New version ‘JF-17 Thunder’ to take off next year

ISLAMABAD—Pak made JF17 — having almost all the capabilities of F-16 — will be taking off in the skies before the schedule, officials said.
“Our pilots would be flying the fighter jet in early 2006, probably before the delivery of F-16s,” they said.
The production of Pak-China JF17 - a substitute to F-16 fighter jets — is very much on schedule and is a major breakthrough, said Air Commodore Sarfaraz, PAF spokesman.
Officials in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) told inp that the credit goes to the staff and technicians of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) Karma who have done it well with the help of Chinese experts.
Defence sources confirmed that operational flight testing of the aircraft with complete avionics will take place in 2006 adding that designation of the single-seat, single-engine, multirole fighter in the PAF is Joint Fighter-17 (JF-17) Thunder.
The first JF-17 rolled out on 31 May 2003, and its 15-minute maiden flight took place on 24 August 2003. So far four prototypes have been built, with the second for static tests and the rest in flying tests. The initial production of 16 aircraft is expected, and the PAF has a requirement for 150 aircraft to replace its ageing Chengdu F-7P fighters, officials said.
“We felt the need to buy and develop Thunder as, at that time, we could not get modern fighters from anyone else,” a top official told INP.
The JF17 can carry 3.6 tons of weapons and use radar guided and heat seeking missiles. It has max speed of nearly 2,000 km/ hour, an operating range of 1,300 kms and a max altitude of 55,000 feet with 3,800kg weapon payload.
The aircraft is of beyond-vision-range attack capability with the SD-10 medium-range air-to-air missile and it carries two short-range AAMs on its wingtip-mounted launch rails. The options include U.S. AIM-9P and Chinese PL-6, PL-8, and PL-9.
The aircraft can carry a special pod allowing day/night delivery of laser-guided weapons.
The avionics suite onboard comprises a head-up display (HUD), infra-red search-and-track system, night-vision goggle capability and ring-laser gyro inertial navigation system with GPS input and a digital dual fly-by-wire.
Italian Grifo S-7 fire-control radar will be fitted in it, which has 25 working modes and a non-break-down time of 200 hours. The radar is capable of look-down, shoot-down, as well as for ground strike.
The 13 ton aircraft costs $20 million and is considered to be equal to earlier versions of the F-16. It uses the same Russian engine (RD-93) that is used in the MiG29, officials said.—INP