Pakistan to sell JF-17 aircraft to Sri Lanka

Zarvan

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COLOMBO: Pakistan is expected to secure an agreement for the sale of the JF-17 Thunder Aircraft during Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit in Sri Lanka in the first week of January 2016, IHS Jane's Defence Weekly reported on Tuesday.

JF-17 Thunder is a third-generation fighter co-produced by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and China's Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC).

Sharif's upcoming talks in Colombo follow a mid-November visit to Pakistan by Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) commander Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinhala during which the JF-17 was showcased by the Pakistanis.

Immediately after the visit AM Bulathsinhala was invited to send an evaluation team of technicians and pilots to PAC's Kamra facilities near Islamabad, where the JF-17 is produced.

The SLAF - which already flies several other Chinese-made aircraft types - is currently looking to upgrade its fighter capabilities. At present these rely on the Israel Aircraft Industries Kfir, which served as the workhorse of SLAF ground attack operations in the 1983-2009 civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Currently the JF-17 is flown only by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), with the first squadron of Block 1 aircraft becoming operational in 2010. In late December 2015, PAC rolled out the 16th of a planned total of 50 Block 2 aircraft to complete the PAF's fourth JF-17 squadron in service.

Phasing out its older Dassault Mirage III/5s and Chinese F-7Ps fighters, the PAF reportedly plans to induct at least 250 JF-17s. By contrast, China's People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) does not fly the JF-17.

http://nation.com.pk/national/31-Dec-2015/pakistan-to-sell-jf-17-aircraft-to-sri-lanka
 

warrior monk

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good news

Sri Lanka drops plan to buy fighters from Pak after India objects

Stiff opposition from India has forced Sri Lanka to drop plans, at least for now, to buy JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft from Pakistan.


The Sunday Express has learnt that New Delhi shot off a diplomatic missive a few weeks ago to Colombo on why it should not buy the JF-17 Thunder, including a negative technical assessment of the aircraft. It was also pointed out that the country’s defence requirements did not need fighters.

While questions were raised in Sri Lanka too about the reported $400-million deal, India’s forceful opposition, conveyed through a non-paper, was one of the likely reasons that made Sri Lanka drop the plan for now.

The Pakistani media were reporting that the deal for JF-17s would be signed during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s three-day visit to Colombo which ended Wednesday.

Despite its own financial crunch, Pakistan was also said to be ready to extend a line of credit to Sri Lanka for the aircraft.

On Tuesday, Sharif and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who is also the Defence Minister, signed agreements under eight heads in Colombo, but the sale of aircraft was not one of them.

The Indian government delivered the non-paper — diplomatic parlance for a white sheet of paper without a letterhead or signature — to Colombo at the highest levels about three weeks ago after reports that Pakistan was seriously engaging the Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) on the Chinese fighter aircraft to replace the SLAF’s ageing fleet of Israeli Kfirs and MiG-27s.

Pakistan had been pushing for the sale of 10 to 12 JF-17s, each priced about $35 million. Talk of the deal gained ground after a visit to Pakistan by SLAF chief Gagan Bulathsinhala last November. He was invited to send a team to assess the aircraft at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) in Kamra.

Kamra is where the PAC and China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) co-produce the aircraft. But defence experts believe that the aircraft are more or less only assembled at Kamra from readymade Chinese kits. Taking up the Pakistani invitation, a team of Sri Lankan Air Force officials visited Kamra to test the aircraft and run simulation tests.

New Delhi has opposed SLAF plans to buy the J-17s on the ground that Sri Lanka does not need fighter aircraft. It is six years since the war against the LTTE ended. Since then, Sri Lanka’s defence spending has increased. For 2016, it is an estimated $3 billion.

Sri Lankan sources said India also put forth a technical argument that the Russian engines of the JF-17 were not the best, that even China does not use these aircraft. Earlier, some Sri Lankan reports had said India had offered its own Tejas to the SLAF instead.

