Jane's Defence Weekly
JF-17 production commences
Gareth Jennings Jane's Aviation Reporter-London
Production of the JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft started on 22 January at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) at Kamra near Islamabad.
The JF-17 has been developed under a joint Sino-Pakistani venture for a lightweight multirole combat aircraft powered by a single engine - the Klimov RD-93, a derivative of the RD-33. The manufacture of parts for the aircraft began at the PAC Kamra facility in 2005.
Known as the Fighter China-1 in China, where it is built by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC), the JF-17 should have an initial operating capability by the end of 2008. According to Pakistan's Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Tanvir Mahmood Ahmed, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) expects to receive its first eight aircraft of an initial production run of 16 within the next few months.
In November 2007 the PAF announced that it may operate a mixed fleet of JF-17 fighter aircraft with some using Chinese radars and missiles and others operating French-supplied Thales RC 400 radars and MBDA MICA air-to-air missiles.
According to PAC officials in charge of the programme, "ultimately there will be over 200 of these aeroplanes built in Pakistan, so we are considering an option for a mixed fleet that would have some squadrons equipped with Chinese equipment and others with these European systems".
PAC and the PAF have recently conducted flight evaluations of prototype aircraft fitted with the KLJ-10 radar built by Nanjing Research Institute of Electronics Technology and the China National Aero-Technology Import and Export Corporation/China Leihua Electronic Technology Research Institute SD-10/PL-12 active-homing medium-range air-to-air missile.
Pakistan is hoping to reduce the number of combat aircraft that it operates, which include more than a dozen types of Dassault Mirage, some of which are more than four decades old. It also intends to reduce its fighter inventory to three main types: CAC J-10s - to be designated FC-20 in PAF service - as well as JF-17s and Lockheed Martin F-16s.