well you partly answer your own questions. You said "certain people" are saying that does not necessarily means its true. I suggest you check the specifications yourself..they are widely available on the net. Also in what sense are you classifying the JF-17 to be 70% of an F-16? in maneuverability? avionics and radar? weapons? in what sense? For instance if PAF can get hold of the AESA radar for the next block than F-16 doesn't have it and neither can PAF upgrade it with an AESA.
The good thing about JF-17 is that since the airframe is decoupled from the avionics, you can make it as simple as you want or as advanced as you like. And I think PAF is going to have a combination of low-tech and hi-tech JF-17s.
The advantages of investing in JF-17 is
1. Its 'our' plane, which means we are in control of it. No sanctions, no issues
2. Its a huge experience for us to be involved in the design of an aircraft from start to finish and know every technical detail about aircraft designing. Its better to learn how to fish than buy it off the market.
3. Its cost effective. Remember, we arent building the next eurofighter but replacing our again F-7s with something more powerful yet cost effective. J10s are expensive to be inducted in such large numbers.
4. Since we will be manufacturing most of the JF-17s here, spare parts , maintenance, up gradation, having the infrastructure to be able to think of doing something in future ourselves, or upgrading other planes based on this experience, etc all these will be handy.
5. We might be able to, and currently have to some extent, export it and earn some profit from it. It also enhances our industrial base, manpower, jobs, etc.
because J10 is NOT our product. We are already getting an upgraded version of J10 which you can think of as the next block.
SU-30 is a huge plane so naturally its slow and sluggish. Its (SU-30s) main strength is not dog-fighting but its radar and BVR. Also Su-30 is more maintenance intensive, more costly to operate than a J10. People tend to underestimate these little things but they play quite a role.
Let the official statement about our J10s (FC-20) come out and we will know exactly whats the package.
I am not an expert on Mirages but definitely the Mirage2000 would be better than MirageIIIs. The ROSE upgrades did improve that MirageIIIs but still.
Also the MirageIII is an interceptor whereas the Mirage2000 is a multirole fighter. The JF-17 is more comparable to the Mirage2000 if not better.
says who??
where did you learn that from?
dude, there is no 5th gen aircraft on offer to us, not even an F-18 super hornet which aint a 5th gen aircraft. Even if it were, we cannot possible afford the F-22 raptor which is $100+ million per aircraft.
Remember, the PAF doctrine is NOT to match IAF in equal numbers. Our airforce is for deterence of such things like the surgical strikes being talked about. And for that, the expected fleet is good enough. I case of a full-fledged war we are counting on our nuclear and missile deterrence and not PAF. That detterance is good enough to gurantee us that PAF will never be brought to exhaustion in case of a war.
