RC400 and MBDA MICA approved for JF-17

[blain2]

French authorities have given approval for industry to offer a Thales RC 400 airborne fire control radar and MBDA Mica air-to-air missiles to Pakistan, to be fitted on the JF-17 jet fighter built under license from China, a Pakistani official said.

“They are cleared for export negotiation,” the official said.

The sale has raised concerns of a potential breach of the EU military embargo on China.

Pakistan and France have drawn up a memorandum of understanding in which Islamabad promises not to release technology to China, the Pakistani official said. French industry submitted prices about a year and a half ago for the gear and these were no longer valid. With export clearance, commercial negotiations can take place.

The Délégation Générale pour l’Armement arms agency, MBDA and Thales declined comment.

Source: DefenseNews.com

 

[IceCold]

So is the RC better then the KLJ currently on the JF-17. Wikipedia suggested that the radar isnt capable of firing a semi-active radar homing air to air missle and that it uses French DIGIBUS instead of MIL-STD-1553. Extra cost and work is required to make the radar compatible. Any information the ones we are getting are coming with those features or not. Because if its not then JF could not fire SD-10 its primary air to air BVR missle.

 

[Owais]

RC 400 uses 1533 bus.
the info about this radar can be seen here
Airborne Radars

 

[rana]

RC 400 brochure

 

[ali786]

greeeeeeeeeeeeeeat

 

[kidwaibhai]

werent we going with the griffo that italian radar that is also used in the F7s what happened to that deal.

 

[amunhotep]

why not the RBE2 ??? but RC400 is great too.

anyways another headache for india

basically what it means is that the JF-17 will be as good as the rafale in terms of avionics...

& most indian planes like the MiG-27 flogger-D does not even have a radar..

man.... 250 Jf-17s with RC-400s... that's a lot to reckon with

i hope indian officials wake up sooner rather than later..

 

[Keysersoze]

The first 50 will have the Chinese KLJ radar and I have yet to see official confirmation of the 250 number

 

[Sena Lee]

This is good for the JF-17 Thunder.

 

[echo 1]

Heck Ya now this means that the JF-17 will be compatable with the Swedish EWR along with the F-16. This will diffentaly add to Pakistans defencive capabilities.

 

[Neo]

Great news, it was expected sooner or later.

As Keys pointed out the first batch will have Chinese KLJ and other system, PAF has already approved KLJ.
European systems currently being selected are meant for the Block II JF-17 (possibly for FC-20 aswell) and there's much more to come than RC400 or Mica.

A high profile delegation of German Siemens is also offering systems which are being tested in Pakistan!

 

[blain2]

The first 50 will have the Chinese KLJ radar and I have yet to see official confirmation of the 250 number

Key, The number 250 quoted has been from no less than ACM Tanveer Mahmood himself in an interview with AFM. He said that he was sure that a future PAF CAS would seek to bolster the numbers up to 250.

Going by the past precedence and the considerable modification being considered, the number 250 does not look unfeasible given what PAF has done with F-6/F-7s.

 

[ejaz007]

If this is correct then the real evolution of JF-17 has begun. These systems shall most likely equip block-II fighters as stated by Neo. Then at a later stage Block-I fighters shall also be converted to Block-II configuration.

As far as numbers is concerned if PAF does not get any other fighter after J-10’s then the numbers can go up to 250.

 

[su-47]

why not the RBE2 ??? but RC400 is great too.

anyways another headache for india

basically what it means is that the JF-17 will be as good as the rafale in terms of avionics...

No man. The fire control radar will definitely increase potency of JF-17, but wont make its avionics as good as rafale. avionics include many other factors like jammers, EW suite etc.

i hope indian officials wake up sooner rather than later..

I hope so too. If we choose Rafale for MRCA, maybe we can make the french cancel this deal.

Otherwise lets hope that USA will force French to cancel in fear of tech getting in chinese hands (but the chances are low, French usually dont listen to USA when it comes to arms deals).

If the deal goes thru, it'll be a definite headache for india, and maybe we might decide to buy the RC 400 or something better for LCA

Anyway lets wait and see. meanwhile kudos to pak officials for landing the deal.

 

[IceCold]

A question here? Will the same set of pilots be trained for both versions of JF-17 ( chinese & Western ) or there will be different pilots for different JFs? Also incoperating two different set of systems into the plane, wouldnt that increase the logistic and maintaince cost of the plane? And finaly what about PAF's plane about equipping the plane with an AESA radar? How far are we from there.