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JF-17 Thunder Multirole Fighter [Thread 7]

This post gets the star of the week post. It's hilarious as hell.
Why? PAF is expecting a large number of Block-3s to be exported to other countries.
Confirmation by who?
Read Alan Warnes interview of previous Aie chief.

PAF has ordered 30 for itself while Alan Warnes mentions large number of Block-3s being produced for other customers.
 
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JF-17 Thunder: Iraq would be the next customer of the Sino/Pakistani fighter

As per information reported, Pakistan would have already obtained a new export order for the JF-17 Thunder, this time from Iraq, which intends to purchase a dozen fighters in its advanced Block III version.

According to the Pakistani media The Nation, high-level military sources have reported the information that several rounds of negotiations took place between Pakistan and Iraq this year, and that these concluded with the recent visit of the Iraqi defense delegation, headed by the Deputy Commander of the Iraqi Air Force, Major General (Pilot) Muhammad Majeed Mahmood and other officials.

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Pakistan previously hosted a major defense exhibition in Baghdad in April 2021, where the JF-17 Thunder featured prominently and attracted a lot of attention. A month earlier, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, General Nadeem Raza also visited Iraq and met with local senior defense officials and discussed defense cooperation between the two countries.

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Currently the JF-17 Thunder Block III is in production at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) for the Pakistani Air Force, and it is expected that, after the signing of the contract, the production of the Iraqi aircraft will commence. Argentina is also expected to make a decision on its next supersonic fighter. Following the mention of this specific model in the fiscal year 2022 budget proposal (later rectified) presented to the Argentine congress, hopes are high that the Thunder will also wear the Argentine Air Force (FAA) badge in the future.

 
Silhouette of the PAC JF-17A Thunder while training during Exercise Flat Out. The Flat Out exercises of the Pakistan Air Force are specifically tailored to simulate and train for surge operations during wartime.


View attachment 789325

Hope they training for night landing on austere bases and motorways with their IRST/FLIR pods during these exercises.
 
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I don't know where else to put this. But since this is about WS-13E & it is the alternative engine for FC-1, if not JF-17, this thread seems somewhat appropriate:


I came across this at SDF & this was shared by @minusone in one of the threads relating to J-35.

Google translate of the appropriate section:

First, Li Yang replaced the four-stage fan of the RD-33 with the three-stage fan of the original WS-12. The new fan shortened the length of the engine by 44 mm, increased the flow rate by 6 kg per second, and increased the maximum thrust to 9.06 tons (88.94KN). Moreover, the weight is lighter, and the new fan also increases the first-level impact resistance by more than ten times, and is more resistant to bird strikes. Here Klimov’s approach is completely different. It adjusts the original four-stage fan of the RD-33 based on optimization. This is the RD-33MK; the second step is to use a brand new jointly developed by Li Yang and Klimov. Low-pressure turbine, the new low-pressure turbine can increase the operating temperature by 70 degrees, and the work efficiency is also higher. Using this turbine can better realize the potential of the new three-stage fan. After the improvement, the maximum thrust is 9.28 tons (91.1KN). Here Klimov also switched to the WS-12 three-stage fan scheme, and the model launched with the new low-pressure turbine is the RD-33MKM; in the third step, Li Yang redesigned the new WS-12 combustion chamber based on the original WS-12 combustion chamber. Combustion chamber, the original RD-33 combustion chamber is too backward, lean fuel and rich combustion until the final efficiency is low, so there will always be thicker black smoke, modified the new combustion chamber WS-13 completely solved this problem, let the gas The distribution is more stable and uniform. The improvement of the combustion chamber can not increase the thrust, but it can greatly reduce fuel consumption and increase the engine life. In the fourth step, Klimov replaces the original directional solidification blades with single crystal turbine blades, which makes the working temperature of the turbine better. Increased by 50-70 degrees, the engine thrust reached 9.5 tons (94KN), the thrust-to-weight ratio was 8.6, the overhaul interval exceeded 1,000 hours, and the total life span exceeded 3,000 hours. The third and fourth steps were completed simultaneously by Li Yang and Klimov. The RD-33 has been improved to this step and has been completely new. The Russian model is RD-33MKN, equipped with Mig-35, and the Chinese model is WS-13E. Equipped with FC-1 and FC-31, WS-13E has successfully made its first flight with FC-31 demonstrator on July 1, 2016. Perhaps because of the use of a lot of the original WS-12 technology, perhaps because of his unwillingness to WS-12's untimely death, Li Yang insisted on naming WS-13 "Tianshan 21", especially after the word Tianshan. 21. This is the reverse of the original Tianshan WS-12 designation, which implies that this is a "reflexive battle". In Li Yang's eyes, this may also be due to the anger of the military abandoning Tianshan. Later, he became the deputy commander of the Air Force. Lieutenant General Ma Xiaotian directly intervened before changing the name of WS-13 to "Taishan".

If this is a credible source, then it seems that RD-93 MA & WS-13E have a lot in common & may be interchangeable. A few months ago I disclosed that a trusted source told me (in 2017) that JF-17 Block-III would likely use WS-13. I was skeptical then & now, but it may transpire that the gentleman was correct. I am still trying to keep an open mind about this.
 
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