Could JF-17 benefit from a photo-recon pod?

[RAMPAGE]

It is a great idea actually which has a great potential of being implemented practically. Once PAF Mirage's with LORAP and Precise guided night strike capabilities gets retired in 2023-2025. PAF will eventually has to look for the alternatives. While JF-17 is being touted to replace complete mirage fleet. Eventually PAF will be forced to go to Aselan for Long range recce pod solution. But as predicted, it will take much longer to come in to fruition. I'm guessing it will be in 2025 and 2026 when Block-4 or Block-5 of JF will be rolling off the production line or the Block-2 will be going Mid-Life Update by adding extra HP and enhanced capabilities to perform PG strikes.

Lekin meri jaan you can do all that and more with an APAR capable of SAR imaging.

Also we should consider SAR pods for situations in which we cannot switch between air to air and air to ground modes.

 

[Bratva]

Lekin meri jaan you can do all that and more with an APAR capable of SAR imaging.

Provided If we get Vixen Nai ? Betting on SAR capabilities of Chinese AESA radar would be equivalent of Vixen would be futile imho. So If we go down the Chinese path. These additional systems would cover the obvious weaknesses.


And I'm also not talking about the fleet wide deployment of Image recce pod. It would be a dedicated ground attack squadron of JF-17

 

[RAMPAGE]

Provided If we get Vixen Nai ? Betting on SAR capabilities of Chinese AESA radar would be equivalent of Vixen would be futile imho. So If we go down the Chinese path. These additional systems would cover the obvious weaknesses.

Yaar it would be very foolish to go for a Chinese AESA that is not equally capable or at least close enough to western AESA radars.I mean these advantages are exactly what makes them so desirable.

 

[Bratva]

Yaar it would be very foolish to go for a Chinese AESA that is not equally capable or at least close enough to western AESA radars.I mean these advantages are exactly what makes them so desirable.

Lets just say Europeans are more stingy than americans when it come to *ahem* selling offensive weapons because

* Human right issues
* Hanging people on large scale
*Minority issues
*Indian Lobbies

And our inability to pay upfront and force to take out loans and then pay them over a long period amplifies the above issues many fold. Hence the easy way out.

 

[RAMPAGE]

And our inability to pay upfront and force to take out loans and then pay them over a long period amplifies the above issues many fold. Hence the easy way out.

From where I'm standing, That is the only obstruction that I see.

 

[Quwa]

One thing to consider is that an AESA SAR pod may be more difficult to market. As Bratva said, export controls are tough, and there's no guarantee of long-term support. The one reason why I believe air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions should be built and marketed from Pakistan is because we can at least guarantee a customer end-to-end support over the long-term.

A photo recon pod, while older technology, is still useful. Moreover, companies such as Terma are more willing to sell the full technology and intellectual property. Not only can PAF cover its own needs, but it can easily export to other countries, and they earn revenue over the long-term by doing lifecycle maintenance and upgrades. And it can guarantee it.

Agreed with @Quwa that this looks like an IRST pod. If you all remember, Pakistan's AWC produced on such as this in 1994 for PAF Mirage fighters. I really do think though, (despite that it will likely be podded) any IRST solution for JF-17 should be integrated rather than carried on a hardpoint.

As far as photo-recon i think a off the self solution is far more reasonable than developing or even producing in house. The utility is important, but not a core function. In this way, if you have an integrated supplier like Aselsan you create downstrem revenue for them and are more likely to get access to more products (same economic argument for selex finmecchanica and denel)

Could be a preliminary test phase to evaluate the performance of various options. I hope Block-III does have integrated IRST, but the pod could be useful for Block-I/II.

 

[Bilal Khan 777]

There is no requirement of Recce capability of JF17 on the horizon. With the DB110 is also a substantial amount of ground infrastructure to integrate the DB110 imagery with the PAF C2. PAF is not likely to invest in another system for a while. Unless Terma is paying for the articles to be written online.

 

[Bratva]

There is no requirement of Recce capability of JF17 on the horizon. With the DB110 is also a substantial amount of ground infrastructure to integrate the DB110 imagery with the PAF C2. PAF is not likely to invest in another system for a while. Unless Terma is paying for the articles to be written online.

What is the fallback plan if American put sanctions on F-16 fleet as already hinted by their senators ? And also Mirage LORAP needs to be replaced as well

 

[RAMPAGE]

There is no requirement of Recce capability of JF17

What is the fallback plan if

Let us not forget that an APAR will give JF-17 a substantial Ground Recce capability.

 

[Bratva]

Let us not forget that an APAR will give JF-17 a substantial Ground Recce capability.

Btw have you consider the Con of SAR based Radar ? It can not provide a day time imagery. Its images will always be black and white e.g SAR imagery from the Sandia National Laboratory's Ka band airborne SAR imaging system.

What if we want a day time images such as Google map images ?

 

[volatile]

Btw have you consider the Con of SAR based Radar ? It can not provide a day time imagery. Its images will always be black and white e.g SAR imagery from the Sandia National Laboratory's Ka band airborne SAR imaging system.

How far this pic is taken any idea ?

 

[RAMPAGE]

Btw have you consider the Con of SAR based Radar ? It can not provide a day time imagery. Its images will always be black and white e.g SAR imagery from the Sandia National Laboratory's Ka band airborne SAR imaging system.

What if we want a day time images such as Google map images ?

Of course and that is not the only one. Both technologies have their advantages and disadvantages. That is why we should not be dependent on one but rather use both technologies.

 

[Quwa]

Aselsan's TacSAR pod looks like an interesting program. I'm not sure what the ETA on this program is though (@cabatli_53), but I think it has potential to be on par with the Selex PicoSAR and IAI EL/M-2060P.

I wonder if it is possible to have the ground data link and ground control station to be the same for both kinds of pods (SAR & photo). At this point, the ground station would basically be a JSTARS-like entity; imagine it transmitting SAR data to friendly airborne and land assets.

 

[cabatli_53]

Brothers, Turkish industry developed photo-recon pod called AselPod and It is ready for export markets at present.

TACSAR sar pod and EW Pods are under development phase. TACSAR is planned to be revealed in 2017-18.

TacSAR

EW Pod

 

[Bilal Khan 777]

Brothers, Turkish industry developed photo-recon pod called AselPod and It is ready for export markets at present.

TACSAR sar pod and EW Pods are under development phase. TACSAR is planned to be revealed in 2017-18.

TacSAR

EW Pod

AselPod is mainly a targeting pod, and recce is secondary function with a datalink, in lines with Lightning II concept.