DTN News - PAKISTAN DEFENSE NEWS: Pakistan Intent To Sell JF-17 Thunder Fighter Jets To Sri Lanka
(NSI News Source Info) KOTTAKKAL, Kerala, India - October 27, 2013: Pakistan’s strained economic condition puts to question the country’s capability to spend billions of rupees on the defence sector on the pretext of enhancing the defence exports and kicking off related strategic ventures.
The JF-17 was primarily developed to meet Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) requirement for an affordable, modern multi-role combat aircraft as a replacement for its large fleet of Dassault Mirage III/5 fighters, Nanchang A-5 bombers, and Chengdu F-7 interceptors. It was also to have export potential as a cost-effective and competitive alternative to significantly more expensive Western fighters.
In 1999, Pakistan and China signed the contract to jointly develop the FC-1/Super 7. Initial difficulties in acquiring an avionics and radar package from Europe led to many problems, solved in 2001, when design of the airframe was decoupled from the avionics. In 2003, the maiden flight of the first prototype occurred in China. The Pakistani designation "Super-7", meanwhile, were replaced with "JF-17". Later test flights with a modified design occurred in 2006. Deliveries to the PAF for further flight testing and evaluation began in 2007 and the aircraft's first public aerial display took place that year in Islamabad. The PAF officially inducted its first JF-17 squadron, No. 26 Squadron, on 18 February 2010 with fourteen aircraft.
The Block 1 JF-17 is expected to cost approximately US$ 15 million per unit, with Block 2 aircraft costing US$ 20–25 million. The PAF has a confirmed order for 150 JF-17s, which may increase to 250 aircraft
While the country grapples with worst kind of economic crises owing to crippled industry due to ever-rising inflation, increasing cost of industrial expenditures following massive hike in power tariff as well as security situation, billions of rupees are reportedly being pumped in the strategic projects without any accurate anticipation whether such kind of large-scale investment at the cost of public money would bear any fruit.
*Presented & compiled by DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News
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http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.in/2013/10/dtn-news-pakistan-defense-news-pakistan_27.html
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