French Avionics for JF-17

[mean_bird]

Arms: France is well placed for a Mega contract with Pakistan

PARIS (Dow Jones) - Following a call for tenders, Pakistan has retained the French ATE integrator for a contract valued at more than 1 billion euros to help equip and electronics missiles between 50 and 100 fighter aircraft JF-17, designed with the help of Beijing, Les Echos reported on Friday quoting sources concurrent.

The contract would be shared with partners both the ETA, Thales SA (HO.FR) and MBDA, for missiles. MBDA is jointly owned by European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co. NV (EAD.FR), BAE Systems PLC (BA.LN) and Finmeccanica SpA (FNC.MI).

"The contract is ready to be signed. But it must first be a security agreement is signed between the two countries," the economic daily said, adding that the conclusion of this agreement could intervene in the first half of 2010.


After years of "famine", France could strike a huge arms contract from Pakistan. Following a tender, Islamabad has retained the ATE integrator to equip electronics and missiles for between 50 and 100 fighters of the JF-17 fighter planes, designed with the help of Beijing .

Its been learned from our sources, confirming a letter of "Online Intelligence" that a potentially more than 1 billion euros contract- to be shared between the French integrator ATE and its two main partners on the project--- Thales for the electronics and MBDA for missiles.


A more modern technology

The contract is ready to be signed. But first, the two countries must sign a security agreement given the sensitive nature of the equipment.

"Nearly 90% of head way for the contract has been made and the issues that remain are few and not among the most sensitive" says one source close to negotiations.

The conclusion of this bilateral agreement could be reached in the first half of 2010. A second condition that remains is that the client country, highly indebted, mobilizes the necessary funds as promised.

Desiring to have a "national/indeginous" fighter for missions including ground attack, Pakistan turned to China in mid 1990s. After many ups and downs, the program has finally taken off. The production of JF-17 has recently started. However Islamabad, anxious not to depend on one supplier for its strategical weapons and desiring a more modern technology, has deliberately limited its cooperation with Beijing. Thus, according to the plans of its air force, only the first 50 examples of the JF-17 fighter will be produced entirely under Chinese license (equipments).

For the rest (following) aircrafts, the pakistan government has launched a tender to which two French companies, ATE and Astrac (a joint venture between Thales and Safran) and Finmeccanica responded.

To finally accept the offer of ETA, even if the information has not yet been officially confirmed, the negotiated contract provides a firm order on 50 aircraft and an optional slice of the same number, with delivery expected from 2013.

Overall, Pakistan would like to build 400 JF-17, but the target remains to be confirmed. As local authorities must demonstrate first they will mobilize the money required for the standard "westernized" version of this fighter aircraft.

When contacted, ETA did not wish to speak on this subject.

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This information is from a french financial Newspaper. Just spent the last 30 mins to translate and type it. Hope you guys like it and lets wait for further details.

[luftwaffe]

400 is a big number unless after 150 we go back to drawingboard and come up with replica OF f-16 I do not see any harm and problem for Pakistan where every tom dick and harry is copying (FCK-1, south Korean T-50/Japanese F-2)
We need medium class Fighter similar to F-16 frankly i wanna see F-16 copied..lol am i asking too much?
http://www.defence.pk/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/4723

[saurabh]

Would not it mean 14 million dollars per piece, for avionics alone. It seems to be heavy price for economical plane

[azfar]

minus the previous avionics cost.

[saurabh]

When each unit cost is estimated to be roughly around 15 million including avionics, $14mil is still a huge amount.

[mean_bird]

Originally Posted by luftwaffe

400 is a big number unless after 150 we go back to drawingboard and come up with replica OF f-16 I do not see any harm and problem for Pakistan where every tom dick and harry is copying (FCK-1, south Korean T-50/Japanese F-2)

As you can see, Pakistan (or rather the contract) says it will sign for 50 firm orders and 50 options. Then it says prospects go up to 400 fighters which in my opinion (and also from the article) means that pakistan will offer a "westernized" version of the fighter as opposed to China which will offer the chinese version with additional advantage of setting up assembly lines for potentially large buyers.

