Today, 36 J-10C fighters are undoubtedly the main fighters of the Pakistani Air Force, and this type of fighter is the latest improved version of the J-10 series fighters in service in our army, and the overall technical level has reached the "four and a half generations". The entry into service of this fighter has put the Pakistani Air Force on the same level as the Indian Air Force equipped with Rafale fighters in terms of technology, and it is not difficult to see that this type of fighter is indeed of great significance to the Pakistani Air Force.
In fact, Pakistan and Railroad came into contact with the J-10 fighter jet much earlier than many of us think. As early as 2006, the second year of the official entry into service of the J-10 fighter, Pakistan actually had the idea of introducing this fighter. At that time, Musharraf, then president of Pakistan and Railways, made a special visit to China to Chengfei Company, and after visiting the Chengfei production line, Musharraf put forward the request to introduce 36 J-10A fighters at a unit price of 30 million US dollars.
It turned out that during the period of communication between the two sides, the Pakistani Air Force dispatched its most elite F-16 fighter pilots to China to test fly the J-10A. After the test flight, the Pakistani railway pilot gave a report, which let us know the "geometry" of this fighter in the eyes of the Pakistani railway pilot.
According to the report of the Pakistani railway pilots, we can see that the Pakistani railway pilots believe that the biggest advantage of this fighter is its good maneuverability, easy operation, and reliable technology, which can be said to have reached the level of the early version of the F-16. However, this fighter also has one or another shortcomings, such as the airborne avionics are not as good as the F-16, there is no air refueling capacity, and the Russian-made engine is not as good as the Western engine.
In addition, due to national strength, the scale of the Pakistani Air Force is not very large, so it is necessary to equip its fighters with fighters that should be "all-rounders in the air" and be able to take on various roles and perform diverse tasks. The J-10A fighter, as a fighter mainly responsible for air territorial defense, has strong air combat capabilities, but insufficient ground attack capabilities. This is in stark contrast to the F-16, which can be used as both a front-line bomber and an air superiority fighter.
In addition, after the United States learned of the news, it immediately decided to take action to "stir up pornography". On the one hand, the United States has decided to comprehensively improve and upgrade the existing F-16 fighters of Pakistan Railway, so that the early version of the F-16 fighters will become F-16C/D fighters. On the other hand, the F-16 fighters that had been purchased and paid for by the Pakistan Railway Air Force but were unilaterally seized by the United States will also be handed over immediately, which can be said to have "obtained" many of the world's most advanced fighters at that time. As a result, on the whole, the plan of the Pakistani Air Force to introduce J-10A fighters was not able to come to fruition at that time.
In 2022, the Chinese Air Force has made remarkable achievements in the past ten years, and the international situation has also undergone great changes. On the one hand, the global air force has entered a new period of refitting, and the F-16C/D fighter has become more and more outdated, on the other hand, after years of hard work, our military has launched the J-10C fighter, which is half a generation more advanced than the F-16C/D. In this case, the latest improved version of the J-10C fighter has finally won the favor of the Pakistani Air Force after more than ten years!
The J-10C fighter is equipped with an active phased array airborne radar with advanced performance, and the technical level of this radar has reached the standard of a fifth-generation aircraft! Moreover, due to the progress of our army's missile technology, such an advanced airborne radar, equipped with the powerful Thunderbolt series missiles currently in service in our army, can even make the J-10C fighter be able to compete with the fifth-generation aircraft to a certain extent! In addition, the J-10C fighter is equipped with a new type of engine, with more surging power and more horsepower, which makes it able to carry ground attack weapons including KD88 air-to-ground missiles, gliding guided bombs, etc., making it completely available as a multi-purpose fighter or bomber, and the overall performance is greatly enhanced!
According to Pakistani news, after equipping the J-10C fighter, Pakistan and the railway used the F-16 fighter and the J-10C fighter to conduct simulated confrontation training, and the result was that the exchange ratio of the J-10C and F-16C/D fighters can reach 1:8, which means that for every J-10C fighter shot down by the F-16C/D fighter, the F-16C/D fighter was shot down by the J-10C fighter 8. Under such excellent performance, the Pakistani Railway Air Force has been a treasure to this powerful J-10C fighter, and has added 54 follow-up orders! It can be seen that the Pakistani Railway is indeed very satisfied with this kind of fighter!
At the beginning of this year, Pakistan Railway Space officially announced that it was interested in introducing our J-31 fighter in the selection of the next generation of fighters, and it was inevitable that this was not contributed by the good reputation accumulated by the J-10C! At that time, the Pakistani Railway Air Force, which is equipped with fifth-generation aircraft, will gain comprehensive technological superiority over the Indian Air Force and become the most technologically advanced air armed force in South Asia!
End of this issue.