Pakistan heads east in search of their latest fighter import:
Two days after Pakistani PM Yousuf Raza Gilani took a direct stab at deteriorating US-Paki relations by saying that China is now his country’s “best friend“, China has retorted in kind by announcing it will provide another 50 JF-17 fighter jets to Pakistan on an “expedited” basis. The WSJ reports that “the agreement to accelerate supply of the jointly developed jets, the first 50 of which are being assembled in Pakistan, came as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani held talks in Beijing during a visit that he has used to portray China as an alternative source of military and civilian aid. “We’re getting the 50 jets, on top of the ones we already have. Something has been agreed in Beijing, so they’ll be expedited” he said.” In other words: step aside US, here comes China.
On very cursory examination, the JF-17 seems like a modern, fourth generation design, aerodynamically comparable to the F-16.
In fact, if you covered up the fuselage forward of the wing root with your hand, you’d be hard pressed to wonder who put the dorsal on an F-16 fuselage. (Answer: The IAF!)
It’s a small machine, with some blended body work – a nod to reductions in radar cross-section – as is, no doubt, the “bump” in front of the intake in this photo. It’s hard to see how they get much volumetric air flow from an intake of that diameter, but the bump would probably also serve to eliminate the complexity that comes from mechanically deployed intake ramps at supersonic speeds.
A 0.95 thrust-to-weight ratio is not particularly impressive, nor is an internal load of only 5130 pounds. Even with a single RD-33 Fulcrum variant engine, he’s going to go through that in a hurry in any kind of combat environment.
It all comes down to the avionics of course, the human systems interfaces and pilot training. The radome is sufficiently expansive to contain a relatively powerful mechanically scanned array and the cockpit layout is sensibly fourth gen as well.
Overall, my impression is that it’s a very 1990′s design, and certainly an upgrade to the Pakistani Air Force’s current kit. Albeit an update that the Indian Air Force’s Su-30MKI will swallow whole.
Oh, yes, and China/Pakistan best buddies; harrumph, harrumph.
Color me unimpressed. The Block 60 F-16s are without a doubt superior machines. Actually, any C-model Falcon is probably better.
The intake bumps are probably diverterless supersonic inlets. I read about them awhile back, in Lockheed’s Code One magazine. http://www.codeonemagazine.com/article.html?item_id=58
This thread has some good pictures and explanation:
http://defenceforumindia.com/indian-air-force/6744-divertless-supersonic-intakes.html
I think it may reduce the fan’s RCS, but the primary function is diverting boundary layer airflow without the complex mechanical ramps and drag-producing intake/fuselage gap sized for max boundary layer thickness.
Well, according to Combat Aircraft in the last couple of months, this deal was in the making.
But I’ve got to wonder if 50 JF-17s is the going price for some detailed photos and a few samples of stealth helicopter parts…
My thoughts exactly friend…Duplicitous bastards.
My understanding is the JF-10 is like an 80% Viper, but will be fully integrated with a real BVR missile (the SD-10 if I remember correctly). Depending on the amount of true integration with the missile, I think it’s still probably not as capable as our Block 60 Viper, but probably slightly better than the Pakis older Block F-16s. But then again, being primarily an old Trash Hauler, I could be wrong.
It’ll still be flown by a bunch of dumbasses
+1
The PAF pilots 3-0′d Eurofighters in Anatolian Eagle Exercise. Google it and you’ll realize you’re the fool.
We just need to toss out “Lightning II’s to all my Indian friends, Nuclear variant equipped of course”. That’ll shut the Pakis up.
Would be a good way to acquire upfront money to justify starting the line up and amoratize down the full original USAF buy/build-out costs as well as give the Indians new toys..would give the PRC something to think about as well as Pk.
India could be an ally, possibly a friend over time. Pak -NFW.
Very nice to see you back Virgil!
Virgil must have found a couple of cases of that rotgut buried in his neighbors back yard
Couldna been. If he’d been inebriated this blog would have been his normal habitat. His girl prolly got him detoxed and then he faced reality and took off screaming down the block and it just took this long to catch him and get him properly medicated and settled back down.
I wonder if “our friends” the Pakis are paying for their new jets with some of the billions in foreign aid we keep giving them?
Well, I guess it is really Chinese money that we borrowed anyway…
This is what it looks like when you mate an F-16 and a Mirage…
I just found it interesting that an aircraft designed by Chinese to be flown by Pakistanis, has English-language instrumentation.
When are we going to nuzzle up to our new friends the Indians and announce that one? So do they get Chinese flight training with the package too?
So, at what point do we get to start holding China accountable for the actions of their bloc’s state-sponsored terrorists?
Is the JF-17 a finished Lavi? I know the Israelis sold the Lavi to the Red Chinks when we stopped funding development. The thing resembles what I remember the Lavi looking like.
Past tense (“headed east”) is probably more accurate. It isn’t as if this is a recently developed relationship. Per the Wiki link regarding the development of the JF-17, it’s been going on for more than 15 years. And the link states (as far as Wiki can be trusted) that the JF-17 was developed originally to meet Pakistan’s requirements, and they (Pakistan) have had a squadron operational since February 2010. Relatively old news wrt the aircraft itself, except for the accelerated purchase agreement between the two countries. It may not match the Su-30MkI, but as the Captain hisself has sometimes stated, “Quantity has a quality all its’ own”.
Looking at the other countries who have also expressed interest in purchasing this aircraft, it seems to be doing for the Chinese what the F-5E did for us 30 – 40 years ago (and later the F-16). A relatively inexpensive aircraft that can be easily exported and upgraded (avionics-wise), helping to cement the ties that bind the two countries.
Wing looks more like an F-5 to me…
One good thing may come out of Pakistan buying their new jets from China. Once aloft, they’ll no doubt get hungry for more fuel, almost immediately after fueling up, thereby causing the Pakistanis to buy more Boeing tanker jets from us up here in the Puget Sound!
There’s nothing like recycling our foreign aid dollars back home again!!!
at least they know it sucks…
“Discussing the Chinese JF-17 Thunder jet, a key component of Pakistan’s fighter fleet, Vice Marshal Chaudhry acknowledged that the jet was not comparable to the U.S. F-16 in terms of quality, particularly its avionics and weapons systems.”
from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/22/leaked-cable-pakistani-fliers-sabotaged-fighter-je/?page=2