araz
PDF THINK TANK: CONSULTANT
- Joined
- Jun 14, 2006
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That is not entirely correct. when PAF and Chengdu signed the original accord on JFT J10 was still in testing. the project had suffered a setback when a crash in 1996 had resulted in a return to the drawing board. The J10 was therefore a risky project to begin with. What PAF did which is the most pragmatic solution to the problems of an obsolescent fleet and a dithering economy was to take a risk free approach and design which used off the shelf technology which was easy to replicate for PAF. This turned out to be the best possible decision as the first prototype flew in 3yrs or less and we had a READY AND TESTED PLATFORM in 2008. China could not have offered what was not ready and to the best of my knowledge this was never offered . PAF has a long term strategy of taking on mature technology and risks where the prospect of loss is minimal. The only reason why I am slightly dubious about PAF investing in J31 is for that reason. However, I do understand that the J20 as it develops will have technologies which can be passed down to the j31. However who invests in the project now remains an unanswered question as far as I am concerned.Sir China offered us J-10 B from day one it was our miserable economy which is stopping us but now I think we have decided to go for J-10 B finally in start we may go for only two squadrons but number will increase massively soon
To those people who think that JFT is a cheap plane, May I remind you that PAF has done a cost benefit analysis of both J10 and JFT. In addition to all the other factors one of the things which was highlighted was that the potential for upgrading was far more in JFT than in J10. Now dont ask me why because i dont know the answer, but look a t the fact that the US had never really taken to the Delta Canard design and instead concentrated on a non canard based design which they say has more stealth than canard design.
regards
Araz