India is also concerned that the deal, if it goes through, will enable the PAC, and perhaps even the CAC, to set up a facility in Sri Lanka for maintenance and training, and increase and widen contacts between Pakistan and Chinese security forces and Sri Lanka.

In 2014, the then Sri Lankan government had cleared a proposal for China to set up a maintenance-cum-servicing facility for its aircraft that are part of the Sri Lankan fleet in Trincomalee. The SLAF has in it fleet the Chengdu F-7 fighter aircraft, and the Y-12 and MA60 transporters. India had raised concerns then about the plan and the Sri Lankan government had said it would be manned only by SLAF personnel. With the change in government, that plan was shelved.


http://indianexpress.com/article/in...to-buy-fighters-from-pak-after-india-objects/
 

sorcerer

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Revealed: Why Sri Lanka Backed Off the Sino-Pakistani JF-17 Thunder


As Benjamin Baker wrote last week in The Diplomat, the JF-17 Thunder, a low-cost multi-role fighter built collaboratively by China and Pakistan, has run into some problems on the global fighter market. Recently, every time it appears to have locked down a buyer, problem crop up. Malaysia became the latest supposed buyer of the JF-17 to come out publicly and say that there was no finalized deal. Despite being competitively priced, the JF-17 has proved to be a tough sell for Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, the joint manufacturers of the fighter.

The case of Sri Lanka is the latest curious case of a prospective JF-17 buyer backing down. As Franz-Stefan Gady reported recently, Colombo was expected to sign a multi-million dollar deal to purchas 8 to 12 units of the JF-17 during Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s state visit there last week. Despite a range of announced deals, a JF-17 purchase was not announced during Sharif’s time in Colombo.

Shortly after Sharif’s visit, Sri Lanka’s minister of defense, Karunasena Hettiarachchi, denied that the JF-17 was even discussed. “The matter did not even come up for discussion during the talks [with the Pakistani government],” he said, according to The Colombo Gazette. He added that “if there arises a requirement for Sri Lanka to procure aircraft of this nature, in keeping with the policy of the Government of Sri Lanka to maintain transparency, expressions of interest will be called for, from all concerned.”

However, mere days after the deal was reported, sources claimed that the deal had been cancelled. The reason for the cancellation of the deal is revealing of current diplomatic dynamics in South Asia. According to The Indian Express, the Sri Lankan government, led by President Maithripala Sirisena, canceled its plans to purchase the JF-17s after a “diplomatic missive” from New Delhi suggesting that Colombo should refrain from adding these aircraft to its fleet.

The report adds that New Delhi included a negative technical assessment of the JF-17 and “pointed out that [Sri Lanka's] defense requirements did not need fighters.” According to the report, the Indian government delivered a “non-paper”–described as a “white sheet of paper without a letterhead of signature”–to the Sri Lankan government weeks ahead of Sharif’s planned visit.

If true, Sri Lanka’s decision to hold back on the purchase of JF-17 fighters demonstrates that the Sirisena-led government in Colombo is far more deferential to Indian interests than its predecessor was. Under Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former Sri Lankan president, the country tilted considerably toward China. After his surprise election victory last January, Sirisena signaled an intent to balance Sri Lanka’s foreign policy by visiting New Delhi before Beijing.


It doesn’t appear that India is planning on offering Sri Lanka a substitute for the JF-17. New Delhi’s suggestion that Sri Lanka does not require multi-role fighters for its defense needs suggests that it does not plan to do so in the future. (The closest Indian analog, in terms of cost-per-unit, is the HAL Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, but its feature-set is very different from what the JF-17 offers.)

http://thediplomat.com/2016/01/revealed-why-sri-lanka-backed-off-the-sino-pakistani-jf-17-thunder/
 

Bornubus

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These low life even call MBT 2000 their own and shamelessly claim that Myanmar and Bangladeshi imported from Pak, just because the tank has some 3rd class paki subsystem.

Though the payment was directly made to China, profit was shared according to pakis.

@Zarvan how many Al khalid, JF 17 and A100 (smerch copy) MLRS does PLA operates ?

I think its zero.
 
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