JF-17 Thunder

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JF-17 Thunder
Type	Multirole Fighter
Manufacturer	Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC) and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC)
Maiden flight	3 September 2003
Introduced	2007-2008
Status	In development
Primary users	Pakistan Air Force PLA Air Force

The Joint Fighter-17 (JF-17) Thunder, also known as the Fighter China-1 (FC-1) Fierce Dragon in China, is a single-seat multirole fighter aircraft co-developed by Pakistan and China. It is expected to be introduced into the Pakistan Air Force in March 2007.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Project 3 History 4 Present status 4.1 Avionics 4.1.1 Cockpit 4.1.2 Radar 4.1.3 Helmet Mounted Sight 4.1.4 Electronic warfare 4.1.5 Communication 4.2 Maintenance 4.2.1 Engine maintenance 4.2.2 Ground maintenance equipment 4.3 Weaponry 4.3.1 Air-to-air weaponry 4.3.2 Air-to-ground weaponry 5 Prototypes and their roles 6 Specifications (JF-17 Thunder) 7 External links 8 Related content

[edit] Overview

The JF-17 is designed to further meet the tactical and strategic needs of the Pakistani Air Force with a minimal reliance on imports from other countries. In addition, the requirement was for the aircraft to have sufficient space for future upgrades and/or equipment specified by export buyers. The JF-17 is considered to be in the "high-tech class" of fighter aircraft. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Project

The JF-17 is being built by China's Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC) and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC). Initial reports claimed that the aircraft was based on the design of the MiG-33, a proposed single-engined version of the MiG-29, which was rejected by the Soviet Air Force. However, the FC-1/JF-17 is instead derived from the "Super Seven" project, not the Project 33 (not to be confused with the MiG-33) or the failed Chengdu J-9. Indications are that MiG assisted the program by contributing their light fighter design as well as providing additional design & development assistance.

The project is expected to cost about US$500 million, divided equally between China and Pakistan, while each individual aircraft is expected to have a fly-away cost of $15-20 million. Pakistan has announced that it will procure 150 but, this may easily go up to 300. The JF-17 will replace Pakistan's MiG-21-derived Chengdu F-7, A-5 (Q-5) and Mirage III/V currently in service. Other countries which have expressed interest in purchasing the JF-17 are Egypt, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Burma, Zimbabwe, Morocco and Algeria.

[edit] History

In 1986, China signed an agreement with Grumman to develop an upgrade for the J-7 known as the "Saber II", the replacement of the abandoned "Super 7" upgrade of J-7. The program was cancelled in 1990, primarily due to worsening relations with the US following the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. However, CAC kept the program alive by providing low-level funding from its own resources.

After US sanctions were imposed on Pakistan in 1990, Pakistan also became interested in the project. In June 1999, Pakistan and China made an agreement to restart the program with Pakistan paying about 50% of the development costs. The project became known as JF-17 in Pakistan and FC-1 in China.

The first prototype was rolled out on 31 May 2003, conducted its first taxi trials on 1 July, and made its first flight on 24 August of the same year. The prototype 03 made its first flight in April 2004. On 28 April 2006, the prototype 04 made its first flight with fully operational avionics.

Serial production has begun in June 2006 and the first 16 aircraft would be rolled out in early 2007. Serial production from 2007-2008 will be at an annual 10-15 planes per year while in 2008+ it will be at 25-30 planes per year.

President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf declared in his Independence day speech on 14 August 2006 that the JF-17 will be flying in Pakistani skies by 23 March 2007. According to Air Marshal Khalid Choudhry, Chairman of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex on 22 November 2006, first two JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft will be delivered to Pakistan Air Force on 23 March 2007, while the remaining of the first batch of eight aircraft will arrive later in the same year.

[edit] Present status

Looking at the status of the development's work, the 4^th prototype version of the JF-17 Thunder combat jet has successfully completed first operational flight in Chengdu, China, on Wednesday, March 10, 2006. The 4^th prototype of the JF-17 Thunder combat jet is a multi-role fighter-bomber and is capable of carrying multiple air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. The fighter jet is equipped with advanced electronics and weapons systems. Pakistan will receive the first consignment of 2 aircraft in March 2007, while the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra will start manufacturing the JF-17 in 2008. China will start official production in June 2007.

