when we get Thunder and a new high tech fighter I suppose we can dedicate all our F-16s to strike/attack, they are equipped with the Atlis 2/Paveway combo…

Very doubtful that the F-16 would be dedicated to just strike. This a premier multi-role aircraft (second to only the F/A-18 in its weapons suite.) If PAF is aiming for 70 of them – and that is a large amount – then an AA role is there too.

The BVR question will be handled in form or another and as stated earlier, the FD-60 BVR was EXPLICITLY targeted for F-16s.

From Jane’s Defense Weekly – April 14, 2004:

Chinese missile may be for Pakistan’s F-16s
ROBERT HEWSON Editor Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons
Bangkok

China is about to bring a second beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missile (AAM) to the export market. The new weapon, to be known as the FD-60, is already in service with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force as the PL-11.

In China it equips the Shenyang J-8II ‘Finback’ interceptor but,according to the manufacturer, the export version is intended for the F-16 – a clear signal that Pakistan could be the lead customer.

Though CDF is more authoritative, there are pubs that look for info at CMF.

Here’s a classic screen capture that where the Naval Institute (who published Naval Proceedings) asked CMF for pictures. Also another funny one that has our good friend Rick Kamer interacting with the natives over “classified” naval information.

BTW, many CMFers are outrageously nationalistic (“ethnicalistic” since most are english-speaking Overseas Chinese) because it is fun and they aren’t particularly serious about the forum like CDF is.

CMF is just a fun site where people are somewhat expected to be pro-Chinese and crazy. There are no pretensions of being anything else today (though in the past when the old CDF members were there it was different.)

Why China despite all the development in other areas of naval assests, did not develop a missile like Sunburn/Brahmos.

You mean supersonic AShMs? China had developed supersonic anti-ship missiles way back in the 1970s. The C-101 Sawhorse family. Not entirely successful, there were land, sea and air launched versions.

The current known version is the HY-3 offered for export. Specs are max speed Mach 2.5 and over 100 km range.

Superior no’s do not always count. Look how many times Israel with it’s small population was outnumbered and outgunned by its Arab enemies. Is Israel still around? You bet.

Greeks=Israelis, Turks=Arabs?

Different peoples, different places.

A Greece-Turkey fight wouldn’t be anything like an Arab-Israeli one. Turkey uses many of the same western weapons and tactics that Israel use as does Greece. A fight between westernized militaries.

It’ll come down to who is attacking whom and the geography of the locales of contention. So it’ll depend on the scenario.

CMF is an english forum and therefore mainly overseas Chinese, not mainland Chinese. It is more “ethnic chestbeating” 🙂

In reality, it has no special access to pictures or articles than AFM or any other english-based forum. All english-language forums depend on the Chinese ones for pictures and intelligence.

The pictures and stories you see on CMF are the mere tip of a massive iceberg of material that spills over from the Chinese-language world. CMF is nowhere near the definitive Chinese military forum.

But CMF IS one of the funnest sites on the web. I visit it very often because it really doesn’t take itself all that seriously. It’s simply fun to look at pictures of guns and girls (even more fun to look at girls with guns.)

But as silly as CMF is, it does pull in and translate large amounts of pictures and stories from the Chinese forums that we could see Jane’s attempting write about.