Raider 21
PDF THINK TANK: ANALYST
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2016
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Never harmful to have the interoperability with existing platforms. Chinese avionics are still behind, no matter how good they look on the screen.I think PAF want European Avionics and Radar/Sensors on block 3 and beyond and China is just not playing ball on this.
Why PAF wants western avionics radars,and sensors, and not Chinese, your guess is as good as mine!!
I think with the Feb engagement, the understanding of how important is the role of EW/jamming & Targeting systems has grown tremendously, atleast among those who visit this forum. In the past it was all about speed and payload.
I for one still think the achilles heel of JFT is the engine. All the rest can be figured out over time and integrated. This bit has not been resolved and until it does, it will always remain a sticking point when it comes to foreign sales.
Doesn't the USAF deploy whatever squadron by role, and not by the best jets ? F-16s have been doing a lot more missions than F-35s. Same goes for A-10s and F-15Es.In Feb, PAF followed the USAF guidebook to successfully carry out its mission. It doesn't necessarily have to have the best jets flying in the theater (although for USAF it is true that it does), but the USAF depends on overwhelming electronic warefare to blins opponents while maintaining superior situational awareness via AWACS, datalinks and overall netcentric warfare and superior munitions. THAT is why on paper the MKI is superior to the F-16 blk 52 and MLUs but was forced to back off because it could see or get locks on Falcons while itself being targeted at great length.
We see that PAF will go for even more Erieye nowand will raise its AWAC fleet to 11 (5th most of any country) which will play huge roles both in EW and in maintaining situational awareness. The munitions superiority will be further augmented by the acquisition of PL-15 AND PL-10 for JF-17. The netcentric fighting is made possible by both Link-16 and Link-17 to enable that all fighters are linked to ground control and AWACs and can see what they see.
Block 3 with enhanced EW capabilities and AESE's resilience against jamming will further improve its capabilities. So it truly is a secondary thing if blk 3 falls slightly short to some IAF fighter or ther other. If the overall senario still pits PAF EW/situational control/netcentric approach against IAF relying solely on the capability of individual fighters or SAM types, the outcomes will likely be similar.