CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder

JF-17 Thunder FC-1 Xiaolong
A JF-17 of the Pakistan Air Force
Role	Multirole combat aircraft Type of aircraft
National origin	China / Pakistan
Manufacturer	Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group / Pakistan Aeronautical Complex
First flight	25 August 2003
Introduction	12 March 2007
Status	In service
Primary users	Pakistan Air Force Myanmar Air Force Nigerian Air Force Azerbaijani Air Forces
Produced	In China: June 2007 – present In Pakistan: January 2008 – present
Number built	170 (production aircraft)

The CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder (Urdu: جے ایف-17 گرج), or FC-1 Xiaolong (Chinese: 枭龙; pinyin: Xiāo Lóng; lit. 'Fierce Dragon'), is a lightweight, single-engine, multirole combat aircraft developed jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China.^[1] It was designed and developed as a fourth-generation replacement for the third-generation A-5C, F-7P/PG, Mirage III, and Mirage V combat aircraft in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).^[2] The JF-17 can be used for multiple roles, including interception, ground attack, anti-ship, and aerial reconnaissance. The Pakistani designation "JF-17" stands for "Joint Fighter-17", with the "Joint Fighter" denoting the joint Pakistani-Chinese development of the aircraft and the "-17" denoting that, in the PAF's vision, it is the successor to the F-16. The Chinese designation "FC-1" stands for "Fighter China-1".

The JF-17 can deploy diverse ordnance, including air-to-air, air-to-surface, and anti-ship missiles, guided and unguided bombs, and a 23 mm GSh-23-2 twin-barrel autocannon. Powered by a Guizhou WS-13 or Klimov RD-93 afterburning turbofan, it has a top speed of Mach 1.6.^[3] The JF-17 is the backbone and workhorse of the PAF, complementing the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon at approximately half the cost,^[4] with the Block II variant costing $25 million.^[3] The JF-17 was inducted in the PAF in February 2010.^[5][6]

Fifty-eight per cent of the JF-17 airframe, including its front fuselage, wings, and vertical stabilizer, is produced in Pakistan, whereas forty-two percent is produced in China, with the final assembly and serial production taking place in Pakistan.^[7][8] In 2015, Pakistan produced 16 JF-17s.^[6] As of 2016^[update], PAC has the capacity to produce 20 JF-17s annually. By April 2017, PAC had manufactured 70 Block 1 aircraft^[9][10] and 33 Block 2 aircraft for the PAF.^[11] By 2016, PAF JF-17s had accumulated over 19,000 hours of operational flight.^[12] In 2017, PAC/CAC began developing a dual-seat variant known as the JF-17B for enhanced operational capability, conversion training, and lead-in fighter training.^[13][14] The JF-17B Block 2 variant went into serial production at PAC in 2018 and 26 aircraft were delivered to the PAF by December 2020.^[15] In December 2020, PAC began serial production of a more advanced Block 3 version of the aircraft with an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, a more powerful Russian Klimov RD-93MA engine, a larger and more advanced wide-angle Head-Up Display (HUD), electronic countermeasures, an additional hardpoint, and enhanced weapons capability.^[16]

PAF JF-17s have seen military action, both air-to-air and air-to-ground, including bombing terrorist positions in North Waziristan near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border during anti-terror operations in 2014 and 2017 using both guided and unguided munitions,^[17][8] shooting down an intruding Iranian military drone near the Pakistan-Iran Border in Balochistan in 2017,^[18] and in Operation Swift Retort during the 2019 Jammu and Kashmir airstrikes and aerial skirmish between India and Pakistan.^[19] Nigerian Air Force (NAF) JF-17s have seen military action in anti-terrorism and anti-insurgency operations in Nigeria.^[20]