Besides 3 Myanmar and 3 Nigerian JF17s, have any other deals been signed yet? Is the Azerbaijan contract signed and real or still in discussion? how many did they buy or are they doing the same BS as what others did..ie will buy 2-3 and test it first. lot of hype from Khwaja Asif and fanboys here on Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and how this is transform Pakistan economy etc but has anything real been signed?
My fear is that JF17 is not up to the mark in global market. This whole positioning of "we are cheap" is back firing. No one likes to buy cheap things no matter how poor you are particularly when national pride is at stake. Nations want quality and performance. Also, while JF17 has proven to be strong in A-G roles (both in Swift Retort and BUM), it has not proven to be up to the mark in AA roles. I still dont get why PAF did not have JF17 equipped with PL15s, engage Indian fighters in on May 3 2025? Why the JF17 was in a support role rather than be in a lead role along with J10s? Is it that they couldnt carry PF15s or their radar is weak? or they couldnt climb to the required altitude fast enough ? Even is Swift Retort, the AA role was primarily led by F16 even though JF17 were carrying SD-10s back then...so why did they not engage Indian fighters in Feb '19? Does the PAF not trust JF17 in AA roles? No matter how much we try to hide it, we cannot deny that JF17 did not have a single AA kill (except for a drone). This would have greatly helped its sales if it had shot down just 1 Indian plane. We need to do something about its engine thrust or lack thereof.
