plawolf
Lieutenant General
Each drone is 1/20th of the price of a JF17 fighter actually.
You also have to factor in the significantly greater operating and maintenance costs of fighters compared to drones.
Capability wise, its more mixed, because while a drone has operational persistence, fighters have much greater speed, hence reaction time, allowing them to hit time critical targets drones might not be able to reach.
However, overall, there is little question that drones are far more cost effective for pure COIN compared to manned aircraft, which is why the likes of the USAF has invested so heavily in them, even at the expense of their manned aircraft.
However, a point to remember for multi-role fighters like the JF17 is that the host nation is committed to buying them anyways for their air defence needs.
That means that, paradoxically, the tables are actually turned in terms of acquisition costs since the fighter itself has actually effectively already been bought and paid for already. Instead, it is the additional cost of making it multirole you must compared to drone purchase costs.
The PAF is buying 250+ JF17s no matter what for its air defence needs. That would be their primary mission and reason for existence. However, in the meantime, when all out war is not breaking out, if the PAF can add extra capacity that allows them to use those fighters for something else, well, that's more power to them.
It would be like making a purchase decision between buying self-driving caravan that costs $100k, or buying a towed caravan for $50k to be used with the $2m supercar you already own.
Granted, $2m + $50k > $100k, but since you already own the supercar, the actual out of pocket difference is actually the choice between spending $100k or $50k, in which case is actually cheaper to add multi-role capability to existing (built or committed) fighters rather than buy a whole need asset if it came down to a choice of one or the other.
However, its rare where a military box itself into such an absolute position, and instead they all opt to have the best of both worlds, with multi-role manned fighters supplemented by armed drones.
