Myanmar Air Force ordered 16 JF-17 Aircraft from Pakistan in a deal of $560 million.
Myanmar Currently operates 31 Mig-29B. With 16 JF-17 Myanmar will have 47 fourth Generation Fighter Aircraft while Bangladesh has only 8 Mig-29SE.
Myanmar has always showed aggressive behavior with all of it's neighbors and specially towards Bangladesh. 24 out of 31 Mig-29 of Myanmar Air Force are based on Bangladesh-Myanmar Side.Despite the fact that Bangladesh has triple sized Economy of Myanmar.
In a bid to expand its defence capabilities, the Myanmar government
ordered 16 fighter jets from Pakistan at a total price of more than
half a billion US dollar, local reports reveal. The country’s government
placed an order last year for the jets, each worth 35mn, making it the
first nation to do so. Within Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia
and Malaysia are reportedly also interested in the “affordable” jet,
although at least the latter’s defence ministry denied it but Indonesia
is said to have already signed an agreement with Pakistan to buy some
jets in the future.
The JF-17 Thunder jet was designed and developed by Chinese state-run Aviation Industry Corp of China
to meet the Pakistani requirement for lightweight and affordable
supersonic fighter jet. They are currently produced for the Pakistani
Air Force by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), a major aerospace,
defence and aviation contractor in northern Punjab near Islamabad
producing aircraft and aviation systems for both military and civilian
use. The company produced a total of 16 new generation JF-17 Block-II
Thunder aircraft in 2015.
The contract between PAC and Myanmar has been signed at the Paris
Air Show in June last year, but at that time the manufacturer did not
disclose to which country it will be selling the aircraft. Meanwhile it
has been confirmed by PAC that the first jets are to be delivered to
Myanmar starting from 2017.
PAC has already produced 50 older, less-advanced JF-17 Block-I
Thunder for the Pakistan Air Force which has a contract for another 50
JF-17 Block II Thunder jets. The newer Block-II variant possesses more
advanced weapons
systems and avionics and is also equipped with air-to-air refuelling
capability. Block II construction activity is expected to run until
2017, after which the manufacturing ofurther developed Block III
aircraft is planned. The full capacity of the PAC plant is 25 jets per
year, whereby Pakistan produces 58% of the airframe and China 42%,
respectively. The latest models of the jets are lightweight multi-role
aircraft capable of a speed of Mach 2 and an operational ceiling of
55,000 feet. China refers to the JF-17 as the FC-1 Xiaolong (“Fierce
Dragon”).
According to PAC chairman Air Marshal Javaid Ahmed, the first sale
of Pakistan-made jets to a foreign nation has been a “milestone in the
country’s aviation history.” He said that the production and
manufacturing of JF-17 Thunder fighter jets would be enhanced to 20 per
year from 2016 as a number of countries are currently looking into the
possibility of buying the aircraft, in addition to the above mentioned
also Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Iran, Bangladesh,
Bulgaria, Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Azerbaijan, Congo, Sudan and
Turkey. Sales to several other interested Middle East have been held up
by political turmoil in the past, though. Overall, PAC and its Chinese
partner anticipate a market for 300 JF-17 fighter aircraft in the near
future as both its capabilities in air-to-air and air-to-surface combats
and its cost-effectiveness had received attention from the global
aviation industry.
However, though it was speculated Sri Lanka would be next to enter
into a purchase agreement to buy at least eight JF-17 Thunder jets from
PAC during a state visit by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in
early January 2016, both the Sri Lanka defence secretary and a foreign
ministry spokesperson of the Sri Lankan government subsequently denied
any agreement. Local media reports allege that Sri Lanka has been under
pressure from the Indian government not to go ahead with the deal as
India offered its own variant of a light combat aircraft to the country.
this is very Poor Aircraft. 80 technology is been used ..they will regret
ReplyDeleteHow come Bangladesh has less aircraft than Myanmar ? We have triple sized economy than them..!!
ReplyDeleteHow come Bangladesh has less aircraft than Myanmar when we have triple sized economy compared to them?
ReplyDeleteWe should take our own light combat multidimensional aeronautical facilities to developed under licensed version cheaper and more costs effective
ReplyDeleteI can't 😞 understand after longtime from our independence even we can't build up a little more about aeronautical factory 🏭 facilities like BOF .....why ?
ReplyDelete