Pakistan

PAF to induct dual-seater JF-17B fighter jet in April 2017

Pakistan, China launch JF-17B production at joint ceremony; jet to make maiden flight by the end of 2016

News Desk April 28, 2016

The jet is set to make its maiden flight by the end of this year, the PAF announced. PHOTO SOURCE: DEFENCE.PK

Pakistan Air Force is set to formally induct the newly-launched JF-17B (Dual Seat Combat Fighter Aircraft) by April 2017.

"Pakistan and China jointly launched the manufacturing of first prototype of JF-17B at an induction ceremony held in Chengdu Aerospace Corporation (CAC) Chengdu, China," a press release stated on Wednesday.

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The jet is set to make its maiden flight by the end of this year, the PAF announced.

"The dual seat aircraft is of great value for PAF in enhancing not only training value but also the operational capability," PAF Air Marshal Muhammad Iqbal said, while thanking the Chinese leadership for their continued support during the JF-17 development project.

While Air Marshal Muhammad Iqbal was the chief guest at the occasion, President CAC, Vice President CATIC were also present along with PAF officials and several other Chinese personnel.

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Speaking at the occasion, the Chinese leadership paid tribue to the higher authorities of PAF for operationalising the aircraft and expressed their resolve to continue support for development work of JF-17 project.

COMMENTS (11)

Attiq | 8 years ago | Reply @Haji Atiya Western and American technologies are better in their training aircraft too. As Pakistan Air Force is already planning to replace its Mirage, F-7 and F-7PG aircraft with JF-17 and it has already replaced some of its A-5III & F-7 squadrons with JF-17 system, but a potential buyer is really important to advertise and marketing of JF-17 technology. Unfortunately, we don't have till now. I'm talking about JF-17 system overall but not JF-17B only. JF-17 may be good for our self dependency but remember to note that Pakistan is in talks with US and France to acquire F-16 and latest Mirages. (We are dependent on them even after ten yerars of JF-17 induction).. :(

Anon | 8 years ago | Reply @David: Old Russian MiG is aerodynamically superb compared to F-16!

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Haji Atiya | 8 years ago | Reply @Attiq: Maybe we should instead promote and sell it as a trainer to the more advanced frontline aircraft mentioned by you.. .

Attiq | 8 years ago | Reply JF-17B is good induction as it will improve the training and operational capabilities of those squadron which have JF-17 system and of great importance for PAF as a whole. More than 10 yrs of JF-17 project ans still no buyer in line, it's veryr concerning. Moreover, JF-17 is a state of art aircraft but on real note, it can't be compared with F16, MIG, Eurofighter and other technologies around the world.

Aleem | 8 years ago | Reply @Rahul: What is it about the "Chinese" quality that you Indians can't get over? On any given day, the Chinese quality is better than anything that you can produce in India. After all this is the reason that all of the manufacturing jobs have moved to China and not to India. On the high tech front, the Chinese are ahead of you guys by leaps and bounds and they have no shame in building their own and using it unlike you folks who need a "vilayati/foreign" certificate to consider something worthwhile given how shoddy Indian quality is. Secondly, Chinese make sturdy equipment. We have used the Chinese made Mig-19s against better Soviet equipment operated by your side and have not been disappointed. Reverse engineering is not a bad thing in all cases. Also suggesting that everything Chinese is reverse engineered is a falsehood that only you folks in India like to peddle. If the quality was such a huge issue with the JF-17, then PAF would not have gone along with it. After all our Air Force is accustomed to using high quality western equipment for decades. The aircraft and its systems are constantly compared to what we have available in blk 52s in use. So perhaps this is a silly little comfort for yourselves in India to put down Chinese equipment as being of low quality and reverse engineered (when clearly Indian quality is even lower!). We are quite happy with what we have on hand and our military is training quite hard in learning its employment. Secondly, unlike the unreliable French and other Western suppliers, the Chinese come through when we need them. This is a quality advantage unmatched by any other so called "quality" supplier in the West!

Rahul | 8 years ago | Reply F-16A double seater, as reverse engineered by China. I hope for the sake of PAF families, the quality is better than made in china quality.

JF-17 | 8 years ago | Reply Hi, This is excellent news, JF-17 project keeps progressing! Regards

OSD | 8 years ago | Reply @Saad: What?? It's just a designation to signify a different variant of the same plane. Don't know where you got that idea.

David | 8 years ago | Reply The one in the pic looks terrible aerodynamically. They must have finalized the design but it would have been better if they had chose f16's dual-seater design concept. Now it looks like an old russian mig

Haji Atiya | 8 years ago | Reply @Saad: Where is 7B mentioned in the piece, only 17B ?! And B means dual-seater version of the original JF-17.

Saad | 8 years ago | Reply The "7B" stands for 7th Generation aircraft of type 'B' block. Even the missiles it fires are stealth missiles.

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