Pakistani Air Force to Receive First Dozen JF-17B Twin Seat Fighters Shortly

The Pakistani Air Force is expecting to receive its first JF-17B twin engine light fighters shortly, after the first batch of the aircraft left production lines in the country in December 2019. It remains uncertain whether the aircraft will be Pakistani manufactured, or whether they will come from batches made in China - with Chinese production lines having completed and exported batches as early as 2019 for export to Myanmar. The JF-17B is the third major variant of the single engine fighter - and the most sophisticated one to enter service. Plans to induct the fighters into service in the near future were announced by Pakistani Air Force officials on February 4th. Twin seat variants will optimise the fighters for operating in a strike role, and will streamline the training process for future pilots. The Air Force currently relies on F-16B, F-16D, Mirage IIIEA and J-7PG twin seat fighters to train JF-17 pilots - before additional conversion training prepares them to operate the newer fighters.

Access to a twin seat JF-17 will allow the Air Force to avoid conversion training and the need to train JF-17 pilots on other classes of jet aircraft. This will be increasingly useful as the fleet grows - with over 100 of the aircraft currently in service in the Pakistani Air Force and the number likely to exceed 200 by the end of the decade. The JF-17B's features include newer electronics to relative to variants, as well as a deeper dorsal spine for additional fuel. The aircraft is not optimised for air to air combat, and is less manoeuvrable than other variants. A new and more capable variant of the JF-17, the Block 3 variant, is expected to enter service by 2023 and saw its first flight in 2019. The aircraft integrates a more powerful engine and a larger radar with an active rather than a passive electronically scanned array, and has access to a wider range of new munitions among its other advanced features. It has been speculated that a twin seat variant of the JF-17 Block 3 is also likely under development.