i was going thorugh certain articles......
some PAF pilots have said that 1352 km range comes with 3 drop tanks
simmilarly a jane's defence article states
Those radius and range figures are rather nebulous and not worth getting too excited about. The reason there's not much point getting excited about them, is because they are meaningless without considering what the assumptions behind them might be.
1352k combat radius, with what external loads? At what altitudes or combination of altitudes (hi lo hi - hi, hi, hi etc)? At what speeds and types of missions (lightly loaded interception missions or heavily loaded long range strike missions)?
The given combat radius for the F-16 for instance is 550k's. Seems a bit ordinary compared to the JF-17 doesn't it? Especially when the F-16 can carry more than 2000lbs greater internal fuel than the JF-17. So how do we solve this apparent conundrum?
Because the combat radius figure for the F-16C Block 30, assumes a hi lo hi flight profile, whilst carrying 6x 1000lb bombs and a pair of wingtip AAM's.
I suspect that 1352k "combat" radius is probably the best achievable combat radius with the most amount of fuel (including external fuel tanks) carried and limited to no ordnance beyond a pair of wingtip AAM's.
The JF-17 undoubtedly has sufficient range for it's operational role. That is enough for the users of the aircraft and should be good enough for everyone else too.
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Pakistan Air Force [PAF] News and Discussions - Page 157 - Defense Technology & Military Forum