At the Sixth Zhuhai Airshow in China, a UTD (or unit training device) that appears identical to the earlier mockup of JF-17 was publically displayed, and the manufacturer of the aircraft along with other manufacturers of airborn weaponry provided more detailed information on the projects:

[edit] Avionics

The 4^th prototype includes advanced avionics features such as:

[edit] Cockpit

• Advanced 4.5th generation EFIS with cockpit displays that are compatible with western systems such as those built by Rockwell Collins and Honeywell.
  • The current MIL-STD-1553B data bus can be readily replaced by MIL-STD-1773 fiber optics data bus upon customer's request.
  • Control panel consisting of 3 color screens (20.3 cm×20.3 cm) only
  • All information is processed and displayed on them
  • The functions of each screen are exchangeable
  • Brightness & contrast can be adjusted either automatically or manually
  • Displays can also be adjusted to be compatible with night visioin goggles.
  • Each screen can be re-defined
  • The current CRT display can be readily replaced by LCD upon customer's request, and touch screen option is also available (However, neither the Chinese Air Force nor the Pakistani Air Force has shown any interests in the touch screen options, and there is no known successful export either).
  • HUD is a state-of-the-art system developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC)
  • Many images/information can be displayed at the same time
  • All HUD and head-down displays are compatible with the standar electro-optical targeting pod that is carried externally.
• HOTAS control
• Intelligent avionics
  • Avionics system is all-digital and fully integrated
  • Distributed structure
    • Two independent but exchangeable (can backup each other) STD-MTL-1553B data buses connect all equipment, plus two powerful control computers (that can also backup each other)
    • Each computer controls one data bus

[edit] Radar

Initially, Pakistan wanted to use the Italian Grifo-S7 radar. However, the Chinese offer had some key advantages over the Italian one, such as compatibility with Chinese weapon systems.

• Radar has strong ECCM capacity and multiple modes, such as A2A (both BVR & close), air-to-ground, air-to-sea, terrain avoidance, etc. Terrain following mode is not standard, but can be added upon customer's request by either incorporating an external pod such as the Chinese Blue Sky navigational and targeting pods, or alternatively, the direct integration of the radar itself.
• It can simultaneously detect 40⁺ targets, simultaneously track 10 of 40 detected targets, and simultaneously engage 2 of the 10 tracked targets by guiding 2 semi-active radar homing BVR missiles to attack two separate targets. Alternatively, two missiles can be fired at the same target to insure the kill probability.
• When active radar homing air-to-air missiles are used, the number of targets that can be simultaneously engaged are increased to 4.
• The detection range for a typical air target of RC 3 m² is 125⁺ km; looking downrange is 45⁺ km; range for sea target is 250⁺ km.
• When engaging land targets, the Chinese radar can lock on to individual vehicle like American radars do, instead of only being able to lock on to a large group of vehicles like the Russian Phazotron Kopyo (Spear) radar onboard MiG-21-93.
• Easy to access LRUs with fully digitized solid state electronics and built-in self test functions.
• Plenty of room for improvement is incorporated in the design so that the current plannar slotted array that can be readily replaced by a passive phased array.
• Reporgrammable digital processor with open architecture design.
• Option to incorporate IFF.
• The internally mounted electro-optics is not standard for JF-17, but the radar is compatible with them for their rapid integration upon customer's request.

[edit] Helmet Mounted Sight

Though the exact type of the helmet mounted sights for JF-17 is yet to be determined, the HMS will be standard. JF-17 is compatible with a wide range of HMS, and its HMS will be at least equal or better than the HMS offered for J-7E/F-7PG, which first appeared in 2002 at air show and various defense / electronics exhibitions held in China. The HMS offered for J-7E/F-7PG is already better than the lastest Russian HMS available on the export market in that the Chinese HMS is specifically designed to improve the performance of the Russian system, and it outperforms its Russian counterparts in various fields:

• In comparison to the original standard Russian ASP-PVD-21 HMS onboard the MiG-29 and Flanker family, the field of view of the Chinese HMS for J-7E/F-7PG is +/- 90 degrees, which is far greater than the mere +/- 8 degrees of the Russian ASP-PVD-21 HMS.
• In comparison to the latest Russian HMS available with +/- 60 degrees of field of view, the Chinese HMS for J-7E/F-7PG still enjoys much greater field of view at +/- 90 degrees.
• The elevation of the latest Russian HMS designed to replace the original ASP-PVD-21 HMS onboard MiG-29 and Flanker family is only +/- 40 degrees, while in contrast, the Chinese HMS for J-7E/F-7PG is already +/- 45 degrees.
• The Chinese HMS for J-7E/F-7PG already had higher reliability than the Russian HMS.
• The Chinese HMS for J-7E/F-7PG are easier and much cheaper to manufacture than its Russian counterparts.

Although the Chinese HMS for J-7E/F-7PG has already enjoyed numerous advantages over the latest Russian HMS developed later, it still might not be the final type of HMS selected for JF-17, because even as the Chinese HMS for J-7E/F-7PG was first revealed in 2002, the Chinese manufacturers such as the 613th Institute had already started the development of newer HMS designed to replace the HMS for J-7E/F-7PG. Improvement included the adoptation of common attachments and power sources so that all night vision goggles and HMS are interchangeable, without the need to replace the entire system. The weight would be further reduced from the 200 grams weight of the Chinese HMS for J-7E/F-7PG, while the performance is further increased (mainly in the increase of elevation angles). While it can not be confirmed the claims by various sources that the more advanced Chinese HMS onboard Chengdu J-10 developed from HMS onboard the J-7E/F-7PG would be selected for JF-17, the aircraft is certainly compatible with the more advanced Chinese HMS onboard Chengdu J-10.

