The question shouldn't be whether JF17 is close to Mig29 ..The question should be what would make JF17 compete with Mig 29. I can very well safely say that JF17 offers attractive capabilities with a affordable price. A rag tag african militia would look no further where the Generals are only interested in buying military products to boost their ego and keep it in reserve. However ignoring those nations , lets say a serious nation comes along to buy JF17 -
Well i do believe, Egypt which has shown serious interest in getting JF-17s is not some rag tag African country, rather it is a country with very high-tech western platforms, and they showing interest in JF-17 would not be just due to price, rather something else too.
So JF-17 is not gonna be just getting interest from some rag tag African militia led countries, whose air force personnel may even not be good enough trained to handle JF-17 kind of aircraft or they may get the degraded platform, meaning not the ones which are with PAF or the hi-tech versions.
A vanilla JF17 (Block 1) is rumored to cost between 17-20 Million a piece (a figure thrown around in sinodefence). Now lets say you add all the goodies on the plane -- to make it a truly revered platform . For example - Aesa radar (selex no doubt) , MAWS , Advanced EW suite , IRST , recce pods ,etc....Pakistani's currently call this Block 2 JF17. Now should we consider the price would remain the same ? After adding all the goodies is it safe to say that price would be in the range of 25 - 30 million a piece (I am being fairly conservative) ? Now this is a Mig 29 territory --
Now the question that needs to be asked to ourselves are -- Will a nation prefer to buy a souped up JF17 ( a new fighter) or will nation buy Mig 29's which has years of operational service ? Furthermore it would be extremely prudent to think that by the time Block 2 of JF17 comes out -- Mig 29/35 would be the same, it would offer definetly better capabilities at that time.
Last question -- I asked this before also , but i didnt receive a convincing answer -- but i believe that is understandable for lack of information.
How can JF17 be so cheap ? A J10 is rumored to cost between 40-45 million dollars (sinodefence figure)....A J10 is single engined fighter , it shares practically the same avionics with JF17 -- infact based on the JF17 thread, its said that it is JF17 which is the test bed for avionics for J10 -- so if anything JF17's avionics are more advanced. Then why is the difference in price so high ? What additional capabilities J10 offers visa vi JF17 ? Shoudnt JF17 be a direct competitor to J10 instead of Mig29 hysteria ?
I have got some answers like J10 has composites and it uses AL engines and the high price is to compensate the R&D process...and i dont think that explains this high increase in price, i am not looking for an answer, i dont think internet warriors have access to these information -- this just a food for thought !!
Ok so now as for the price, well i believe we have not seen any export related official price by either the Chinese or from the Pakistanis.
The 17-20Mln is the price which has been told for the ones which are being bought by PAF, so this price has been assumed to be the export price by people without keeping in mind that this price tag is for Pakistan which is a financial partner in the program, its not the export price for other countries.
Even the last contract for 42 JF-17s was for 800Mln $$$s, giving you a 19+Mln $$ per piece price tag, though we don't know what is involved in the 800Mln price tag, just the fighter aircraft or some weapons also. My guess would be no weapons except for some WVR missiles.
So 19Mln for PAF, definitely would be more for export customers, depending on the specification they order and what can be procured and also the development costs, as PAF price tag does not has the development cost included.
And as for J-10s, the 40Mln price tag is not supported by anything official. If you have source, do let me know, official source not the sino defence source.
Here as per one of the pilot of J-10 aerobatic team, the J-10 is costing 28Mln dollar to the Chinese Air Force. So if its 28Mln to China, export price would be somewhere around 35-40Mln, adding to it the profit and other expenses price tag.
So if you go by the above facts and figures, the JF-17 costs to PAF 19Mln, while J-10 costs to China for about 28Mln, a 9-10Mln $$ price difference which is very understandable by looking at the size of both aircraft, time taken to manufacture, material used, double priced engine of J-10 and other goodies.
Hope you would have gotten your long sought answer to the query with regard to price difference between JF-17 & J-10, which is not 20Mln $$, rather 9-10Mln $$. Do remember J-10 is 2-3 tonnes or even may be more heavier when compared to JF-17, thus engine price and material used make up the major cost difference between both the planes.
J-10s price source told by a J-10 pilot who happens to be the Divisional Commander of J-10 equipped fighter division. Each Division has 3 Regiments, each regiment equipped with 3 Sqds.
China air force woos allies with J-10 fighter jet | Reuters