those of you who were doubting the future of JF-17 after the news of F-16 purchase, should put it to rest now.

Plus Musharaf again in his press conf talked about another 4th generation fighter, not sure if it will be of Chinese oe european origin.

didnt mean to offend you, what i meant was track record of delayed upgrade programs like vijayantas, T-72s, BMPs, other T series tanks, some naval projects etc.

Approximately 100 by the start of this year, with the remaining 25 to be upgraded during this year. Also, the contract has a provision by which 50 more Bis airframes can be upgraded to the Bison standard, if the IAF needs to.

source of this info? didnt the first two upgrades crashed also?

I guess it means few things.

1. Is IAF waiting for LCA to replace Mig-21s?
2. 2016 induction time meaning possible sale of Mirage 2000 will be further delayed?

Deos anyone know whats the induction time frame for LCA? and what would be the power plant used? Either US engine, kaveri which hasn’t proven to be a success story until now, russian engine etc

I wonder how you gonna back this BS up… F-16 Block 52 is a totally average fighter aircraft in today’s world, light years away from any quantum leap in capabilities.

Get a life, buddy…

Flex

either you don’t know anything about military aircraft or its just pure jealousy and envy pouring out of you. if Block 52 was an average fighter than Israel, Greece, Singapore airforces wouldnt be still buying these. F-16 is the main work horse of most powerful airforces around the world including USAF.

F-16’s performance is known and well documented through out the conflicts since early 80s.

Block 60 according to Airtime publishing was compared to F-22 as far as avionics is concerned, except the stealth part that aircraft is way too powerful.

Now getting to whether PAF would get Block 60 or 52, Block 60 uses a GE engine. P&W power F-16s always have a 2 at the end of their Block numbering scheme such as 42, 52 etc. If PAF buys something to the effect of a hybrid between 52 and 60 with a P&W engine since PAF’s o Block 15s are equpped with P&W engines and they already have an overhauling facility they might call is Block 62.

Keep in mind that US govt has authorized to use part of the $3 billion militart aid for this purchase, so over hard cash payment for PAF would be much less.
Lockheed Martin staff is going over to Pakistan in April, and after that we will find out what would be the specs of these aircraft.

So, Indian govt should not be crying over this sale of few F-16s to Pakistan?
By the way it snot 200 Mirage-2000 since IAF chief few weeks ago said that we are not interested in a single engine aircraft, and since russia threatening about going to the western countries I guess the only choice is Mig-29s?

Kanwa.com

There has been a report in the Western press that the reason lies in RD93 engine or the radar system. However, this is absolutely not true. First of all, Chief of Marketing Department of Chernyshev Enterprise of Russia told Kanwa at an exclusive interview for several times that they would supply China this engine as China demands, and there is no political or technological obstacle at this moment. RD93 is an earlier model of RD33 Series 1, currently under production is Series 3, which is not fitted on the Indian Navy’s MiG29K. Chinese sources say if Pakistan requests, China can ask Russia to transfer the production line of the engine.

The provision of radar is not a problem either. Galileo Avionica has carefully studied FC1 and is right now promoting the 600mm-diameter GRIFO-S7 radar. The RC400 radar of THALES has already had the test on Pakistan’s Falcon 20.

Concerning FC1/JF17, a source disclosed to Kanwa that the key problem lies in the everchanging attitude of Pakistan. After Sept.11, the US-Pakistan relation has undergone substantial changes, and the US is now taking Pakistan as the most import ally after the NATO countries, which has given the Pakistani Air Force the opportunities to open up new realm of future development. Pakistan now has no more political obstacles in upgrading its
existing F16 and obtaining new batch of second-hand F16 in the foreseeable future. Because of this, there is a force emerging within the Pakistani Air Force that proposes to re-evaluate JF17. Of course, as Pakistan has already invested almost US$150 million in the project (with a total cost of the project expected to be US$450 million), the Pakistani Air Force will take delivery a certain number of JF17. In June this year, according to the Memorandum of understanding signed in September 2003, Pakistan started to invest more money in restructuring the manufacturing company of JF17, the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex. By December 2005, production preparation will be concluded, and small batch assembly of JF17 will start in January 2006. This is only the provision in the Memorandum, and in fact the production plan of JF17 has been postponed for several times. The current change is that if the price of second-hand F16 is reasonable and the delivery is fast, and with performance close or even better than JF17, the Pakistani Air Force will very likely consider importing F16. This would probably mean the total number of JF17 that Pakistan will order is going to be much smaller than 150, and this is what the Chinese side is most concerned about. The 4th JF17 will be fitted with China’s indigenous KLJ10 radar for flight test. At IDEAS 2004, China once again tried to promote to Pakistan SD10 active radar guided AAM and KLJ10 multi-mission radar in order to lower the price of JF17.

On the issue of joint production of fighters, the above Chinese sources criticized that Pakistan has been “trying to reach what is beyond its grasp”, saying that Pakistan always wants to get the best technologies and yet does not have the money for it. This is the most important reason why the R&D cycle of JF17 has been so long. Some within the Pakistani Air Force are even proposing to consider purchasing J39 from Sweden. Pakistan aspires to obtain the Swedish R99/BAEW&C system.