[edit] Electronic warfare

It has all the standard electronic warfare systems, such as radar warning receiver, missile approach warning system, etc.

• The computer can store more than 500 existing radar signals for identification, which is around 5 times of that F-7MP/P, and actually already stores more than 250 known radar signal patterns
• 360-degree field of view for the missile approach warning system with both infrared & ultraviolet spectrum detection
  • Very sensitive to the "afterburn" of missiles
  • The detection range is 60⁺ km
  • One detection sensor is in the tail and two at the front
  • Moreover, it can provide a certain capacity of tracking and positioning of approaching missiles

[edit] Communication

The JF-17 has two communication radios; one of them has the capacity for data link to exchange data from either a ground control center or an AWACS/AEW.

The modular design of solid state avionics has enabled the data link for the air-to-ground precision guided munitions to be carried internally, thus eliminating the need to carry external data link pods that are common for current Russian and Vietnam War era American systems, but this only applies to the radar or GPS guided air-to-surface missiles, because for television, infrared, or laser guided munitions, the aircraft lacks built-in electro-optics targeting and weapon control systems, so an external electro-optic targeting pod must be carried.

[edit] Maintenance

During maintenance time, when a notebook computer is plugged into the aircraft's avionics, all working parameters of the aircraft can be displayed on the notebook.

[edit] Engine maintenance

Instead of being required to be sent back to the main overhaul factories in the rear for engine replacements, the aircraft engine can be readily replaced at the forward airbases in filed conditions within two hours (one hour forty-five minutes has been achieved), providing the necessary maintenance equipment are all in place.

[edit] Ground maintenance equipment

In comparison to Russian ground maintenance equipment for the Flanker family such as the Sukhoi Su-30, Chinese claim that its indigenously developed ground maintenance equipment of JF-17 offers significant advantages to the current Russian one on the market, and the PLAAF has already begun to replace Russian ground maintenance equipment for the Flanker family such as the Sukhoi Su-30 for the following reasons:

• Like its western counterparts, the Chinese ground maintenance equipment is not limited to serve a single type of aircraft, instead, it is designed to service a wide range of aircraft, including both civilian and military. In comparison, most Russian ground maintenance equipment for the Flanker family such as the Sukhoi Su-30 are purposely built and can only serve the aircraft in the Flank family.
• The Chinese ground maintenance equipment utilizes solid state electronics, and has better reliability.
• The Chinese ground maintenance equipment is based on the commercial off-the-shelf products that greatly reduced the logistic problems due to its commonality with similar commercial equipment available while meeting the military standards at the same time.
• Due to the adoptation of the commercial off-the-shelf products, the Chinese ground maintenance equipment is cheaper to purchase, and more importantly, cheaper to operate than the specially design Russian ones, which have unit price from at least half a million to more than a million United States dollars.
• The Chinese ground maintenance equipment adopts the multi-tasks workstation priniciple of similar American systems, and thus much fewer equipment is needed like the American systems. In comparison, most Russian ground maintenance equipment offered for export for the Flanker family such as the Sukhoi Su-30 is single tasked, thus forcing the buyers to spend more money on puchasing every type in order to meet the complete maintenance requirements.
• Due to its similar design that follows western systems, the Chinese ground maintenance equipment is compact and can be depolyed by air like its western counterparts. In contrast, the Russian ground maintenance equipment for Flanker family such as the Sukhoi Su-30 is bulky and can only be transported on land since it can not fit inside cargo airplanes.
• The Chinese ground maintenance equipment is versatile like similar western systems in that it can either be truck mounted to increase mobility, or trailer mounted to reduce cost. In contrast, the current Russian ground maintenance equipment on the market for the Flanker family such as the Sukhoi Su-30 only comes in truck mounted form (as of 2006).
• In stead of being built by a single production complex associated with the aircraft manufacturer like the ground maintenance equipment of the Flanker family, the complete set of the Chinese ground maintenance equipment is developed by different manufacturers of the similar equipment used for commercial airplanes, so that buyers would have wider choice of suppliers, and would not have pay higher prices because they would not to be locked into the deal forced up on them by the aircraft manufacturer. The purchasers of the Chinese ground maintenance equipment therefore are open to purchase western components should they choose to, when there are better deals to be found.
• More importantly, since most of the Chinese ground maintenance equipment is for civilian use, there is far less likelihood of being embargoed like the Russian ground maintenance equipment for the Flanker family such as the Sukhoi Su-30, which is purely for military use.
• The civilian usage of the the multi-tasked Chinese ground maintenance equipment also means that the equipment can be better utilized for civilian aircraft and thus reducing the cost of operation like similar western systems. In contrast, not only the Russian counterpart is limited to military aircraft, it is also only limited to a single family of military aircraft because many of the single tasked Russian ground maintenance equipments purposely built for Flanker family such as the Sukhoi Su-30 can only be used for Flankers.
• Like similar western systems of modular design, the Chinese ground maintenance equipment also has the option of modular design so that when newer subsystems become available, they can be readily incorporated into the system by replacing the older ones on the racks.

