program had a millitary man at its helm, and what difference did it make???
    As long as we have foreign vendors with enough money to wet the hands of politicians no home built projects would be taken seriously by MoD

  11. "Apke liye Bomb gira sakta hai"

    Mr Nawaz Sharif, we very well know it can on targets we want. But what is the need for us to buy when jets owned by PAF can very well do?

  12. JF-17 is not as fast, but is more manueverable than the Tejas and PAF doesn't get giggly and burn money on electronics like IAF. The Sherman tank wasn't the most advanced of WWII either, yet had the greatest impact. While the purpose of the Tejas is to build infastructure and enrich politically connected, the JF-17 and its Chinese twin are designed to win wars with adequate ability and mass production.

  13. Is it just me or did hardly any one who read that piece understand what the lump of lard meant?.
    He was mocking the delays in India's coming of age aircraft!!. and taking plenty of pot shots by saying indirectly 'buy these [JF-17] if you can't operationalise your own'.
    Don't you guys get sarcasm?. Even the author of that piece admitted as much.
    LSP-5 first set to fly in June then august, then septemmber IOC in december. But still no sign of the first flight og LSP-5.
    It is indeed a cause of international mirth.

  14. Listen Nawaz Sharif might not be an aeronautical expert, but as PM of pakistan he would have been briefed about the JF-17 Bandar and being the kind of a person he is, he would have asked them about the comparable Indian product – the LCA.

    Now if I know the pakistani senior airforce officers correctly, they are mostly honest, and upright people (very unlike the terror sponsoring pakjabi army wallahs, who drink whiskey, have mistressess, are involved in largescale corruption in defence purchases and through the fauji foundation, and hate India).

    I am sure that Nawaz sharif has been briefed that the Indian LCA is much more advanced than the plane they were buying from China and calling their own.

    Nawaz Sharif being the astute businessman, and politician is acutely aware of his country's shortcomings. Too bad this man got thrown out by that fool musharraf. To this day he remains the one last hope that Pakistan has.

    Bottom line: If Nawaz Sharif says this, this means that he has been briefed about the LCA, and he knows how capable the LCA is and how handicapped the JF-17 is.

  15. Lot of people misunderstand that JF-17 is operational. No, it is going through same flight test which LCA is going with. The only difference is PAF doesnt have dedicated testing centre like NAL. So its making its airforce to test that plane.

    Another thing, LCA is much potent aircraft in its current form than JF-17. We have different ambition for LCA, we want to develop our own aircraft industry, we want to expert in niche technologies. But PAF despirately need aircrafts to replace its old dogs. IAF is in comfort zone as of now.

    MMRCA will follow, FGFA will follow. We have planned our replacements with much advanced versions of aircrafts. Meanwhile we are not leaving any stone unturned to build worldclass facilities.

    Please dont compare us with USA, Russia etc etc. They have been in this from decades. we recently started. JAI HIND.

  16. Anon @4.04

    The indians don't like to hear bad news. They will believe anything but what is in their face. Ns was taking the piss as they say and even willing to sell it to the indians. It looks like he reads BR :-). Your Lca is very advanced :-). But use ours to drop bombs…LCA can't drop bombs…it had soem issues?

  17. I think the more relevant point is that the JF-17 is already being inducted en masse while the LCA is still to reach IOC.

  18. It is the young guns of PAF that have always held IAF in check. A force that is twice it size, more bases, more depth, more support and more high tech. The difference between the two is that in PAF machine only plays a part. In IAF the machine is everything. The IAF's pilots confidence is linked to it and they expect everyone to follow the same thinking. But this thinking is flawed. By this thinking it would have meant mongol's would never defeat the chinese empires; the tiny island of Britain would never rule half the world; the tiny muslim population ruling india…this is another difference between the two people and their forces.

  19. Hello Mertz

    I really wonder what joy you get in indulging in what amounts to pointless rabble rousing… you are almost speaking from the funny theory in the Pakistani Armed forces circles that one of their men is equal to 10 of ours… Hmm… you Austrian??

    There are good pilots in the PAF and good pilots in the IAF. And there are bad pilots in both. To simplistically, and rather authoritatively state the IAF pilots confidence is linked to their machines is such a load of propoganda. You mean that our wonderful Mig 21's are coveted by the holy sky warriors of the PAF?? Come on!!!

    It is very true that post Zia, the crop of PAF pilots have taken on some of the jihadi sheen from their army counterparts, leading to very jingoistic attitudes. However, senior pilots on both sides have a healthy respect for each other.

    It is sad that a seemingly wise person like you links flying skills to genetics ( especially in the virtually undifferentiatiable gene pool of South Asia)

    And for the record, no guns, young or old, have held the IAF in check. Ever.Do check your history.

  20. yo Mertz,
    "Tiny" Muslim population "ruling" India ?? Get a reality check, dude. The land of the pure is heading for meltdown, and you know it.

