Pakistan Fails to Find Solution to Myanmar’s JF-17

04 September 2023

JF-17 of the Myanmar Air Force (photo : Myanmar Air Force)

Military junta leader Min Aung Hlaing is said to have expressed his displeasure to none other than Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and military chief, General Asim Munir as the aircrafts - JF-17 Thunder, a multi-role combat aircraft – which Pakistan has supplied to Myanmar between 2019 and 2021 have all been declared “unfit for operations.”

The newly acquired JF-17 Thunder, a multi-role combat aircraft from Pakistan had to be grounded owing to malfunctioning of the planes. The newly delivered planes are part of a deal which the Burmese military junta signed in 2016 to purchase JF-17 produced jointly by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation of China.

But soon after the delivery of the aircrafts the Burmese Air Force were forced to ground the planes as malfunctions and structural flaws were detected. A similar problem resulted with the new acquired fleets in 2022. There are a total of 11 JF-17 fighter jets but none are currently operational due to technical glitches.

Now after a couple of futile attempts by Pakistani engineers who made a secret visit to Myanmar in September 2022 to fix the problems, the military junta is fuming and if what sources say is to be believed, it has sent out “a stern message” to Islamabad to answer for the mess.

JF-17 Thunder fighter aircraft (photo : Kerbo)

While at the same time, it has been egging Beijing to intervene. A recent visit by Myanmar’s Chinese envoy to Naypyitaw is said to have carried a message from the CCP’s top leadership to Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

According to sources, Pakistan is trying hard to renegotiate the deal with newer versions of the JF-17s. In all likelihood these new variants are will be developed by the same combination of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation of China.

According to international aeronautics experts, even after repairs the JF-17s would be “difficult to use” with proper technical know-how at an operations level. This would mean that the Myanmar Air Force requires the expertise to be able to attend to the technical issues as and when it arises. The military junta has made plans to send its technicians to Islamabad to train on upgrades and maintenance, but that effort is on hold.

Experts also point to some crucial features of the JF-17s which they say is the China-made KLJ-7 Al radar. A vital component which is the beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile or airborne interception radar is also missing. According to one such expert this impacts the accuracy levels and as a result is not effective. Besides this “there are several other problems” even the body of the aircraft which is not made to withstand gravitational force and strong winds.

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