both PLAAF and PLANAF have huge fleets of obsolete aircraft to replace, all older J-7 variants, surviving Q-5’s and older J-8 variants. since the J-10 is supposed to be the low end of PLAAF, with su-27/J-11 being the top end, I seriously doubt how many J-10’s PLA will be willing to spare for foreign countries in the near future.

the J-11 production rate itself is at a measly (by PLAAF numbers) 15/year even after about a decade in service.
is china going to deprive her own forces to supply customers when the modernisation process still has a long way to go ? I don’t think so.

other air forces can hope for the JF-17 or wait till 2018 or so. it’s not like they need a J-10 in the first place.

J10B is hardly low end. Don’t know how compared with Block60 but I wouldn’t me much suprised that it is really good. J10A is pretty much medium tech. Looking at the price you cannot use it to fil up lower ranks. Even the LCA should be more if you look at the price but then looking a the plane it is indeed the low rank. Small, light and we still need to know how it performs.

hmm..right :rolleyes:..so are you it seems.

Waste to react on people that have hardly something to say besides opinion. You can look from the beginning which side did that. 😉

60% snipped go to link for full report if you want to read on i guess.

Funny that it is mostly based on the Indian newspaper.

ZOOm,

Nice sentences but I find some dubious. Let me take a few.

-the need for non US planes is historical. Mirages (pretty expensive) and Chinese planes were the backbone cause the good weather friendship of the USA has grounded many planes during wartime (when they are really needed cause you do not buy them to make funtrips during peacetime) and even when they feel the need they start manipulating spare parts (hence PAF could not do 100% CAP with f16’s during Kargil). No matter how much PAF has to pay. They will never go for bigger US pie. Hence the reduction of block 52 and search for alternatives like FC20/J10B. I think if they had no Block15 (to be upgraded) there was probably not even the need to go for US plans.

-JF17 is not degraded option but a workhorse which seems to be pretty good for its role. It will have plug and play WVR and BVR (hence some think tht Chinese options are inferior but it is all about using the best and having alternatives for export) for a2a and looking at air launched cruise missiles or guided a2g weapons it will do the job fine. Certainly if it has glass cockpit, IFR, impresasive ECM/ECCM and links with AWACS. And besides that it is produced in Pakistan and surely upgraded over time. Try that with foreign planes. You have seen how much it costs to upgrade your M2kH. But to be honest. We still need to see some pics during operaional time. Which is 5 months away so I am not for making it look better then it might be. Just compare it with F16/F15 in US inventory. Workhorses and not high end F22. And I think if you can see LCA/MRCA as the future workhorse then I think the JF17 would be not inferior by the time you have that implemented.

The issue is of differing needs. The PAF needs a replacement for their Mirage Vs and older F-7s which neither have BVR or even modern avionics fits (the older F-7s have ranging radars, F.E.) so the JF-17 is great shakes for them, even if it does not have full FBW or the latest dinky electronics or whatever.

For the IAF, which aims for and is getting a fleet being built around Su-30 MKIs, MMRCAs and upgraded MiG-29s, Mirage 2000s etc, a JF-17 level item is clearly unacceptable. They can afford, and want more.

Plus they factor for a two front war capability, and mere numbers wont be enough, but numbers with capability.

Just one example – the IAF had a perfectly fine 7th station (referred to as a special pylon) on the LCA MK1 for carrying state of the art DRFM equipped jamming pods. Now they want an all internal EW suite for the LCA, superior to the pod mounted system to boot.

Even the Su-30 MKI, MiG-21 Bison, MiG-27 and Jag upgrades all carry external pods. But the IAF wants an internal suite for the LCA and with additional features, so thats that.

The thing is the IAF wants maximum bang for their buck equal to whatever’s available from import.

Differing needs, differing solutions.

So the LCA becomes more heavy? Some said it was better then Gripen and now we can say that it is better then all of them in service. 😉

>>>Just one example – the IAF had a perfectly fine 7th station (referred to as a special pylon) on the LCA MK1 for carrying state of the art DRFM equipped jamming pods. Now they want an all internal EW suite for the LCA, superior to the pod mounted system to boot.

So they do the same what JF17 already has… Your whole story of LCA being more then JF17 is biassed. Same pylon exist on JF17… Just look at the design pics.

ZHUK ME has better range than APG 68V9 in PAF Falcons (block 52+). So it is likely to make a difference in BVR. In WVR smokeless engine means it will be a bit harder to spot, and R73M/Topsight combo is as potent (if not more) as JHMCS/AIM9L.

Based on?