  21. @Mertz,
    Never has the PAF achieved ANY professed war aim of Pakistan in any campaign or Skirmish in its history.In 1965 it could not achieve the (so called)'liberation' on Kashmir initiated under operation Gibraltar and Grand slam.In 1971 it could do nothing to prevent the decimation of Pakistan.In Kargil,the PAF could do little to save and as the Pak army did what it does best,running downhill!
    Save your myths for your brethren in Pakistan.
    And o those 'tiny Muslim majority', i do not know if you know that there are almost as many Muslims in India as in Pakistan.They are and remain a part of the Indian history.All the empires past in South asia had their centre of power and greatest cultural achievement WITHIN the boundaries of present day India.You be happy at the peripheries(as always) in your beloved Pakistan.

  22. So Air Cmbde. Khokar has met AM Farhat of PAF? How interesting! When I met him at the POP at OTA in Chennai in 1996, he was Gp.Capt. Farhat, then AA at the Pak High Commission in India. A fine officer and a gentleman. We had an interesting chat, with my friends from FITS AFS Tambaram and INS Adyar.

  23. You boys really need to read independent reviews of the two forces. IAF has never been considered the equal of PAF in terms of pilot quality. I have read a lot of material on the performance of the two forces in 65 and 71. The number of kills, the number of planes, do not lie.

    Ps. It seems an obsession that indians thinks Paks are like them. Even me (a western) even when drunk can tell the difference between the two people. Not every time but most of the time.

    The military thinking and behavour is molded by the general behavour of the poplance. It does not exist in isolation.

  24. Mertz-
    I love your patronizing tone 🙂 but your assumption that all the anonymous writers on this blog are "boys" is again, funny!
    I too have read many "independent" reviews of both Air Forces. And yes, the cold war American "reviews" were pre-dominantly pro-Pakistani… and am sure even you can understand why (Despite Mig 21s downing F104's unlike in the middle east). Chuck Yeager did write that PAF pilots were born with flying skills that made any kind of Pilots Aptitude Test redundant for them. Must be to do with the training on the white winged horses. So what?

    But you dont seem to have read any truly unbiased reviews :).

    You are no westerner if you subscribe to weird theories that just because a society is prone to generating suicide bombers and fundamentalists, it also generates better soldiers or pilots.

    As for the genes, drunk or not, you dont know what you are talking about 🙂

    Like it or not, a vast majority of Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup and the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely: M124)

    Go figure. And have some of that excellent whiskey from Murree (which the holy warriors surreptitously sip)while you are beating your chest 🙂

    Cheers.

  25. Mr. Mertz,

    We too know that there is lot of material available in internet on all wars between Indian and Pak.

    But do u know that certaim PAF claims on IAF remained only as claims as it did not produce any evidence. And What ever IAF has lost it made it public where as PAF did not disclouse to some extent. Certain claims by PAF had been dismissed by IAF.

  26. @Mertz,
    Rarely seen a westerner(drunk or not) who could make out the difference between an Indian or Pakistani or Bangladeshi or Sri-Lankan .Most cannot locate the Middle East apart from Central Asia or Asia Minor' what to talk of South Asia and beyond. Generally all these parts are lumped together as part some far of exotic lands with Camels,terrorist,jihadis,cheap workers,disasters and what have you. The numbers and kills are part of Pakistani myth making compelled in part by the need to salvage some pride,from the misadventures launched at the whim and fancy of the dictator of the day.It believed that Pakistan had even flown in aircraft from its mid-east allies to replace their losses and prop up the PAF superiority myth.

  27. Mr Mertz, given your notions, assumptions, and sources of "information" I doubt if you could find even anything where the sun don't shine, with a flashlight and your own two arms. I won't waste time telling you about evaluate air war campaigns. you clearly have no use for anything that will shake you out of your reverie!

  28. Hi Mertz,

    Heberian is all over your claims, well done Heberian.

    have you heard that old saying; "There is truth, there are lies and then there are statistics".
    But really mate, statistics never one no war so dont take to much comfort in them. Anyway Generals only have objectives and will throw whatever at whatever to achieve them even if out gunned etc.

    Now as you speak of Pakistani Supermen (you sound like Hitler by the way, and he had awsome statistics but he still lost), you might want to reflect that those supermen are being let down by a slow break down of order and institutional respect in Pakistan and it might be in the "Supermen" interest to fight internal threats rather then India. Maybe get your president (mr 10%)to cut short his holiday in times of calmity (I am sure his French challet will understand) and lead a recovery effort instead of introducing Pakistan's next president who will be overthrown by the army anyway.

    One day, like everyone else I wish Pakistan and India will make a real peace as India's real threat is China so until that day Pakistan and India are having bloody family disagreement, and both sides need to give some ground and act in good faith.

    10/4 out

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