The
Pakistan Air Force (PAF) will likely place an order for 50 Pakistan
Aeronautical Complex/Chengdu Aerospace Corporation (PAC/CAC) JF-17 Block-III
fighter jets in the first half of 2017, according to PAC chairman Air Marshall Arshad
Malik.
The
JF-17 is a lightweight, single-engine, multirole combat aircraft, powered by a
Russian-designed-but-Chinese-built Klimov RD-93 (a RD-33 derivative) turbofan.
The aircraft can reach a top speed of Mach 1.6 and reportedly has an
operational range of 1,200 kilometers (745 miles). The fighter jet features
seven hardpoints and can carry up to 3,629 kilograms in weaponry and other
payloads.
The
PAF is slated to induct 150 JF-17 combat aircraft over the next years split
into three production blocks: Block-I, Block II, and Block-III. PAC has so
far produced 50 Block-I aircraft and over 20 out of a total order of 50
Block-II JF-17s. According to the PAC chairman in an interview with Asian
Military Review, Pakistan will produce 14 additional JF-17 Block-II
aircraft in 2017.
The
JF-17 Block-III, the latest variant of the combat aircraft, will feature new
avionics including Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA), which will
replace the older Nanjing Research Institute of Electronic Technologies’
(NRIET) KLJ-7 X-band fire control radar, and a new electronic warfare system,
among other things.
Pakistan
produces 58 percent of the airframe and China 42 percent. Islamabad has the
capacity to assemble up to 25 JF-17s per year without Beijing’s technical
assistance. However, as I noted in April 2015, according to Chinese and
Pakistani media reports, China agreed to deliver 110 JF-17s to Pakistan in
fly-away condition due to Pakistan’s still limited aircraft manufacturing
capacity.
It
appears that PAC’s production problems are a thing of the past as Pakistan has
actively been promoting the aircraft to foreign customers. Nigeria has
allegedly agreed to purchase three JF-17s; Myanmar placed an order for 16
combat aircraft and is purportedly considering ordering an unknown number of
additional JF-17s.
The
JF-17 was originally developed to to replace the PAF’s aging fleet of Dassault
Mirage III/5 fighter jets by 2o20. “Pakistan is looking to replace 190
aircraft—primarily Chengdu F-7 and Dassault Mirage III/5 fighter jets—by 2020
presumably with a mixture of F-16 and JF-17 aircraft. Pakistan, however, is
also allegedly in talks with Russia over the purchase of Su-35 multi-role
fighters,” I reported in April (See: “China and Pakistan Air Forces Launch
Joint Training Exercise”).
PAC
is also in the process of building a combat-capable two-seat trainer variant of
the JF-17, the JF-17B. According to the PAC chairman, three JF-17Bs will be
built initially.
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