The ability to undertake short take-offs and landings is also incorporated in the aircraft

Not to mention the most visible change, the DSI (divergent supersonic intake).

[edit] Weaponry

All weapon systems are designed to be compatible with both Western systems (ie. supporting MIL-STD-1760 data bus) and Russian systems (and Chinese systems also).

[edit] Air-to-air weaponry

At present, its standard missiles are the PL-9C for WVR combat and SD-10 BVRAAM for BVR combat. However, it also supports the AIM-9L/M Sidewinder, AIM-7F Sparrow. It is reported that Pakistan Air Force JF-17 will also be able to use South African air-to-air and air-to-surface munitions such as T-Darter (BVRAAM), A-Darter (WVRAAM).

[edit] Air-to-ground weaponry

In addition to unguided bombs and rockets, the aircraft is adopted to deploy a wide range of precision guided munitions, including:

Western weapons:

• DPGM (Precision Guided Bomb)
• Raptor-I long-range glide bomb
• Raptor II long-range glide bomb
• Anti-ship missile such as Exocet and Harpoon missile.

Chinese weapons:

• FT (Fei Teng) family of GPS guided bombs
• LT (Lei Ting) family of laser guided bombs
• LS (Lei Shi) family of GPS guided long range gliding bombs
• C-701 Air-to-surface missile
• TL-10 Anti-ship missile for boats with displacement upto 500 tons
• TL-6 Anti-ship missile for boats/ships with displacement upto 1,000 tons
• C-704 Anti-ship missile for ships with displacement upto 3,000 - 4,000 tons
• C-801/802 Anti-ship missile for ships displace greater than 4,000 tons

All precision guided munitions listed above are either GPS or radar guided, and when the television or laser guided munitions are deployed, addition electro-optical targeting pods such as the Chinese-built Blue Sky pod must be carried externally in order to provide guidance and targeting information.

[edit] Prototypes and their roles

Designation	Role
Prototype-01	For Flight Performance Verification
Prototype-02	Ground and Load Testing (Static Ground Testing)
Prototype-03	For Flight Performance Verification
Prototype-04	Weapons Integration And Avionics Testing
Prototype-05	Fatigue Testing (Static Ground Testing)

[edit] Specifications (JF-17 Thunder)

General characteristics

• Crew: One
• Length: 14.97 m (ft in)
• Wingspan: 9.46 m (ft in)
• Height: 4.77 m (ft in)
• Wing area: m² (ft²)
• Empty weight: 6,411 kg (lb)
• Loaded weight: 10,072 kg (lb)
• Max takeoff weight: 15,474 kg ()
• Powerplant: 1× Russian-made RD-93 turbofan (81.3 kN) (Production version to have further improved RD-93B with 10% more thrust. For the long term, TVT or thrust vectoring nozzle to enhance manoeuvrability will also be an option in the future upon customer's request) , ()

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 1.6-1.8 (mph) at high altitude
• Range: 3000 km ()
• Service ceiling: 20,500 m (50,000 ft)
• Wing loading: kg/m² (lb/ft²)

Armament

• One internal GSh-23-2 twin-barrel 23mm cannon
• Short (PL-9C/AIM-9M/Magic 2) and beyond-visual-range missiles (SD-10/Aspide), laser guided bombs, other guided munitions and targeting pod can also be carried for precision strike missions

Avionics

• Italian FIAR Grifo S-7 on Pakistani-built export versions. The Radar for Pakistan Air Force's JF-17 is not yet decided. However, early PAF JF-17s will most probably be equipped with Chinese radar which PLAAF will also be using.
• Global Positioning System
• Head-up display (HUD), infra-red search-and-track (IRST) system (external), night-vision goggle (NVG) capability and Fly-by-Wire (FBW)

[edit] External links

• Official CAC website
• JF-17.com
• PAF Fighter Aircrafts
• Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) at Kamra
• Pakistani Defence.com
• Pakistan Military Consortium
• JF-17/FC-1 by Chinese Defense Today
• FC-1/Super-7/JF-17 Thunder Dragon at Chinese Military Aviation
• JF-17/FC-1 at Global Security

[edit] Related content

 

Comparable aircraft

• AIDC IDF
• F-20 Tigershark
• HAL Tejas
• F-16 Fighting Falcon