According to China’s media narrative, the country’s modern aircraft are the best in
the world, yet Pakistan’s experience with the Chinese-made JF-17 tells a different story.
Beijing has peddled stories using its state-run media that the country’s modern
aircraft are some of the best in the world but Islamabad’s experience has been far from it.
Reports indicate that the Pakistani Air Force is having trouble with the JF-17
and some people with intricate details of its operational performance
in Pakistan are calling them junk in private discussions.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how the Chinese JF-17 is giving headaches to Pakistan?
Let's get into the details.
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The JF-17 Thunder is a lightweight, single-engine, fourth-generation multi-role
combat aircraft developed jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC)
and the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China.
It was designed to replace the A-5C, F-7P/PG, Mirage III, and Mirage V
combat aircraft in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). The JF-17 can be used for multiple roles,
including interception, ground attack, anti-ship, and aerial reconnaissance.
The JF-17 can be armed with up to 3,400 lb or 1,500 kg of air-to-air and air-to-ground weaponry,
and other equipment mounted externally on the aircraft's seven hardpoints.
The JF-17 has a checkered history that started in 1999 when Islamabad and Beijing signed an
agreement to jointly develop and produce the aircraft with issues cropping up regularly.
A new variant tagged Block III was supposed to take care of several lingering problems
but questions hang over the extent of its supposed upgrades.
Before we understand the issues with JF-17,
viewers may be wondering why Pakistan Air Force went on the path of acquiring Chinese
jets in the first place when it has already operated reliable western fighters for decades.
It is true that PAF has several western fighters in its hangars.
The American F-16 Fighting Falcon currently serves as the backbone of the Pakistan Air Force.
The PAF currently has ~75 F-16s in active service, comprising 44 F-16AM/BM Block 15 MLU,13
F-16A/B ADF and 18 F-16C/D Block 52+ variants.
It also has French Dassault Mirage III and Dassault Mirage 5.
The move towards Chinese fighters is mainly because of the deteriorating
relations with Washington and the West. The Pakistani economy is in a dire state
and the cheaper cost of Chinese fighters helps in this regard.
Another factor is that Pakistan's rival India which is spending massively on American and
French weapons platform has indicated that it doesn't want these countries to supply
key arms like fighter jets to Pakistan.
Let us now look at the 3 problems the Pakistani Air Force is having with JF-17.
Since JF-17 operational induction in 2007, downings have been all too common.
In 2012, Pakistani media recorded a string of 12 crashes over
18 months, among which were several Chinese-made aircraft J-7 and JF-17.
In August last year, another newly built dual seat model crashed only a year after being made
and 96 hours of flight time, according to Pakistani newspaper Dawn.
This is not helped by the fact that
though the PAF has brought over 100 JF-17 Block Is and Block IIs into active service,
due to a shortage of spare parts, approximately 40 aircraft are not airworthy.
While most parts are sourced from China, some are brought in from
several other countries which have complicated maintenance.
The engine of the JF-17 is the Russian-made RD-93, which has caused repeated failures.
A large number of engines have reportedly experienced
cracks in guide vanes, exhaust nozzles, and flame stabilizers.
The shoddy engines are also hard to replace, in part due to U.S. sanctions on the Russian supplier
agency, which has caused complications with dollar-denominated transactions.
Pakistan hopes the latest model — the Block III — will finally pull the platform out of
its technical drawbacks. The engine, at least, is expected to get an upgrade,
with either an RD-93MA (an upgrade of the RD-93) or a Chinese WS-13 engine.
However, the latest images show no visible changes to the exterior of the engine,
suggesting it is probably fitted with the Klimov RD-93MA or even the same legacy RD-93,
though this has yet to be confirmed.
If a Russian engine is used again, serviceability will continue to dog the platform in the future
and the Chinese are themselves having issues with developing an indigenous engine.
So, Pakistan is finding itself between a rock and hard place.
The KLJ-7 radar bolsters JF-17 avionics or “aviation electronics”,
but it consistently exhibits below-grade performance and has been plagued by
several operational issues since the beginning of the JF-17 project.
Despite China’s Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology
recommending retrofitting, the radar continues to experience a high failure rate.
Radars are like eyes for an aircraft and hence are a key component.
Also, Russian & Chinese radars are at least a generation behind
compared to Western ones in terms of actual performance.
It could be an 'Achilles heel' in a combat scenario.