However, soon after the delivery of these aircraft, the Burmese Air Force was forced to stop flying on them due to the discovery of malfunctions and defects in the airframe design. A similar problem arose with the acquired fleet of aircraft in 2022.
In total, there are 11 JF-17 fighters in the country, but none of them are currently in operation due to technical problems.
In September 2022, a group of Pakistani engineers secretly visited Myanmar and made several futile troubleshooting attempts. Now the military junta is furious and, according to sources, has sent a "tough message" to Islamabad demanding to be held accountable for what happened.
At the same time, the junta is pushing Beijing to intervene. The recent visit of the Chinese Ambassador to Myanmar to Nay Pyi Taw was said to be in connection with a message from the top leadership of the CCP to General Min Aung Hlein.
Pakistan is struggling to renegotiate a deal on new JF-17 variants, sources said. Probably, these new options will be developed by the same alliance of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and the Chinese enterprise Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation.
However, there has been no word yet on whether Myanmar's military junta has accepted the revised proposal. Informed sources say the military junta is very unhappy that the inability to use these aircraft is hindering most of its plans to build up air power to launch precision strikes against Myanmar resistance fighters fighting under the banner of the People's Defense Forces (PDF), the armed wing of the GNU.
After the crisis caused by the malfunction of the JF-17 aircraft in Myanmar became known, Pakistan's attempts to sell aircraft of this type to other countries, especially Latin American ones, stalled.
Now that the military junta in Myanmar is refusing to negotiate new aircraft purchases from Pakistan, other countries are also reluctant to cooperate with Pakistan on the issue.
I
n addition to the experience of Myanmar, JF-17 aircraft have not proven themselves in Nigeria in the best way. In 2009, the Nigerian Air Force received 15 F-7NI fighters. By 2018, six out of 15 aircraft had crashed [the connection between the F-7NI and JF-17 is not very clear. -bmpd].
The remaining nine fell into disrepair. Five of them were sent to China for repair and modernization and were returned to the Nigerian Air Force in 2022. However, already in July 2023, another Chinese-supplied combat training aircraft, the FT-7NI, crashed.
Argentina is one of the few countries that has refused to purchase JF-17 aircraft from China and Pakistan.
The cost of operating and maintaining JF-17 aircraft and what it means
In fact, Myanmar became the first country to purchase JF-17 Thunder aircraft jointly produced by Pakistan and China in 2015. These aircraft, built by installing a Russian Klimov RD-93 engine and Western avionics on a Chinese-made airframe, have enormous operating and maintenance costs compared to other modern weapon systems.
According to international aviation experts, even after repairs, the JF-17 aircraft will be “difficult to operate” even with the appropriate technical competencies. This means that the Myanmar Air Force needs specialists who can solve technical problems as they arise. The military junta had planned to send its technicians to Islamabad for training in modernization and maintenance, but that work has been put on hold.
Experts also point to a number of the most important features of the JF-17 aircraft,
which, in their opinion, is the Chinese-made KLJ-7A1 radar, which does not provide effective detection of air targets or the use of medium-range air-to-air missiles. According to one of the experts, this radar is not accurate enough and, as a result, ineffective. In addition, "there are other problems," up to the strength of the aircraft fuselage, which cannot withstand overloads.
The Myanmar junta relies heavily on the power of its aviation, inflicting strikes with the Myanmar Air Force on ethnic armed revolutionary organizations and civilians. It is in talks with China and Pakistan to help it build the capability of the air-to-surface missiles used on the JF-17 aircraft. However, this process is not easy for the military junta, even after billions of dollars have been spent on it.
It should be emphasized that China itself has not yet included a single JF-17 aircraft in its arsenal.
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