Thank you very much everyone for the information. As you may know, there is a very real possibility that the JF-17 will arrive in my country's air force to fill the gap left by the decommissioning of our Mirage III/Finger/Dagger fleet.
It all depends on political issues, but there is great expectation that the model will arrive.
Although I have searched intensively in public access databases, I have not found any information that leads me to infer a direct delivery of engines from Russia to Pakistan. It is only repeated countless times that to date Chernyshev has delivered around 200 units of RD-93 to China, which, in turn, has re-exported a certain number of those engines to Pakistan to feed the production line of the Blocks I, II and III of the JF-17.
I had read in a post on this forum that a facility was being set up to carry out engine maintenance, but I couldn't temporarily locate the exact moment from which this type of task began to be carried out.
Finally, I wanted to appeal to you so that you can enlighten me on a question that is extremely interesting to me. I have read two things that call my attention: the useful life and TBO parameters of the RD-93 that currently operates in the PAF have been improved and the engine power is greater than 8,300 kg with post-combustion.
I understand that the RD-93 is a direct derivative of the RD-33N, which, in turn, was developed from the RD-33 SRS 2 without changing its lifetime and TBO.
I am interested in the RD-93 and would appreciate your help.
I’ve been following the Argentine political situation relating to the JF-17 pretty closely, it really does seem like a political decision at this point more than anything if they pick the fighter or not.
What you’ve read about the engine deliveries is correct, there were in fact 200 engines delivered to China which Pakistan then bought, as it stands I believe those 200 engines are all either in Pakistan or bought by Pakistan for use on Block 3s and possibly eventually on older models if they need engine replacements (or for possible exports). I don’t know wether the Myanmar models used engines from that deal of 200 or if they bought their own engines, but I believe the Nigerian exports were from that stock of 200.
Wether Pakistan has received or was meant to receive more engines from Russia is unknown and will seemingly remain so with the war. It could be that a deal was made or was in process but was never made public or got scuttled due to Indian pressure or simply due to the war.
As for the engine maintenance, I highly believe PAC does most of the general maintenance for the RD-93 engines, it is likely done in the JF-17 MRO facility at PAC.
PAC has several factories for engine rebuild and maintenance already dedicated to F100 engines from F-16s, Mirage 3 and 5 engines, K-8 engines, C-130 engines and so on, so it’s not impossible to believe that they can similarly rebuild and maintain RD-93s (again, there are probably some things they can’t do for which they would send the engines to China or Russia).
As for the historical developmental aspects of RD-93, I’ll leave that to someone else, but I think you got it’s lineage right, what exactly do you want to know about the engine?
Also, I believe if Argentina buys this fighter, they might opt for Chinese WS-13 engines instead. Argentina still has relations to uphold with the US and with Russias current state and fearing sanctions/CAASTA, Argentina might want to consider buying JF-17s with WS-13 instead, they aren’t going to save Argentina from US complaining, but at least they’re sanction proof and have better performance than the RD-93, however there have been claims that these engines aren’t ready yet. If Argentina does get the JF-17. They’ll definitely be getting Chinese ejection seats like Myanmar did.
