Pakistan Has Export Plans for Jet Fighter Produced With China

Tim Robinson @RAeSTimR

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JF-17 weaponry on display now includes targeting pod & Chinese air surface & anti-ship missiles

id bet they are going for the old, ‘quantity has a quality all its own’ from j stalin no less. i would guess they will buy a lot of these for ground work working on the principle that loosing a few wont matter...well except if you are the pilot.

I’ve been researching this plane. I can’t explain why, but it appears to me to be a knock off of another plane I’ve seen and frankly, it looks sort of dated. One aircraft it somewhat resembles to me is the F4 Phantom II. But it doesn’t look to be near as advanced as the Mig 29 or the recent Sukhoi products.

I guess maybe its designed as a relatively inexpensive export plane to third world air forces?

... but it appears to me to be a knock off of another plane I’ve seen and frankly, it looks sort of dated.

It looks like a single-engine, single-tailed Super Hornet that's probably not as capable and definitely not as proven as the venerable F-16.

Somewhat, your right, but the photos of the F-16 show a “look back” capable bubble canopy. This thing doesn’t have that; the cockpit is “on line” with the fuselage at the back of the canopy. Looks of course can be deceiving and aren’t really anything about real performance.

In someways to me at least, this thing resembles an F-105 Thunderchief.

So one of you thinks it looks like the F4, another the F18, and another the F105. That sorta gives this visual of a Realty Show built plane. Call it “ Desert Car Kings at Davis Monthan”.

I would think a jet made with China would be pretty fragile.

It is essentially a cheap-but-capable fighter meant to be used by two types of clients. The first is as a front-line fighter by those countries that really don't expect to be having an air war anytime soon, which is most countries in the world. These countries do not need to spend much coin on advanced evolutions of combat aircraft, or for that matter even advanced evolutions of decades-old fighters like modern versions of the F-15, F-16, SU-27/30 and evolved MiG-29s. Thus, they have a cheap fighter that is quite good for a country that simply does not see itself engaging in aerial battles, and even if it did, it would be with countries that probably have worse fighters than the JF-17, thus they would still maintain battle supremacy. There are a number of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America that would be good targets for the aircraft, with marketing and politics probably being the main consideration. I don't expect the Pakistani thrust to produce much dividends, but I fully expect China's marketing of the same aircraft to get significant traction in some regions.

The second customer is the likes of Pakistan, who do need advanced fighters, but at the same time need quantity as well. The JF-17 is able to meet the latter part, where Pakistan can continue to invest in 'better' fighters like upgraded F-16s and the Chinese J-10, while having the JF-17 bump up the numbers. While the JF-17 is not necessarily a super-fighter by any measure, it is still a combat weapon that an adversary, eg India, would still need to deal with. If Kuwait and Qatar are serious, which is open to speculation, then they would be falling into this category as they are countries that can, and have, afforded the very best planes available.

That is the purpose of the JF-17.

Now, the first group of countries are MANY. Most countries in the world do not need anything in the vein of an F-15 or a SU-30, and for that matter don't even need the next level down (F-16s and MiG-29s). They simply represent costs that they will never use. However, those countries do need some sort of airforce, either for national security, national pride, or taking care of 'break-away regions.' Their choices are second-hand F-16s (since new ones are expensive), hand-me-down MiG-29s (since even modern Fulcrums are expensive), or maybe outside choices like the Gripen (expensive for countries that don't have a pressing need for that) and Israeli Kfirs (hand-me-downs that Colombia opted for). Or those countries can continue using their MiG-21 variants - which are increasingly getting dangeours, or for those countries that were on the West's side during the Cold War, using F-5s that are getting just as old.

The JF-17 represents a new plane that has greater capability than any flying F-5 at a cost that is cheaper than an F-16/MiG-29. If China (not Pakistan) gets serious at marketing it overseas it will definitely sell.

It’s Chinese equivalent of the abandoned F-20 Tigershark.