“The Thunder from beyond”
Every nation comes from long history of events, which tells us about who they are, what their traditions are their cultures and from everything they were to everything they will be in the future. The history of our nation is not so different from others. We too fought for freedom from enslavement but the difference between our nation and others is that, we took our freedom from the British India in the name of Allah. Who’s law in just and without flaw and for that our forefathers fought for excellence and equality for all.
The Pakistan Air Force which is ranked the 13th most powerful firepower military strength index. And ‘the thunder from beyond” is about the story of a nations drive to percevoir and honor its commitment of safe guarding the sky’s that it has been interested with by the people of the nation. Pakistan Air force (PAF) is the only Air force that chooses to makes its own air craft. JF-17 is the first ever air craft to be made by Pakistan. JF-17 is compatible to the modern air crafts of this era and its cost effective meaning where a modern air craft will cost about 80 – 100 million, JF-17 cost about 1/3 of that amount. The development of JF-17 started in 1999 as it is a combined project of Pakistan and china. The leaders of Pakistan Air force (the Air Chief Marshal (CAS), Air Marshals and Air Vice Marshals) opted to take the air frame from china and the avionic equipment from the west but there was a set back because the west at that time was not ready to release to release the avionic equipment to Pakistan Air force or Pakistan in general because during may 1998 Pakistan launched its first ever nuclear test which was code named Chagai-I, after which Pakistan came under sanction which later on resulted in the non-availability of the western avionics equipment. So the heads of Pakistan Air force decided that to take the best Chinese avionics.
There are many interesting features of JF-17 but the best features are:-
The cockpit of JF-17 is pilot friendly. JF-17 thunder has a glass cockpit which is covered by a transparent, acrylic canopy which is to provide the pilot with all-round view. The cockpit incorporates an electronic flight instrument system (EFIS) and a wide-angle, holographic head-up display (HUD), which has a minimum total field of view of 25 degrees. The aircraft also includes a health and usage monitoring system, and automatic test equipment. JF-17 carries large variety of weapons on board and it is also capable of undertaking multirole mission for example Dog fight, deep strike and ground strike. When JF-17 was being designed it was kept in the mind to keep the maintenance of the air craft easy thus the turn-around time of JF-17 is less, it means that JF-17 takes less time be ready to fly again or for any other mission than any other air craft.
Pakistan Air force has sold 3 JF-17 thunder fighter jets to Nigeria costing around $ 183.4 million. Thirteen countries have so far expressed interest in purchasing the JF-17 aircraft are Azerbaijan, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Algeria and Sudan. The JF-17 was developed to replace the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) fleet of Dassault Mirage III/5 fighter jets by the 2020s.
To sum it all up JF-17 Thunder is an advanced, light-weight, all weather, day / night multi-role fighter aircraft; developed as a joint venture between Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), Kamra and Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (CAC) of China. It possesses excellent air-to-air and air-to-surface combat capabilities. The state-of-the art avionics, optimally integrated sub-systems, computerized flight controls and capability to employ latest weapons provides decisive advantage to JF-17 over adversaries of same class. This, all weather, multi-role light combat fighter has remarkable high combat maneuverability at medium and low altitudes. With effective firepower, agility and combat survivability, the aircraft is likely to emerge as a potent platform for any air force.
Ex-chief Projects JF-17 Air Marshal Muhammad Iqbal (SI)M said:-
"It is a dream platform for the pilots of Pakistan Air Force."
