Recently a chinese megazine called Ordnance Industry Science Technology pulished an article that provided certain detailed information regarding JF-17 / FC-1 avionics. Given the fact that the megazine was published by an organization with military background, it seems the info is very creditable to me.
since I have been surfing this site for years and have limited contribution thus far, I try my best to summarize the points here. However, I was not trained in aviation, and English is not my native language either, I am not familiar with some special jargons ... ...
Reasons for changes (improvement over the opriginal designs / specs)
- initially specs were not as advanced as it is now for the cost reason. However, the US surdenly decided to sell more advanced F-16s to PAK aiming to kill JF-17/FC-1 project
- the project team was forced to improve the specs and make it happen at prototype 04, and they did.
very advanced cockpit
- control pannel is consisted by 3 color screens (20.3cm x 20.3 cm) only, all information is processed and displayed on them. the functions of each one is exchangeable. brightness & contrast can be adjusted either automatically or manually. each of the screen can be re-defined.
- HUD is also state-of-the-art. many image / infomation can be displayed at the same time.
- HUD is better than that of the latest su-30 for the reason that JF-17/FC-1 can display both raw signal as well as processed infomation (i.e. more meaningfull) whereas su-30 displays, by and large, raw signals directly.
HOTAS Control
Intelligence Avionics
- avionics system is all digital and fully integrated
- distributed structure, two independent but exchangeable (can back-up each other) STD-MTL-1553B data buses connected all equipment, plus two powerful control computers (also can back-up each other). Each computer controls one data bus
- only very recent airplanes such as F-16 E/F have similar structure and powerful computers
- Radar. initially Pak wanted to use grifo ones (Grifo-S2000). However, Chinese one offers key advantages such as compatibility with Chinese weapon systems
- Radar has multiple modes, such as A2A (both BVR & close), air to ground, air to sea, etcs with strong anti-interference capacity.
- it can handle > 40 targets, tracking 10 of them and guiding 2 BVR missiles to attack 2 of them at the same time
- the detecting range for a typical air target of RC 3 square metter is > 75 km; looking down range is > 45 km; range for sea target is > 135 km
- it has digital map, and is going to have 3D digital map.
- robust & advanced electronic warfare system
- has all standard electronic warfare systems, such as radar warning, nissile approaching warning, etcs.
- the computer can store more than 300 existing radar signals for identification, and actually already stored more than 100 known radar signal partens
- 360 degree range for missile approaching warning system with both infra-red & ultra-violet spectrum detecting, very sensitive to "afterburn" of missiles and the detecting range is > 20km. one detecting sensor in the tail and two at the front. moreover, it can provide certain capacity of tracking and positioning the approaching missile.
- JF-17 / FC-1 has a computer controlled infra-red interference bullet (missile?) system, which automatically calculate the right timing (based on the rsult of detecting system) to release the interference bullets to maximaze the impact. Only recently released airplanes such as F-22 / Rafale have such system. Even F-18E/F and F-16 E/F need further upgrading to acquire such capacity.
- JF-17 also has an "focused interference system", which can beam the enegy on one direction (i.e. attacking missile's guiding system) to distrub it. By doing this, a small equipment can have the same impact as a large electronic warfare airplane in that particular direction. Initially FJ-17 / Fc-1 did not have this system. However, in view of the fact that Pak's potential enemy is IAF equiped with Su-30 & R-77 missiles, CAC add this system into the plane. As of today, non india airplane has such system nor do PAk's f-16s. (hj786 note - this article is from ~2006 or earlier)
- JF-17 has two communication radios. one of them has the capacity for data link, receiving data from either ground control center or AWACS.
- all equipment has auto-detection function, i.e. at the time of maintanance, plug in a notebook computer and all working parameters can de displayed in the computer
- weaponary system is designed to be compatible with both western system (i.e. supporting MIL-STD-1760 data bus) and russia system (of course china system as well). at present, its standard missiles are PL-9C for close fight and SD-10 for BVR. However, it also support AIM-9L/M and AIM-7F etcs
- every weapon point has the data bus interface, i.e. each point can carry guided weapons.
- for ground attacking weapon, already demonstrated laser guided bombs, it is going to have A2G missles.
OK. that is the summary of the article for your information.
...yes they may be aeronautical engineers in real life but if they were so the author could have mentioned ...the person is related to the project ...or he is a defence analyst......come on please understand what i say ....OFFICIAL SOURCES PLEASE 
thanks!
