The Chinese-Pakistani JF-17 Thunder, operated by the Pakistan Air Force has a daily flight display routine at the ongoing Dubai Air Show. In the words of one British journalist friend (and he didn’t include this line in his dispatch), “the Pakistan government might as well slap a price sticker on them“. Another friend at the show dubbed it the “Happy Hours fighter” — in recognition of Pakistan’s insistence that you could get three or more JF-17s for the price of one of any other modern production fighter. But that’s just air show levity. The country is deadly serious about exporting the jet, and is working hard to make this happen. Pakistan’s air force chief Rao Qamar Suleman heads the marketing effort at DXB11 — he told journalists yesterday that five Middle East countries had shown interest in the JF-17.
The JF-17 has an undoubtedly impressive flight display at the show, and will be shoring up interest. Makes you wonder why India doesn’t send a Tejas abroad. Surely it can take one of the LSPs off trials for a few days for the show — Dubai isn’t far. Bah.
Update @2.49PM: A PAF JF-17 crashed in Attock, Pakistan today, killing its pilot Sqn Ldr Muhammad Hussain. R.I.P. (Screen-grab / Khalid Khan)
JF-17 Not As Advanced As Tejas: Nawaz Sharif
May god bless those countries.
Comes across as a fine fighter. Why is Pakistan and not China exporting it ?
The Jf-17 was for the PAF a 'must have plane',that is to say,must have it because PAF cannot get anything else.The Jf-17 program depends heavily on Chinese finances by way of extended credit and totally on Chinese tech.The good thing about being desperate is that you will take it for what it is.The JF-17 does not have cutting edge avionics or even Fly by wire on all its axis nor does it have exotic materials.It flies and appears to be a reasonable plane.The PAF has no option but to support it 100 percent all the time.They would love a Rafale or an EF or a latest Block F series,but money or geopolitics make that less feasible.
The problem,if one can call it that for the Tejas' apar from HAls monopolistic approach,is that the IAF is not desperate for it.The PAF,even with a full complement of Jf17 has their hands full with the IAF for what it is right now even without one LCA .Forget the time when Super Su-30s and MRCA come in.For sure,any aircraft including Jf17 will bring down any other aircraft on its day and the Jf will be a threat,but on a consistent and repeated basis the Jf 17 will face great odds against the IAF lineup.
The 'Tejas' requires 100 percent support of the IAF,if not for combat reasons but for the accelerated growth of the domestic Indian aeronautical industry along with a consortium approach with private players and tech for our domestic efforts.
yeah yeah…those 5 countries are china ,pak, china, pak, china…oh i forgot ..usa also wants em,,,as target planes
Our Tejas will take another 10 years to become fully operational. On other hand The JF-17 is nearly operational and also ready for exports. India should take some lessons from Pakistan. Before blaming HAL we should first blame our Govt. policies.
It crashed today, killing its pilot.
A JF-17 crashed in Pakistan today!
Wonder if the pilot was forced to "try to save the plane" till the last moment so that Honor & Dignity is not tarnished! After all it JF-17, the best thing after sliced bread?
Either he bailed out too late in the H&D saving exercise or genuinely the parachute did not open. Either the case, quote troubling for PAF.
RIP. Hope his life was not a pawn in the H&D games.
the G limits of LCA and JF-17 r 9 n 8.5 respectively bt i havnt seen ne of thm perform ne eye catching maneuver.. some 1 plz thrww some (unbiased)light
also frm wiki- "In May 2011, China offered 50 JF-17s to Pakistan on an urgent basis at no cost."
RIP to Pak666.
The JF-17 still can have a good market. The fourth world countries like Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Eritrea and Libya may still find it useful and be proud to purchase it.
BTW can not you load the videos of JF-17 on daily basis on this site.
RIP Sqn. Ldr Hussain. We Indians know better than anyone else the pain of such loss.
