1. A simple update like one we did back in 2018-19 about completion of first cycle of preliminary design phase. According to that update, 3 more such cycles were to be performed. Just an update if we are on 2nd or 3rd or final cycle. No one asking for giving out the details of changes made in each cycle. Just a generic high level update to give confidence to masses that project is moving forward irrespective of speed of the project.
2. Till 1995, LM had a pretty good idea what it is pursuing. A sketch on paper. Even Indian AMCA is in advanced stage than Azm as there they got one model at least. And I have no idea how can you think about making certain sub-systems when you have no idea what you are pursuing?
3. Even TFX is not coming online before 2035-2040 in with full FoC and export will follow even farther. Their timeline is out.
4. Lack of funds ... seriously? This country was ready to pay 11 Billion USD as fine which thankfully got removed. Allocating 500-700 million USD to a strategic program is not impossible, real problem is political will which in case of defense industry development has never been our priority. Unfortunately, not even when country was run by military literally. I keep hearing this "we will invest when economy will recover" mantra, but matter of the fact is the day we begin to invest in strategic industries like electronics, robotics, AI, High tech defense product, value addition agricultural industry etc. Our economy will began recovering. In 21st century no country with 250 million people is not going to survive by growing wheat and rice in bumper crops. Even now when the government is spending hundreds of billions of rupees on charitable projects like EHSAS, I don't buy that we can't pay our few hundred of couple of thousands engineers working on a sensitive project enough. Real issue is priorities.
Corollary: No real update, like I said. (I doesn't mean no real work. But to believe in something, it must be there or accessible through media).
1. Who will receive this update (press release, reporter, etc)? After all it took a known political character to declare the PAF was purchasing a major defense item. Who has demanded this update? Civil society or tax payers represented by Shahbaz sharif ? What intellectual equal with authority in Pakistan held the PAF accountable?
2. LM has been building and designing aircraft for a hundred years now. PAF crashed a JF-17 by over stressing the airframe with equipment because they didn’t know any better. Some sub-systems are easier to pursue and also why you can move aspects of a project along if you haven’t finalized other details.
The F-14s AWG-9 & AIM-54 combo was first designed for the F-111B even though those developments were a few years apart. Doesn’t mean the AWG-9 wasn’t used and wasn’t a fierce piece of kit.
3. Possibly, but until the AMCA actually takes flight the PAF has all the decision time it needs. It can always abandon the 5th Gen airframe idea of AZM and just incorporate all its work into an off the shelf Chinese airframe if it feels India is taking the qualitative edge again.
4. Was the $11 billion allocated to PAF budget? I didn’t know the Pakistan Air Force decided the budget of the entire country and made itself first in line.
As far as paying engineers, you pay for subject matter expertise and not engineers. You can find an engineers sitting around having Tea & Samosas all over Pakistani R&D.
Whether they actually studied the key subjects or have experience in building what they have been asked to is an entirely different matter. Those Pakistani that have expertise on these subjects either work for western Aircraft manufacturers and have no reason to abandon theirs and family’s secure lives with a house, comfortable car and vacations to europe to come back and live in a smog ridden city driving an entry level compact car while fearing for his/her family’s safety while some uniform with a chip on their shoulder who has no expertise on the subject is their boss telling them how to do things.
So, to restate - the conclusion you are reaching by getting no updates isn’t completely justified but neither is the expectation attached to it.
Yes, there is a need for higher standard but twenty people on PDF cannot enforce what is an institutional(and overall social/educational) culture change