I think this is an excellent development as far as prospects for the fighter is concerned.

[qsaark]

I wish if this deal could somehow be linked up with a possible induction of M2K-9 from the UAE. If we induct the M2K-9, we need French support for their maintenance, and French will be more willing to do that if they are awarded a huge contract for the JF-17 avionics/weapon integration etc. Where is Mastan Saheb, need his feedback on this.

[adeos amigo]

hooha, swear to God, not to be just patriotic, I firmly believed that some thing huge and of the same kind is coming Jf-17s way. This will now altogether change the perceptions about it, even its most harsh critics now wont have much to ponder upon. One would love to see a bit more details and specially radars for blk-II.



Lets hope and see the deal is struck as soon as possible.










adios

[taimikhan]

Originally Posted by saurabh

Would not it mean 14 million dollars per piece, for avionics alone. It seems to be heavy price for economical plane

It includes the weapons package too, avionics and missiles both.

So the price of avionics would still be low.

Plus it will contain the radar & it may be an AESA one, thus the price will be high, but it will be worth, and with local production of JF-17, the production cost will further go down, thus will act as a buffer to the cost of avionics.

[Kharian_Beast]

Definitely worth upgrading this bird even if it means buying a French package. Otherwise to me Thunder fits a role only slightly above trainer, mostly in league with the South Korean T-50 on many levels. Force multiplier is a loose term applied to JF-17's role. I for one was happy Pakistan was ridding itself of the junk era at this time, namely Fantans, J6 and 7s finally dissapearing.

Weapons, Engine, radar, suites + avionics, and production capability would be obvious points of interest. This article doesn't clarify what is being proposed to be upgraded though.

[adeos amigo]

Originally Posted by saurabh

When each unit cost is estimated to be roughly around 15 million including avionics, $14mil is still a huge amount.

15 million is not official tag price, its just an assumption by different sources, some even consider it less then that, while others price it above 20 million.I personally believe its more round about 20 million.
however cost is not an issue, this plane has huge potential to grow, and is in excellent position to give the modern fighters a run for their money. I wouldn't mind the cost growing even to 25 millions USD if we can integrate the ASEA radar made by Selex and SAAB, in the comming block-II. If that happens, one can imagine in which league would it put JF-17, which has now become a necessity rather then desires.






adios

[FireFighter]

Is this deal with complete TOT or just another purchasing deal? and if it is TOT, would the avionics be built in Pakistan?

[taimikhan]

Originally Posted by Kharian_Beast

Definitely worth upgrading this bird even if it means buying a French package. Otherwise to me Thunder fits a role only slightly above trainer, mostly in league with the South Korean T-50 on many levels. Force multiplier is a loose term applied to JF-17's role. I for one was happy Pakistan was ridding itself of the junk era at this time, namely Fantans, J6 and 7s finally dissapearing.

Engine, radar, suites + avionics, and production capability would be obvious points of interest. This article doesn't clarify what is being proposed to be upgraded though.

An aircraft having defeated F-16s in air to air combat during training missions, whose pilots have been transferred from the F-16s, pilots who are not willing to go back to the F-16s, deserves more then to be ranked then just a trainer.

Or should i be saying, ignorance is a .................................

[mean_bird]

Originally Posted by Kharian_Beast

Engine, radar, suites + avionics, and production capability would be obvious points of interest. This article doesn't clarify what is being proposed to be upgraded though.

Kharian Beast,

From my knowledge, it is electronics such as mission computer, radar and missiles-- the article clearly states that electronics from Thales and missiles from MBDA.

No engine negotiations are currently one except for possible up-gradation of RD-93's thrust which is very much a possibility.

[qsaark]

Originally Posted by Kharian_Beast

Otherwise to me Thunder fits a role only slightly above trainer, mostly in league with the South Korean T-50 on many levels.

Not even the most biased Indian ridiculed the JF-17 to this level. JF-17 is at-least better than Q-5, MiG-21, F-6 and Mirage III/V it is replacing; If JF-17 is slightly above a trainer, than all these tried and tested platforms were even worse than a trainer.