If the UK really was serious about a high/low mix the perfect aircraft consists of many parts already made in britain and stuffed with british electronics. Instead of an F404 variant, it could be fittet with an EJ-200 making it the perfect low in this high/low mix. 😉

You probably mean the gripen but the jf17 also uses british parts and is designed on an open architecture philosophy, allowing fast and easy indigenization. What’s more it has an advantage on low altitude range, key for a good cas platform. Sorry don’t want to derail the thread… please continue…

Hi Y20, that could make more long term sense. 1.3 billion is the inside info. J10b was the educated guess. Pak planners are very risk averse and unlikely to invest in an untested and risky platform as the j31, but you could just be right…

Or for all we know it could be for CAC’s equivalent of the j31…

Pakdef is reporting that a FC-20 / J-10B purchase is imminent on the cards, as funds worth $1.3 Billion has been released to the PAF…

I think that’s enough money for about 36 J-10Bs…

I agree, should’ve made the 2nd fixed wing aircraft a different type.
but if they HAD to go “lo”,
still many other better options than jf-17.

such as the Gripen.
not only does the UK have experience operating it.. you could say its the spiritual descendent of the BAe P106

Hi Y20, didn’t wish to interrupt the discussion, thus… 😉

Since budget is the consideration… gripen would be the secondary choice. Also consider how much more effective it would be than a hawk in the two basic missions the uk faces, tu95 flights and airliner intercepts. Would also be a popular choice in terms of uk’s large pakistani community.

Sorry guys for interrupting an interesting discussion…

I think the point is best made that militaries have hiatorically made mistakes in their utilization or the lack thereof, of new technological waves. We saw this in ww1 and 2, there is good reason therefore to take heed of people claiming the same is happenning as we move forward into a new wave of technology, as Alvin Tofler notes – the third wave.