I wonder why RUSSIA is NOT opposing
the sale of JF 17
Russians have realised that Nobody
will buy this JUNK fighter
So the Russians have stopped opposing
the export of JF 17
crap crap crap nothing…………… else………………………………..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/63771166@N07/6343332121/lightbox/
PHOTO:Sqn Ldr Muhammad Hussain at Farnborough 2010.
R.I.P
Is there any news on ins chakra
RIP Sqn Ldr Hussain…
To fellow posters..please dont make this incident a mud throw contest on this blog
JF-17 weapons package information, good details..
http://himg2.huanqiu.com/attachment2010/111113/zip1321146293/1321146293_0.jpg
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@warnesyworld
Alan Warnes
I have a chat with Egyptian AF Chief after he looks around JF-17. The EAF is 'very interested' – one of their pilots has flown on the sim.
https://twitter.com/#!/warnesyworld
3 or more JF17s for the price of 1 F16???
still pakis are depending on F 16 right now. why dont they throw them to US?
Tejas actually fits into the role of a research plane rather operational fighter. India is considering as such.
JF 17 on the other hand is not for research rather Pak wants it as a operational fighter.
Our research fighter is their operational fighter.
The 5 countries that want this plane are:
1) Abkhazia which has 1 citizen, Tom Hanks.
2) Texas. They think theirs is a different country. Fine. Let them have it.
3) Vatican City. They want to convert the JF-17 into a church.
4) Somalia – The pirates want to convert this into a fast boat.
5) Greece – They are bankrupt now so this cheap fighter will do.
Tejas Versus JF17:
developed from scratch (Tejas)versus assembled one (JF17)
JF17 – 1
LCA – 0
Some one posted pilots facebook profile on defence.pk/forums. His activities include "Zaid Hamid and Gazwa-e-Hind" !!!
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=551571125
No way the LCA is going to be inducted into the IAF in the near future. When the IAF wants the Tejas to be as perfect as the F22 with all the bells and whistles how can it ever be exported. The foreign buyer is not going to buy an aircraft that is not used domestically.
Other countries learn to walk before they run but in India. The IAF wants to run, hop step and jump even before they can learn to walk.
India could have sent a LCA to the Dubai Air Show but being a modest, humble,servile one immersed in ahimsa and totally against anything hostile has decided not to show any offensive weapon system abroad. Local demonstrations are ok but not on foreign soil.
Who knows the Pakis and the Chinks might sabotage or hijack the Tejas for reverse engineering. Haha what fools we are.
I think PAF should be proud to field a locally built fighter that is ready for export.
Instead of hating that fact, we need to learn a lesson or two on co-development of advanced weapon systems. The reason LCA is nowhere near completion is because Indian government run inefficient organizations tried to build it from scratch w/o outside help…basically they re-invented the wheel.
@Anon 9:10 and 10:12,
The difference between India and Pak is in the priorities given to the two fighters.Jf-17 developed and built by CAC,China was accorded the highest priority as PAF did not have a choice due to US restrictions and lack of money.Lets not forget that troubles with the US has hit the PAF very seriously for over 2 decades now.Lack of choice and desperation leads to increased risk taking and rapid induction.This can have benefits that the aircraft can be an asset as well as be evolved alongside though it can be a bit of a gamble also.PAF inducted JF-17 even when the JF-17 does not have western avionics and has Fly by wire only on 2 axis.In fact the Pakistanis are still scouting for western avionics,with French refusing them(due to Rafale tender) with the Italians.No matter what they say on their brochures,they know that without top line avionics and western weapons the JF-17 will have the odd against it if fielded against front line IAF fighters, especially the newer ones coming in.Chinese avionics still have a long way to go to catch up to the Europeans,forget the yanks who are the best on this front.The JF will be OK for basic duties of a small air force but against an increasingly formidable IAF,the PAF will have to upgrade its capacity much much more.Were the IAF in as desperate a situation as PAF or faced a similar lack of choice the LCA too would have been operationally inducted at the first opportunity.
