Hi,
That is an impressive resume---but they have not built a fighter aircraft yet and ours has been thru combat---.
We are a poor and a broke nation---but there are two things the Turks don't have--experience in (on the good side)---nucs and fighter aircraft---.
We are way beyond assembling at this stage---we are into building and manufacturing---.
Don't sell our abilities short just because the paint is peeling off the floor of the aircraft hangar---or the uniform of our techs is average quality or we are drilling by hand---we are way ahead of them in this field---and why we are ahead---.
Even though the Paf has issues---there are some dedicated lunatics in the Paf in the high and low ranks who only see one thing---the star and crescent flying high---.
Trust me on this---. There has been no one bigger critic than me of the JF17---and I am telling you that there is far more success behind the build of this aircraft than is imaginable---. With all the duress---and with all the negatives and stress---all the sabotage from western sellers and all the hinderances and threats from many a places---the JF17 is a reality---and this reality puts us way ahead of those who have yet to start.
We have seen failures and hardships on this project---we have seen difficulties that would make others quit---we have been talked down by everyone---we have seen sanctions against us---at the last moment we have been refused power plant---EW package---.
But it was the tenacity of those " lunatics "---their endurance---their never accept no attitude ---that they even turned our russia to provide us with a power plant and pushed china so hard that they ended up competing for an EW package against the world renowned manufacturers the Italians---and bettered them---.
I am pretty sure that Turkey will come to the arena and will succeed very well in the fighter aircraft field because it already has a base established to propel it forward---. OTOH---we never had anything but the experience of overhauling and rebuilding old junk Mirages and F7's into functional and operational aircraft---.
What we have learnt in this process---if we have not learnt it---then we should---you must never start on these massive project yourself---it takes team it takes diversity it takes prior experience and it takes resource to build a modern day fighter aircraft it takes endurance it challenges your sanity it challenges your patience it challenges your very thought process and turns it upside down---it makes you so crazy that you even end up putting your display aircraft on a flat bed to show your countrymen what you have achieved in your failure---.
@Irfan Baloch @Windjammer @Mangus Ortus Novem @Mentee @denel @raja786