If I was to be perfectly honest in an ideal situation I would have liked to have seen the Block I with air to air refuelling probe and AWACS integration, really this should have been bare minimum for the Block I back in 2009, we could have done it because the Midas tankers were operational by 2010 and the AWACS arrived a year later so there was no reason why we couldn’t have had this current specification for Block II back in 2009 for Block I, after all Mirage Rose I has had refuelling for years now why so late for JF-17
In addition this configuration of Block I would secure export orders let’s say at least 50 units which would mean Block I production would have been 100 units as opposed to 50 thus far, 50 for export and 50 for PAF, after the 16 units built in 2010 we could ramp up production to 25-30 units per year by end of 2013 we could have easily built 100 units and still be where we are just now
Moving forward to Block II in 2014 we could add WS13 engine, IRST and further composites, this would again be a 100 unit production at 25 per year 50 for exports and 50 for PAF
Then Block III would be a more powerful WS13B engine, enhanced stealth features and maybe even conformal fuel tanks again a 100 unit production
I believe we are a Block generation behind, the current Block II should have been Block I specs, current Block III should have been Block II specs and so on
This means we would build 150 of all Blocks for PAF and 150 for export putting total production at 300 units over say a 10-12 year period
Anyhow we can always ask for more no one is ever happy I am just really glad we have reached a mile stone in the JF-17 production!!
Look forward to ceremony which showcases Block II
