There is a Sufficient number of F-7PG in the service of P.A.F to let go to waste. The last time I checked P.A.F was still indecisive about the LIFT for its trainee fighter pilot flying officers.
Since the Induction of the F-7P in 1988 the role of the F-7P was passed on from frontline to fast jet trainer of the P.A.F.
F-7P has been used in the later above domain for quite a while now....young trainee Fighter pilots go on and learn how to Fly a Mach 2+ capable plane and all it can encompass.....From BFM - Strafing - Bombing - AA work - operating Radar - using Afterburners - battle formations - First mock missions and so on.
We all should know by know that the F-7P was not meant to train novice Fighter pilots with barely 200 hours.
We should also know that the F-7P is a rather challenging air craft to master mostly because of its D-Delta layout/design making it like the F-104 in most ways.
PAF over the years had inducted up-to 143 F-7P and 17 FT-7P since 1988.
TODAY
The F-7P is very active in the Training role .
The F-7P is also very active with the CCS.
The F-7P is no longer at frontline roles and it has been replaced by the JF-17 block i & ii with a new role.
What we need to understand is that there is a Fighter jet in the P.A.F still at large and from what I gather has not been used to its full potential and the name of that crazy old goose is the F-7PG.
The F-7PG is rather mysterious Fighter flown by many a young.
Couple of things are going on for the F-7PG compared to the F-7P starting with the most obvious-
The wing
Retaining the center portion of the wing with the old Mig-21F13 sweep of 57 degrees the wing was then clipped or almost halved at the end to sport a new 42 degrees outer wing.
Over all area increased by 8% - 267.8sqft
Over all wingspan increased by 3 feet.
This allowed up to 45% increase in combat agility + satisfactory improvements in all other flight characteristics and a impressive high altitude performance.
The engine
The engine was also upgraded to a more power full variant of the WP-13 with (44.1kn and 66.7kn) the difference was not more than +2kn which logically should be disregarded as the F-7PG is also a heavier plat form.
Avionics
Rockwell Collins ARN-147VOR/ILS
ARN-149 Automatic direction finder
Pro Line 2 DME-42 Distance measuring equipment
Thales Frequency hopping UHF radio
Grifo radar - multi-mode pulse Doppler all weather fire control radar ( look down shoot down + ECCM ) >= 55 km.
RWR + CM
HOTAS
Performance envelopes
Max indicated speed 1200km/h (745mph, 648kt).
Min indicated speed 210km/h (130mph, 113kt) in level flight.
Max initial rate of climb 38,400ft/min (195m/s).
Operational ceiling 57,414ft (17500m). Hi-hi-hi air superiority mission with five minutes combat time in full a/b 850km (528 miles), with two AIM-9P AAMs, three 500-litre fuel tanks.
Lo-lo-hi attack mission 550km (342 miles) with two Mk.82 bombs and two external tanks.
Empty 5350kg
Max takeoff 8888kg (19,577lb) somewhere around those figures.
point intercept TW is 0.99 where ( 2 Fox2 + Pilot + 1000kg of fuel) with loiter time of 25 min
Air superiority / CAP TW is 0.85 were ( 4 Fox2 + Pilot + 1000kg fuel + 500L drop tank) loiter time of 45 min
Max weight TW is 0.74 were load and loiter depends.
Conclusion: There is heavy potential in this Platform to Act as a proper LIFT and an unforgiving Red Air but there needs to be a major change to the Powerplant and avionics.
The F-7s are the birds of the past. I believe PAF is only keeping them because they have airframe hours left and can thus be utilised for pilot flying hours.
Also can be utilised as wartime reserves
NO read my post.
