Chief of Air Staff Pakistan Air Force Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed on Tuesday said the PAF would induct 8 JF-17 Thunder aircraft by end of this year. The fighter aircraft is being indigenously assembled with the co-operation of China.

Addressing the launching ceremony for manufacturing of JF-17 Thunder sub-assemblies, marking formal assembling of the fighter aircraft, at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed said around 60 percent of the frame of the aircraft while up to 80 percent of the avionics to be fitted in the aircraft would be manufactured in the country by 2010.

He said the PAC has all plans to make JF-17 Thunder the world's first weapon system that will be able to carry all types of conventional weapons targeting from air to air, air to ground, air to sea, and to pound from the air. He said this state-of-the-art, multipurpose, light combat aircraft, would be a complete combination of fighter and a weapon system which would also have optional capability of carrying non-conventional weapons.

He said the PAF would induct 150 aircraft in its inventory in the Phase-I in accordance with the already signed agreement with the Chines company, co-operating Pakistan in assembling and manufacturing of the aircraft. "Still we will require some 100 aircraft, as the PAC envisages to take the yearly assembling and manufacturing capability of the aircraft from at present 8 aircraft to 15 then up to 25 by 2011," he said.

Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed said: "All JF-17 Thunders will have to be produced in Pakistan as the PAC has achieved the capability of assembling, paint the frame and aircraft, besides conducting flight tests." He said on March 23, (Pakistan Day) the indigenously assembled aircraft would take part in the fly past, a routine feature of Pakistan Day parade of PAF.

He said around 40 to 50 aircraft would have avionics of Chinese origin, while in the next batch these would have indigenously developed avionics. Air Chief Marshal Tanvir said that in the next decade the aircraft would be available for re-export through China and the share in the financial receipts would be paid to Pakistan.

After formal inauguration of the sub-assemblies of the aircraft the Air Chief told media persons that the PAC in the next two years would achieve the capability of making the fighter a 'warfare suite' that would be matching to the needs of most of the countries in the sector. He said the alphabets "J & F" included as title of the aircraft denoting "Joint Fighter" and "we will prove that this Joint Fighter is the best available in the market."

Air Chief Marshal Tanvir thanked the friendly country, China, for extending all co-operation enabling Pakistan to achieve the cherished goal towards manufacturing of a fighter aircraft. He said JF-17 Thunder is a living example of Pak-China friendship and this will help further deepen the bonds existed between both the brotherly and friendly countries.

Terming it a landmark achievement, he said, it is not only a source of pride for Pakistan but also a measure of rare distinction for the country to have joined a selected group of nations having indigenous fighter aircraft production capability.

The project launched in 2000 has already made major strides, including first flight of prototype in August 2003, then in April 2004 and on May 10, 2006 with fully integrated configurations.

Later, in September 20006, the prototype-6 of the aircraft made its maiden flight paving the way for smooth flight testing process ever since. In order to speed up the development progress and facilitate maturity of the aircraft, two J-17 of the small batch production were received in Pakistan on March 21 last. Subsequently, these aircraft made their debut by participating in Pakistan Day Parade on March 23.

Earlier, in his address of welcome, PAC Chairman Air Marshal Khalid Chaudary said PAC has all the capability of achieving the goals with the help and assistance of Chinese engineers and technicians. He said the factory has created employment opportunities for around 5,000 skilful workers and around 80 percent of them are already on job.

The ceremony was attended by Defence Production Division Secretary Lieutenant General Shahid Sidique Timizi (retd), Vice President of Chinese Aircraft Manufacturing Company, Defence Attache of China in Islamabad and a large number senior military officers.

The poster on Pakdef known as Eagle Hannan is a Pakistani engineer who works in Nanjing, China. He speaks both Urdu and Chinese fluently. He is a serious military aviation enthusiast. The city he comes from in China, Nanjing, is also the home of two of the J-10 pilots from the PLAAF that participated in the Zhuhai Air Show, 2010. He stayed at the same hotel as the PAF pilots and had many conversations with them as well as the PLAAF pilots. . Hannan attended all three public holidays and spent all three days with pilots and senior officers. Hannan has managed to collect a large amount of information and media and these have been cleared by senior personnel from the PAF for public release.

What follows is a summary of Eagle Hannan's posts from Pakdef. 

Hannan describes the aerobatics display of the JF-17 as brilliant. The JF-17 flew twice every day of the air show. He notes that the weather conditions were very bad and hard to take videos in. He said that the J-10s did not perform particularly well. Hannan comments that in 14 minutes of display there was a single performance of 360 and three half-hearted loops. He observes that the rest of the displays by the J-10 were formation flights. He notes that one of the Sherdil pilots comments about the J-10 pilots in Punjabi that the old men of China cannot fly their own planes. 

In comparison, the JF-17s did much better. Hannan describes the Chinese crowd as going “wild” with the Thunder’s repeated tight turns, without a single one off-target from the venue. 

In his conversations with the PAF, he has found out the following: 

1. JF-17s will not have CFTs (Conformal Fuel Tanks). 

2. The present batch of JF-17s has certain non-Chinese subsystems. 

3. Air to Air missile tests for both WVR and BVR are complete. 

4. PAF is impressed with the performance of SD-10s and confirms that the missile is comparable to the AMRAAM-Cs. 

5. An improved SD-10s, designated here as SD-10Bs with improved range, seeker, new motor and better seeker has been tested in China on the FC-1. These missiles are marginally lighter than the first generation and are in the same standard as the best Western BVR AAMs. 

The weight of the SD-10Bs still remains slightly greater than the AMRAAM Cs but this is not an issue anymore because the performance is equal or superior. The missiles displayed in Zhuhai were not the new generation SD-10Bs but the earlier model. 

