I have personally found that twitter account to be usually accurate. However as you said, take these news with a grain of salt. They can be quite fanboish sometimes
JF-17/FC-1 Fighter Aircraft thread
- Thread starter johnqh
- Start date
People's guesses at everyone's logic behind this potential deal:
Qatar: maybe they foresee some action coming up and is interested in hiring a band of mercenary Pakistani pilots - long considered the best in the Islamic world. If you just go hire such a group and get them to fly F-15QA and Rafale the US and France will be jumping up and down, so instead these souped up JF-17 will act as a bit of a trojan horse. If I buy a batch of trainer JF-17 and get a group of the best JF-17 pilots in the world to also come over and train my boys surely no one can complain
Pakistan: profit aside, sending trainers over to Qatar means regular opportunity to fly against Rafale and get to know all of its strengths and weaknesses, that knowledge can then go home with them to Pakistan and maybe even China to develops tactics specifically tuned against Indian Rafale
China: more fighter sales, this time relatively expensive ones with top of the line trim level, potentially opening up more customers for future JF-17D or J-10C sales.
It's win-win-win with only India losing out.
Qatar: maybe they foresee some action coming up and is interested in hiring a band of mercenary Pakistani pilots - long considered the best in the Islamic world. If you just go hire such a group and get them to fly F-15QA and Rafale the US and France will be jumping up and down, so instead these souped up JF-17 will act as a bit of a trojan horse. If I buy a batch of trainer JF-17 and get a group of the best JF-17 pilots in the world to also come over and train my boys surely no one can complain
Pakistan: profit aside, sending trainers over to Qatar means regular opportunity to fly against Rafale and get to know all of its strengths and weaknesses, that knowledge can then go home with them to Pakistan and maybe even China to develops tactics specifically tuned against Indian Rafale
China: more fighter sales, this time relatively expensive ones with top of the line trim level, potentially opening up more customers for future JF-17D or J-10C sales.
It's win-win-win with only India losing out.
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Also with regards to JF-17 Block III still having the same engine as earlier variants. My guess it Pakistan wanted to expedite production given the likelihood of a conflict with India given the recent skirmishes. Also, only recently have we had reports of the RD-93MA engine being in ground testing in Russia, so I doubt it is ready for mass production yet.
broadsword
Brigadier
Why are they calling the JF-17D trainers? That's an insult to the jet's prowess.
broadsword
Brigadier
It's basically a JF-17 with another seat, plus several new features to improve its combat effectiveness. Not in the class of FT-2000.
According to this tweet, where they claim to have clarified with PAC and PAF.... it is likely to be the RD93MA in the BLK3
I would have assumed the RD93MA would have been quite crucial to help power the AESA and the extra electronics in the BLK3. This however... is an assumption and I guess only the engineers would truly know. Maybe the RD93 was enough. Let's see what the official sources say in due time.
A potential 10-15% improvement on thrust is quite significant and would push the TWR above 1 and combine that with the new 3 axis FBW and things are shaping up very nicely indeed.
Even if we are sticking with the original RD93, the FBW improvements will still help.
Sidenote, any guesses on wether they managed to reduce the weight slightly with the new FBW or will it have been offset with new AESA goodies?
I am optimistic but realistic about the evolution of The 'Jeff'. Things are looking positive
Bit off topic but I really like the nickname "Jeff" =)
