50 JF-17 Block III fighter jets purchased by Islamabad after Prime Minister Imran Khan returned from China are preparing to take on India’s S-400 air defense system due to their stealth characteristics. This is nothing more than domestic chauvinism in parts of Pakistan, completely untrue.

The airframe of the Block III single-engine JF 17 fighter jet is said to be made of composite materials to give it the stealth it needs to evade adversary air defenses and target high-value assets. Even the homegrown Tejas is 45% composite, but does that mean it can carry two S-400 systems deployed by the PLA in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh? The JF-17 is powered by the same Russian RD 33 engine used by Indian MiG-29 anti-aircraft fighter jets, and stalls frequently.

The S-400 system is not just about shooting enemy aircraft from the air. This is to allow cross-border visibility to depths of nearly 300 kilometers in enemy plain territory. This means that the Pakistan Air Force cannot fly its airborne early warning systems and deep-penetrating radars, as the S-400 missiles will shoot them down in the event of hostilities. Therefore, Pakistani JF-17 fighter jets will fight without the support of early warning aircraft and outdated Chinese radars. The only exception to this is the alpine terrain, which exists only in the combined territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The Indian Air Force has a multi-layered defense network that does not rely solely on the S-400 system. It has front-line fighters like the Rafale, which have top-of-the-line AESA radars and are armed with line-of-sight air-to-air missiles beyond the 140-160 km range of the deadliest Meteor. This means that JF-17 doesn’t even know when it disappears from the sky. The Indian Air Force has Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missiles (MRSAM), digital Pechora and Akash surface-to-air missiles with a range of 160 kilometers to deal with the enemy. In addition, the S-400 system is always complemented by a Close Combat Weapon System (CIWS), such as the Russian Armor or the American Phalanx, to counter independent missiles fired at the air defense network. Finally, the S-400 is not a static system, but a dynamic weapon system that can shoot and slide.

However, the point is that the Pakistan Air Force itself is not very confident in the JF-17 fighter compared to the American F-16. On February 27, 2019, a day after the Indian Air Force terminated the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, the Pakistani raid in the Rajouri-Mendhar area was unsuccessful and not a single JF-17 crossed the Line of Control (LoC), not even a single JF-17. Fired weapons at Balakot training camp in retaliation for the Pulwama terrorist attack.

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times