Pakistan Space Agency
Elite Member
Original target was 150.Never reached full potential of 24 Units per year
Should have attained 240-250 Count in 2018
| Block | Plan | Acquired |
| Block-1 | 50 | 50 |
| Block-2 | 50 | 59 + 26 |
| Block-3 | 50 (replan 30) | 23 |
If we didn't go for the 26 Block-2 twin seaters, we would've had a nice round figure of 50 Block-3s by 2023.
My theory.
Block-1 - All 50 acquired.
Block-2 - All 50 acquired, but requirement for dual seaters became a necessary which delayed/changed the acquisition of Block-3.
Block-2 - Additional 9 acquired (to avoid halting production) along with 26 dual seaters. That's a total of 35 additional block-2 JF-17 Thunders.
Total Block-1/2: 50 + 50 + 9 + 26 = 135.
To reach the original target of 150, only 15 more Block-3 are required. However, 5 from Block-1/2 have also crashed. So requirement for Block-3 has increased to 20.
It is announced (or just reported) that 30 Block-3s will be produced even though only 20 are required.
Block-3 - A total of 23 acquired. Meeting the original target of 150, and exceeding this by another 3 aircraft. The planned 30 target is cancelled/halted.
PAF Target: 150
Produced for PAF: 158
PAF Losses: 5
Total with PAF: 153
Prior to reaching the target of 150 by 2023, PAF may have been debating retiring some older Block-1s and replacing them with new Block-3s, however, Block-1s are receiving MLU instead.
So, any new Block-3s produced in 2024-2025 can be exported to other countries as PAF has not announced expanding its JF-17 Thunder fleet.
My conclusion is that, Block-2 dual seaters were the spanner in the plans which increased the production of Block-2s by 35 aircraft reducing the number of Block-3s being required.
The legacy fighters (Mirages/F-7s) will probably be replaced with J-10s / J-35s (maybe even further F-16s).





