randomradio
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From my understanding of this, the block 3 will be the first to go into production witg the radar, following which Block 1 and 2 will get upgraded with it.
Regarding nose cones, i think people here forget that many fighters in the past have had redesigned nose cones including mirage V (which spawned multiple noses including other variants of M5, Nammer, Nesher, Kfir and Cheetah), F-4 phantom, and the SEPECAT Jaguar. Some lile the Mirage 5 variants and the more bulbous noses of later F-4 variants may be needed for room or extra cooling but it can be done and tested for less cost than replacing everything with block 3s.
Regarding the radar itself, there is still speculation about its specs and there is still speculation that it may be a Chinese clone of the Elta ELM-2052 which is said to be a hell of a radar. China itself has beenaking AESA radars for J-10, J-11 and J-16 for a few years and as such should have a strong handle on making a good product at this point. Additionally, PAF had the option of going with Selex Vixen 1000E which is the progenitor of the Raven ES-05 of the gripen. The major difference between the two being at the Raven has an extra 10 degrees of scanning capability due to the rotator plate and the fact that Saab owns the control hardware of the radar. The fact they had access to this radar yet were comfortable sticking with the Chinese solution speaks to the capabilities of the radar. Now some can say that the chinese and Italians wouldnt provide the source codes of the radars or weapons to allow the other to integrate the two, but Selex likely already has the ability to integrate AMRAAM, Sidewinder, Maa-1a Piranah, harpoon jdams, MAR-1, Etc. and PAF could provide codes to locally made weapons like RAAD, Reks, H2/H4. Now its not as robust a profile as the chinese weapons but PAF could probably get others weapons on the market if the difference in the two radars was drastic. The fact that they didn't makes me feel like the two radars are close to on par with each other.
The Chinese received some tech from the EL/M 2035, not the 2052.