Nice pics.

I am curious why PAF did not go for a Chinese tanker? Those should be cheaper and spare parts more easily available.

As an addendum it should be noted that the Aeronavale wanted legacy Hornet and the Rafale was forced on them…

Why would the French Navy want the legacy hornet over the Rafale? I cant see any performance issues with Rafale, is it timelines or cost ?

Also, i dont see why people criticize the F35. Its a VLO platform. It would survive in certain threat environments where Tornado would not. Tornado is a good aircraft, but I see F35 being more capable to deliver munitions and bringing back pilots safely.

JF17 is not a FBW aircraft either right? That would also imply that JF17 is a stable designed aircraft compared to the 4th Gen unstable designs.

Also its got a very low % of composities compared to Gripen.

The main advantage for JF17 seems to be that it is quite cheap to build. It should serve its purpose well as a cheap multi-role BVR capable fighter.

Does anyone know why the Chinese Air Force are not buying any JF-17s? Doesnt China still have a large inventory of J7 and JH7 which need to be replaced?

France is open to sell defense equipment to Pakistan as it pleases but they obviously know the higher sales potential from sales to India. That sales is not only in defense but other industries as well.

Pakistan’s GDP is not even comparable to India and the disparity is widening all the time. Thus there would be some need to avoid antagonizing the Indian government.

So there is probably a reduced desire to sell weapons to Pakistan.

BTW, does anyone recall when exactly did the change in the tail configuration occur ? They had vertical fins on the tail which were at some stage removed on TD-1 itself

Dont know when it was removed but it was removed to reduce drag and was also found unnecessary.

You can get info here –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJKDId1_D8g

Sorry, dont know where the order was placed (HAL vs Russia). I thought it was placed with Russia to fast track MKI procurement.

Vijainder K Thakur wrote – “In January 2009, India ordered an additional 40 Su-30MKIs from Russia.”
http://knol.google.com/k/su-30mki-acquisition-and-upgrade#

Thanks PLA.

What about J7 (mig 21 clones)? Are they still in PAF inventory? I think PAF bought some J7’s in late 1990’s / early 2000’s. These should still have quite a bit of airframe life left on them.

I wonder if those will be replaced by Jf-17 as well.