http://rupeenews.com/2008/02/24/beyond-pakistani-made-jf-17-thunders-chinese-made-j-10s-will-paf-acquire-j-11s/
Beyond Pakistani made JF-17 Thunders & Chinese made J-10s: Will PAF acquire J-11s?
February 24, 2008
by Moinansari
Pakistan and China designed, prototyped and built the JF-17 Thunder faster than any other aircraft–leaving the Indian LCA in the dust.
The WD-93 (Russian engine) JF-17 Thunder is now competing with the Korean fighter and others. Pakistan is in midst of building about 500 JF-17 Thunder fighters, probably the biggest build up of planes in the history of the world.
The Pakistan JF-Thunder aircraft will go through a major upgrade in avionics, and a switch in engines to a Chinese version of the WD-93 called the WS-13. Efforts are already underway to produce the WS-13 engine locally, and upgrade the avionics with the latest French and Italian technology.
Pakistan used the earthquake as the perfect opportunity to gently turn down the offer of F-16s to Pakistan and diversified the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). President Musharraf and PAF head was invited to China to evaluate China’s latest toy, at the time, the J-10.
Now reports are surfacing that China has been able to duplicate the SU-27, the most lethal bird in the air. The Chinese version of the Sukhoi SU-27 (Flanker) is now called the J-11. The Su-30MKI (another derivative of the SU-27), a heavy-class fighter, with the F-16C Block 50, F-16C Block 60, and F-18E/F aircraft is largely theoretical. The American Fighters belong to conceptually different fighter classes and have their own, preferential areas of combat employment. The F-18E/F version, owing to the F/A-18 basic design, features a more pronounced strike-mission capability, while in terms of dimensions, this aircraft is close to the Russian fighter.
The airplanes in the Russian inventory are:
1. SU-27 a fourth generation fighter
2. SU33, and SU35 derivatives of the 4th generation SU-27s
The Pakistanis should be tight lipped about the new Chinese fighter and whether Pakistan is going to acquire any. The Chinese in a sweet deal of $2.5 Billion with the Russians purchased the right to produce the SK-27. The J-11 is a “third generation” aircraft.
Now, the efforts in China and Pakistan are underway to move to the air-forces to the latest planes like SU-27K which is now called SU-33.
What about the SU-35? The original Su-35 was a derivative of the Su-27 and essentially a ground-based variant of the Su-33. While the official Russian Air Force designation for the aircraft remained the Su-27M, Sukhoi rechristened the model as the Su-35 in the hopes of attracting foreign customers. The Brazilians wanted to produce it but in the end opted for the Mirage IIIs.
The Brazilian decision appeared to have ended the Su-35 program once and for all since Sukhoi had little success finding other customers. Hopes were briefly revived in May 2006 when Venezuela announced interest in the Su-35, but the nation instead chose a variant of the Su-30. The move is largely politically-motivated given recent tensions between Venezuela and the United States over America’s ban on providing support for the Venezuelan F-16 fleet. the Su-35 was revived at least in name in 2007 when Sukhoi announced the aircraft had entered production for the Russian Air Force. This incarnation is also a derivative of the Su-27.
A derivative of the Su-27 ‘Flanker’, the Su-37 is a super-maneuverable thrust vectoring fighter. Designed from an Su-35 prototype, the Su-37 test aircraft (designated T10M-11) made its maiden flight in April 1996 from the Zhukovsky flight testing center near Moscow. The Su-37 is first Russian aircraft to feature thrust vectoring control comparable to the F-22 Raptor.
