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We can blame the PAF till kingdom come, but the only real bottleneck here is financial. With the country set to undergo another IMF run (with no intention to improve the economic fundamentals thereafter), the PAF will not leave the backfoot. Sure, the corruption and commissions can knock off a...

This is really interesting. I actually remember back in the 1990s and early 2000s how new cars weren't that common on the roads. But since 2015, you see a lot of them, like too many. I'm not being sarcastic, but the image fits the economy -- shiny words (or cars), rotten foundations (or roads)...

Unless Pakistan can push an original design with its own choice of steel, engine, etc vendors, building it locally isn't going to do much lower costs.

It's the Dutch company Damen outsourcing the work to a Romanian shipyard. The steel, engines, electronics, etc are still coming from various parts of Europe.

Since we're all just saying things, the article could also be well-executed pandering to the F-21 market.

@ARMalik #Priorities.

IIRC the 'BVR exercises' this guy was talking about must have been from the 1990s, i.e., during the embargo when Pakistan's F-16s didn't have BVR. @Khafee weren't F-6s also involved in this exercise, and didn't one sneak behind a F-14?

The challenge with conventional munitions is that we might be relying on many different COTS suppliers. With the strategic stuff, most will probably confine any and all help to China; but conventional ALCMs, ARMs, AShMs, SOWs and the like, the help could come from a lot of places. Those places...

For the most part, the video is showing the good parts of Karachi (e.g., Clifton), no show of Bait ul-Mukarram area, University Road, or -- I daresay -- old Karachi (a travesty). I was there in November 2018 and yes, while the good parts of the city are actually great, the bad parts are rough...

The TF-X is still in its preliminary stages, but it's been on the PAF's radar since 2016. Now, they're interested in the fighter, though we're still a ways off before the two sides sign an agreement on the matter. I think once Turkey has an active turbofan program (i.e., with a design plan...

@Oscar lol I should've waited a day I guess.

I wish South Africa factored into the PAF's Sabre II efforts. By combining their experience from the Carver with Klimov's RD-93, the PAF's ops experience, and China's industrial weight, we could have had a grittier and more affordable equivalent to the Gripen (i.e., composites, digital FBW...

I'd say the likeliest scenario of the Jinnah-class frigate is that it's a variant of the MILGEM Ada. The closest design to the Ada is the LF-2400 (slightly extended and added VLS cells) http://www.deltamarine.com.tr/pdf/products/Naval%20Ships/02%20-%20LF-2400%20Light%20Frigate%20-%20Web.pdf

Pre-earthquake Lockheed Martin scoped that the PAF could push its Block-52+ purchases to 55 aircraft. I suspect had it not been for the earthquake, the DSCA request would've been 36 planes + 18 optional. Truly, 110 F-16s (Block-52/MLU) and 40 M2K-5 (if even used) would've been a sharp...

The big benefit of dual engine -- besides potential for more range and payload -- is that you (as @JamD said) could get engine commonality with the JF-17. So if you intend to have a future JF-17 variant with a next-gen engine, you can apply two of those engines to Azm. It'll be much costlier...

I doubt that's an accurate account/narrative. If the French were 'forcing' the PAF to buy UAE Mirage 2000-9s in order to get the Thales/MBDA kit for the JF-17, then I am sure the PAF would have obliged right away. It would have settled the JF-17's electronics needs (esp. HMD/S & HOBS AAM) and...

No. The article is just claiming that the JF-17 is now using WS-13, not RD-93. The "domestic" part is in context of the Chinese, i.e., 'a domestic Chinese engine'. Nothing about Pakistan manufacturing the engine.

The issue isn't so much the final number of Azm fighters the PAF would have -- it could end up as 200+ over 40+ years for all we know; rather, it's the number of how many Azm fighters it gets within a timeframe. So if the output is like 6 a year, then after a decade you would have 60 planes...

I suspect the same. If anything, I think the PAF is also taking a page out of Saab's playbook by concentrating the multi-role -- and fleet-builder -- element to the JF-17 (analogous to the Gripen E/F). So while the JF-17 Block-I/II/III are comparatively modest in scope, I'm inclined to believe...

Yep ... and when he does speak, it usually means (besides being greenlighted) that things in that direction are quite far into motion (11th hour). That's why the news he revealed about the LIFT program was a big deal.