The Pakistan export push seems more like an advertisement for the Chinese aero-marketeer ,CATIC.PAF air chief is on record that PAC,Kamra is hard pressed to keep up with PAF JF-17 demand and China has been asked to supply 50 JF-17 planes on an urgent basis for PAF.So one wonders who will actually be manufacturing and exporting the Jf-17.It s almost like every time a Chinese MBT-2000 makes a sale,lot of Pakistanis start claiming that the Al-Khalid,the Pak version of MBT 2000 which is being sold!!
What we lack is vision and planning.We tend to forget that the first Indian fighter,HAL HF-24 Marut was manufactured by us in the 1960s!Though under-powered it turned out to be a very effective ground attack fighter and was combat proven in the 1971 war.Post 1974 sanctions ht further development of the HF 24 as well as vested lobbies.We have the capability and capacity.All we require is will and organisation.HAL along with partners from private sector and a clear professional vision, unstinting support from services, the govt can work wonders.If HAL is not up to it, privatize it and allow the private sector to go alone assisted by govt budgetary support on US lines.Had we done that in 1990s with likes of a TATA or a Mahindra aerospace,we may have already had some good tech with us.
with price of one decent fighter you can have three JF-17, if you change the engine to chines engine then you can get bargain may be 4 JF17 for price of one decent fighter.
If the price is issue then you thrown in quality to dustbin and if this happen in aerospace industry then accidents happen like the one happen yesterday.
what did happened with mig-29 pilot still missing
a successive man always learn from failures
So 'Tin Can' started falling out? Now that will serve as a great PR "Chinese quality – Pakistani price", you don't get worst than that, oops i mean better than that.
@ my name is Khan
Mig 29 built in 1980s India procured it as stop gap solution
JF-17 built in 2009 Paki manufactured (whatever)desperation dubbed 4th genetarion
oh by the way happy flying reversed engineered engine of the same Mig 29 without any improvment with some removed components to reduce weight claimed to be achivement (whatever)
@ my name is Khan
Mig 29 built in 1980s India procured it as stop gap solution
JF-17 built in 2009 Paki manufactured (whatever)desperation dubbed 4th genetarion
oh by the way happy flying reversed engineered engine of the same Mig 29 without any improvment with some removed components to reduce weight claimed to be achivement (whatever)
What happened to superlca aka superlatecombataircraft iam damn sure those 40 ordered aircraft wil be inducted only from 2018+ and ar least it should start to fly in rainy season
It is very cheap plane to do target practice. That is lot of countries are interested in this plane which is basically Chinese with some screw driver technology from pakistan but mainly paint brush technology from pakistan.
Indeed, JF-17 has tremendous export potential due to its low price. Especially, third world countries don't have any choice better than JF-17.
Very original for Indians to mouth off about JF-17 being a cheap aircraft. What about the entire Mig-21, 27, 29 fleet? Currently the vast majority of the IAF fleet is cheap junk compared to the West. So what are we going off about?
The avionics in the JF-17 are more advanced than any fighter in the IAF aside from the MKI.
This single platform in PAF colours will be more painful to deal with for the IAF than any other aircraft.
PAF has the source code. Its integrating weapons that IT wants. Not what the Chinese push over to it.
Get off your silly high horses. With its BVR capability, no aircraft in the IAF inventory would want to deal with this challenge. It will be flying under positive AEW control and will be flown by experienced select pilots who have already flown fighter aircraft in other operational sqns. So this silly putting down does not reflect reality. On top of that, PAF has a better pilot to cockpit ratio than the IAF. In essence, this means that any JF-17 fleet can significantly increase its sortie rate given that spares are not a huge problem coming from China.
Pakistan was extremely smart that it decided to go for this while understanding its financial constraints. The Airforce directed the development and got what it wanted. There are pilots who are flying MLU F-16s who consider the JF-17 to be a better platform than their F-16 A/Bs (which in perspective is a better platform than all of the IAF types except the MKI). And we are talking about the first block modifications in the JF-17. Block II and III have considerably more significant capabilities on the road map. For this theater/region, that is an extremely potent aircraft.