Comparing the Tejas program with your JF-17 is laughable at best. Let’s set the record straight. HAL has produced 222 Su-30MKIs between 2004 and 2020—aircraft that are far superior to anything in your fleet. And guess what? Those Su-30s come with more indigenous content than the glorified assembly line you call the JF-17, which has almost zero Pakistan-designed components. It’s pretty bold to talk about ‘production’ when all you’ve done is bolt together Chinese hand-me-downs.
Meanwhile, HAL has also delivered over 400 Dhruvs and its attack variants without a hitch, setting the standard for indigenous helicopter production. Where's your homegrown equivalent? Oh, that’s right—you don't have one. You might have 180 JF-17s, but you’re still entirely dependent on China for parts and expertise. Tejas, on the other hand, is a fully indigenous project, designed and developed in India, not a rebranded export product. There are three critical components for any fighter jet: fly-by-wire systems, radars and avionics, and engines. India’s Tejas has mastered this with a quadruplex fly-by-wire system, the Uttam radar, and Indian-made avionics. We only import the engine and ejection seats—standard practice for even the best jets out there. Recently, India developed Leading Edge Actuators and the Airbrake Control Module—key secondary flight controls for the LCA Tejas. Plus, critical LRUs originally designed for the Tejas Mk2 are now being integrated into the Mk1A, significantly boosting its flight safety levels. We’ve even got our own Astra BVRAAM to arm it with.
Meanwhile, your JF-17? It’s basically a Chinese jet with some local touches. No fly-by-wire designed by Pakistan, no radars, no avionics—just assembling what China gives you.
The JF-17 might be a dime a dozen, but quality beats quantity every single time. So before you even think of comparing your knock-off jets to the Tejas or anything else HAL has produced, maybe you should first try building something on your own—if you can.
