Usman Shabbir (pakdef)
There were five people involved in the discussion, your truly, another PakDef member (take a guess?), AVM Shahid Latif, Gp Capt Khalid Mehmood (of the Afghan fame), currently involved with the avionics of the JF-17 and another friend from the PAF. After introductions I started by asking the first question posted by Rafaqat “ 1. If PAF has conducted a training requirements assessment regarding induction of JF-17’s, how will they be met ?’’ The AVM replied that yes we are working on simulators for JF-17 and they will play an essential part in the training of future JF-17 pilots. The rest of the discussion picked up from there and we discussed almost everything related to JF-17. According to AVM the radar has already been chosen for the JF-17, though he didn’t tell me what exact radar but I guessed it when he told me some specifications and he was kind enough to acknowledge that I got the right answer:) One radar is the Grifo S7 and the second radar is very similar to the one found on Mirage 2000-5, the only difference is the output power, 500 W instead of the 800 W. According to AVM after the sanctions were lifted many more companies joined the race for the supply of JF-17 avionics and weapons suite and of course this gave PAF some new choices. One example of it is that now JF-17 will feature a Helmet Display System (not Helmet Mounted System), with complete ToT of course. Regarding the engine I asked the AVM that if the engine is RD-93 then what guarantees are there that the Russians will not play hard-ball later? AVM replied that the Chinese have given Pakistan written guarantees and the Chinese themselves have written guarantees from Russia which they showed to Pakistan. About the smokey engine issue the AVM told me that one reason of it was that the Chinese were using some home-made (non NATO standard) fuel and second the PAF has told the Russians and the Chinese that PAF will not accept the engine unless the smoke issue is sorted out and they have assured the PAF that this problem will be sorted out very soon.
Currently there are four PAF test-pilots involved with the project (and tons of engineers and technicians) and I asked for some pictures of the third prototype that’s under going construction (by PAF engineers) and AVM promised that I will get them soon. Other than the pictures I will also get continuous updates about JF-17 project, i.e. how many hours logged, how many prototypes completed etc. and of course a full-fledged tour of the second JF-17 assembly line being constructed at Kamra:)
Many of you guys must be interested in knowing the cockpit layout, right? The JF-17 will feature three large colored MFD’s and two smaller ones (for RWR, AH etc.) and also a full-fledged integrated ECM suite. According to AVM the airframe weight of the JF-17 will also go down considerably after using some composites giving the JF-17 a better 1:1 TWR.
Regarding the weapons suite there are many options available to the PAF and according to the AVM some of the weapon deals will be finalized within a month (There were many A-G and A-A missile models on his side table including one of U-Darter:)).
Shakeel Ahmed
The power outage of the RC400 is 400MW, the one of the RDY-2 is 800Mw, Usman mentioned 500MW, should we assume it’s rC-400 with an increased range?
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