Indonesian President inspects JF-17 fighter aircraft

[Gufi]

Our immediate neighbors are: Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and there's China in SCS. They have F-35, F-18, Gripen, F-16, F-15, Sukhoi, and China have a bunch of Gen 4+ & Gen 5 fighters.

neighbours are not threats... If Singapore would be a threat then the F 16s would not be a good choice for example. No plane is just a plane, there are multiple factors one must see when moving towards a fleet in these times. The F 5 were really a different era, and do not have the same restrictions that the planes today do.

 

[ARMalik]

Our immediate neighbors are: Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and there's China in SCS. They have F-35, F-18, Gripen, F-16, F-15, and China have a bunch of Gen 4+ & Gen 5 fighters.

Indonesia wants to replace F-5, which is a light weight fighter. Most of the fighters you mentioned are of a different class. Your list would make sense if Indonesia wants to get a " new class" of fighter which I would highly doubt.

 

[pr1v4t33r]

F-16 is at the end of its shell life, JF-17 just began and with block 3 soon to enter production with goodies such as an AESA radar, IRST etc this is only going to go upwards. Besides with Pakistan you can be rest assured that things will always be free of political strings unlike US.

Sure JF-17 looks promising, but F-16 is a mature platform with great performance, and highly upgradeable..

 

[Sugarcane]

buy 2 JFTs get 1 F7 for free

Still can't beat the "Buy a trailer and get one jet free" deal.

 

[war&peace]

Any comparison between F-16 and JF-17?

F16 will come with strings attached while JF17's will be like your own...and if bought in large numbers then it may be produced locally in Indonesia under license....furthermore JF17 is part of active development while USA is replacing F-16 with later generation A/Cs mainly F35s.

 

[Gufi]

But from my superficial understanding, the real threat is a more and more aggressive Australia which perceives the Islamic roots in Indonesia threatening. Then the F 16s would be an issue because of the American interests in Australia, which would make maintaining the F 16s more and more difficult.
On the other side, if China is a threat, then the JF 17 would be an issue, because most arms are sourced from China, and it is difficult to say if China would agree to sell to a country where they see a threat.
Again the point you do not get is planes are just flying guns which need bullets or arms in a simple sense and for that one needs to see threats against the nation, the supply of arms in terms of defeating threats, and what can be done to negate any arm embargoes which may be placed.

F-16 is a mature platform with great performance, and highly upgradeable..

 

[pr1v4t33r]

Indonesia wants to replace F-5, which is a light weight fighter. Most of the fighters you mentioned are of a different class. Your list would make sense if Indonesia wants to get a " new class" of fighter which I would highly doubt.

F-5 replacement is already decided, it's SU-35. But Air force still have requirement for 3 new fighter squadrons that will be formed in the near future. Hence recently we're asking for pricing of 48 units F-16 when Mattis visit Indonesia just a couple days ago.

Again the point you do not get is planes are just flying guns which need bullets or arms in a simple sense and for that one needs to see threats against the nation, the supply of arms in terms of defeating threats, and what can be done to negate any arm embargoes which may be placed.

For that reason we're developing IFK/KFX with Korean partner.

 

[IceCold]

Sure JF-17 looks promising, but F-16 is a mature platform with great performance, and highly upgradeable..

Nobody knows better than PAF who has been operating F-16s since the 80s and PAF has been actively involved in the JF-17 project. So rest assured all that knowledge of operating F-16s have been incorporated within the JF-17. As a result today JF-17 performs as good as an F-16 and even supersedes F-16 in certain aspects.
As for the upgrades i highly doubt more updates will be available for the F-16. Lockheed is struggling to find a customer for F-16, they last attempt was India with block 70 but India knows well that the life of this plane is over. If no orders come F-16 plant will shut down anyway. JF-17 on the other hand in entering block 3.
I hope Indonesia makes the right choice keeping in view their requirements.

 

[Windjammer]

 

[The Eagle]

View attachment 450201


View attachment 450202

Serial 17-236 with IFR. Good

 

[BATMAN]

F-5 replacement is already decided, it's SU-35.

jF-17 would have been a better replacement for F-5

 

[pr1v4t33r]

jF-17 would have been a better replacement for F-5

Indonesian air force want to upgrade their capabilities and keep up with the growing air power of our neighbors.. We can't content with LO mix fighters when our neighbor have F-35 and SU-30SM.

 

[FuturePAF]

This tour of the JF-17 is more political than anything else. Indonesians are keeping diplomatic relations with friendly nations open. Acquiring the JF-17 would be about making an understanding with Pakistan and China; Support over other nations in the region in any current or possible future incident. Qatar just did something similar by buying American, Euro, and French Fighters to offset neighbors purchases in the game of influence.

A smart deal would be buying 6 JF-17B as a training platform before buying 2 Squadrons (36 Total) of J-31s to start with, especially as the KFX will take time to develop and build, and Australia soon to get the F-35. China would be happy to have a chance for its planes to intercept F-35s and gain some experience. Indonesia gets a plane with some capabilities better than the Su-35 and gains political credit with the Chinese as being the First J-31 operator.

Hypothetically Australia could easily support another East Timor style succession of Indonesia's other islands if Indonesia isn't diplomatically and Militarily strong.

 

[BATMAN]

Indonesian air force want to upgrade their capabilities and keep up with the growing air power of our neighbors.. We can't content with LO mix fighters when our neighbor have F-35 and SU-30SM.

You don't need to buy equal hardware, you need to have strategy to defend against enemy toys.
If your neighbors have bad intent for you, build reliable alliances.
Well good luck with your plans.

 

[pr1v4t33r]

You don't need to buy equal hardware, you need to have strategy to defend against enemy toys. If your neighbors have bad intent for you, build reliable alliances.
Well good luck with your plans.

Problem is Indonesia can't have military alliance, so we're on balancing mode most of the time while keeping friendly and healthy relation with our neighbor. So we get some from the west, some from the east, while developing our own to fulfill the rest.

Thanks, i could see great future for JF-17. How about JF-17 vs FA-50? capability and cost wise?