Pakistan, China jointly upgrade JF-17 Thunder jets, seen as answer to India's Tejas

Days after losing an F-16 in the aerial dogfight against India, Pakistan and China are jointly upgrading the JF-17 Thunder combat jets. According to an HT report, the development was confirmed by Yang Wei, a Chinese legislator and chief designer of the China-Pakistan co-developed fighter jet. “The development and production of the JF-17 Block 3 are underway,” he said. “All related work is being carried out,” Yang was quoted as saying by the Global Times. The JF-17 is a single-engine multi-role light fighter jet jointly developed by China and Pakistan for export.

JF-17 was one of the fighter jets that was used by Pakistan during February 27 Indian airspace violation. On March 1st, addressing media, Air Vice Marshal Ravi Kapoor had said that, “at around 1000 hrs IAF radars detected a large package of  PAF aircraft heading towards the Indian territory towards general area Jhangar.” Various media reports had that the ‘large package’ of the Pakistan Air Force consisted as many as 24 fighter jets. According to an NDTV report, that Pakistan’s strike squad included eight F-16s, four Mirage-3 aircraft, four Chinese made JF-17 "Thunder" fighter. 

The development comes a day after Pakistan announced that it had successfully test-fired an indigenously developed extended range "smart weapon" from JF-17 Thunder fighter jet to provide it a very potent day and night capability to engage variety of targets with pinpoint accuracy. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) also said that experiment marked a great milestone for the country as the weapon has been developed, integrated and qualified solely through indigenous efforts of Pakistani scientists and engineers.

"The successful trial has provided JF-17 Thunder a very potent and assured day and night capability to engage variety of targets with pinpoint accuracy," the PAF said on the Chinese-made aircraft.

Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan lauded the efforts of scientists and engineers. He also congratulated the PAF personnel on the achievement of this monumental indigenous capability.