ISLAMABAD : Pakistan is facing a lot of difficulties to afford it’s friendship with China. The JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft developed in Pakistan with the cooperation of China has now become a burden for Pakistan. Pakistan had earlier hoped that this aircraft manufactured in collaboration with its mentor would be deployed against the Indian Air Force. But things has changed drastically. In 1999, Pakistan and China had inked an agreement to jointly develop and produce the JF-17 “Thunder”. They had also decided to share the development cost.
On February 27, 2019, during an attempted retaliation to the Indian Air Force targeting a Pakistani terrorist group, the JF-17 performed poorly against IAF Mirage-2000 and SU-30s. Touted to be the next best PAF (Pakistan Air Force) fighter after the F-16, its unremarkable low endurance, poor accuracy and low weapon carrying capability were amply demonstrated on 27 February 2019, with all its Range Extension Kit (REK) bombs failing to hit the target in the face of effective jamming and attacks by Indian fighters.
According to a report by Pentapostagma, the aircraft’s capability is judged by the avionics, weapons and engine equipping it and the JF-17 fails to hit the mark in most areas.
Pakistan’s JF-17 “Thunder”, which was supposed to be a low cost, light-weight, all-weather multi-role fighter with a Chinese airframe, has now become a liability for Pak due to its high Operations and Maintenance cost as compared to the modern weapon systems.