I talked to brother of my Bhabi who is engineer at PAF he says BLOCK III is still far away they till now has only told the requirments to China secondly BLOCK III will have 8 hardpoints and AESA most probably will be Chinese Italian has least chances.
I talked to brother of my Bhabi who is engineer at PAF he says BLOCK III is still far away they till now has only told the requirments to China secondly BLOCK III will have 8 hardpoints and AESA most probably will be Chinese Italian has least chances.
Since Pakistan have presently 83 figter Jets , as disclosed by official means , that mean we still have about 17 more thunders to come for Block "2", which generally will happen sometime this year in 2017
However , it does not means engineers have not already started with the Assembly of Block 3, as we know the decision on the new RADAR might still be coming along
So some where between June-December , I assume Block 2 numbers would be at a level where we can safely assume Block 2 has been fully delivered
Ideal date would be March Parade or August 14th for induction
For Block 3 talks to start , we really first have to announce , all 50 Block 2 have been delivered successfully to PAF
The fish-bed platform is the most used platform and the most produced platform till date with that I meant Mig 21 or F7pg or J7 and that is the base of FC1 which was further developed into JF-17 and will be further improved into JF-17 block 3. Russians switched the MIG into two engine platform where as China after buying TOT kept the approach of single engine. F7 is viewed as an interceptor and after China improved the design which was provided by Russian under TOT purchase made J7PG better than Mig 21 and the development of JF17 further increased the Maneuverability of the platform thus converting a world trusted Mig 21/J7 platform from interceptor into a Multi-role fighter. In becoming Multi-role fighter J7 to JF17 speed was compromised for Maneuverability and ground capabilities but with advancing technologies in engines will provide JF-17 with further enhancement in speed and upcoming 3D thrust vectoring will make JF-17 the most deadly platform ever designed by man and will beat the most that are called future and all that are called legend in Air.
Alan Warnes is saying that JF-17 Block-3 production won't start until 2019 at least. In 2018 PAC will produce additional Block-IIs (my guess: twin-seat JF-17Bs for the PAF). For the AESA radar requirement, the PAF is looking at two Chinese radars and the Leonardo system from Italy. Down the line (not Block-III), the RD-93 will also be switched with a Chinese turbofan (my guess: WS-13E).
With Max 9 tons plus max thrust (compare with 8.3 tons of RD93)and 3000 thousands hours life span, TBO every 1000 fly hours. Most importantly, no smoke produced. Even more importantly, no political strings attached.
