Pakistan Promotes JF-17 Block-III to Iraq

Bilal Khan

Founder of Quwa, Bilal has been researching Pakistani defence industry and security issues for over 15 years. His work has been cited by Pakistan's National Defence University (NDU), the Council of Foreign Relations, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Centre of Airpower Studies and many others. He has a Hons. B.A in Political Science and Masters of Interntional Public Policy from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

In a promotional video released on 20 August, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) reported that an Iraqi delegation led by the country’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) “expressed a strong interest” in the JF-17 Thunder, a multi-role fighter jointly produced by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC).

Currently, there is no order from Iraq. However, the report signifies yet another attempt on the PAF’s part to market the Thunder. This follows its ongoing efforts to land a big-ticket sale to Azerbaijan as well as a follow-on order from Nigeria.

A sale to any of these three countries would be a boon for PAC, which will soon finish the current order of 30 JF-17C Block-IIIs by the PAF. In lieu of an additional PAF order, a big-ticket export will be key to keeping PAC’s prod

Competing in a Niche with Many Options

Ultimately, the JF-17 emerged as a niche solution in a market flush with many options. If one takes a broader look, there are few platforms of the general size and capability of the JF-17 that secured more than a handful of export sales. The market leaders are arguably the Saab Gripen and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) F/A-50, with the latter taking the lead by a wide margin.