PAF order for the SD-10Bs will be fulfilled before PLAAF. Previous models will be upgraded to the new SD-10B standard. [Author’s note: this may suggest that PAF have provided critical input for the SD-10Bs] 

6. PAF will standardize to this SD-10Bs. First 50 will have PL-9Cs as standard WVR missiles. 

7. A new radar will possibly be used in the Block II JF-17s and the first block will be upgraded. These are likely to be AESA radars with a swash-plate, similar to the Gripen NG. 

8. JF-17 radars are designed to be fully multirole. 

9. Various new guided munitions are being tested in China. These include SDBs (Small Diameter Bombs) ideal for the light fighter class. 

10. PAF’s second squadron of JF-17s is almost ready and flight trials are earmarked for early next year. 
11. China is confirmed (yet again and without any doubt whatsoever) to buy the FC-1s. Consequently, production is being expanded in Pakistan’s production facilities, Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), to meet the demand. These facilities are located in Kamra. 

12. Close cooperation on the J-10B is taking place. The level of cooperation has been significantly expanded since 2009. The size of the cooperation is described as literally a small city-like facility to accommodate PAF and Pakistani civilian engineers. Hannan confirmed that civilian engineers from PAC are also part of the cooperation in China. 

13. The J-10B will have Chinese radar and western subsystems will allow it to be integrated with Erieye and Chinese AWACS. This is not an assumption and Eagle Hannan, who is a telecom engineer himself, confirms that this is not a technical problem and reconfirms from PAF. There is no problem as long as the protocol messages and handshake procedures are known. He found out that PAF has a solution in terms of the middleware. 

14. The middleware will not only be via a C4I but also direct communication middleware. Some of these are being developed in-house and some are being imported. 
15. Whether JF-17s can data link with Erieye has not been confirmed due to diplomatic/political reasons. However, Hannan notes that from his discussions, it is implicitly obvious that they definitely can. 


16. IFR (In-Flight Refueling) will be installed in later batches. These will be fixed IFRs and not retractable. [Author’s note: radar signature and aerodynamics penalty paid for simplicity of construction, cost and maintenance]. The JF-17s were designed from the ground-up to have IFRs installed. 

17. Next block of JF-17s will have IRST (Infra-Red Search & Track) similar to those installed on the J-10B. 

18. Pakistani ALCM Raad and H2/H4 ASM will be integrated and was a major reason why Pakistan has chosen to go with Chinese radars for Block 2 JF-17s. 

19. Advanced composites have been tested for use on the Block 2 JF-17s. Present JF-17s also use some composites. J-10B/FC-20 is designed from inception from new advanced composites. FC-20s in PAF service will form the top tier in the PAF (above the F-16 Block 52+). 

20. PAF denied any collaboration in Chinese 5th generation fighter program as this is a capability they are not familiar with. PAF senior officials stated that: 


We cannot help develop a capability we don’t know. Like we don’t know what kind of sensor suite is in F-22 other than what we find from open-source. Such capability/requirement generation is not Air Force job but such technology information is brought in by other means [Hannan notes: espionage or intelligence I think this is what he meant]. We all know F-22 is stealth but what else it can do is what we don’t know. JF-17s are developed because we knew what we wanted from a 4th generation fighter as we already had an experience with capability, either by existing systems or by our collaboration with other air forces. Even US Air force only comes to know new capabilities when it’s presented to it. Chinese on the other hand, have the means to bring such information and develop on such information and PAF does not. We'll see what they bring up.

The final six F-16 fighter jets arrived in Pakistan from the United States on Monday, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) said. Pakistan signed a contract with the U.S. administration in 2005- 06 for the acquisition of 18 F-16 C/D Block 52 aircraft and the latest arrival marked the complete handover of all 18 planes, the PAF said. The PAF said the aircraft arrived at PAF Base Shahbaz in the city of Jacobabad in southern Sindh province. The F-16 C/D Block 52 aircraft is a high-tech fighter jet equipped with state-of-the-art avionics suite and latest weapons with Night Precision Attack capability, a PAF statement said. These aircraft are part of the bid by PAF to modernize and enhance its air defense capabilities. The PAF chief and the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan were present on the arrival of the aircraft. In the late 1980s, Pakistan struck a deal with the U.S. for import of F-16 jets, but Washington blocked the sale in 1990 as a sanction against Pakistan's nuclear weapons program. The revived sale came after Pakistan joined the U.S-led coalition in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks on the U.S. The F-16s are built by Lockheed Martin and one of the world's most successful fighter aircraft. The first batch of three aircraft arrived in Pakistan in May, the second three in October and third group of six aircraft were delivered last month.

ISLAMABAD: US and Pakistani officials added another chapter in the partnership between the two countries with the delivery of five new F-16 aircraft to the Pakistan government. The aircraft were inducted into the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in a ceremony at the Shahbaz Air Base near Jacobabad, on Monday.
“The induction into the PAF of five more advanced F-16, Block 52 aircraft represents the near completion of your Block-52 squadron,” said US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron P Munter. Chief of air Staff Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman said, “Pakistan and the US are friends and partners and both countries have benefited from each other.” All 18 fighter aircraft will be delivered by January 2012. staff report

Kayani, Petraeus discuss security

ISLAMABAD: NATO commander General David Petraeus visited Pakistan on Monday to meet with Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Kayani. They discussed various topics of mutual interest and ways to improve regional security. This was Petraeus’ fourth visit to Pakistan as the NATO ISAF commander. staff report

FL-3000N "Flying Leopard" RAM, Multiple (Chaffs/Defensive) Rocket Launcher, and Type 730 CIWS installed.

FL3000N RAM on display during the recent China Air Show.