Why International Market Is Opting For JF-17 Thunder Instead Of LCA Tejas?

JF-17 Thunder VS LAC Tejas

Does Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder have better prospect of sales over Indian LCA Tejas? Argentina is planning to purchase 12 JF-17 Block-3 fighter jets from Pakistan and the Argentinian Government proposed the 664 million USD allocation in its new budget. While the JF-17 has already secured export orders from Nigeria and Myanmar, while Indian LCA Tejas has miles to go in that front.

Meanwhile the reports are emerging that more countries are now shifting their interest to other alternatives like the Chino-Pakistani JF-17 Thunder. The Argentine Air force chief, Brigadier Xavier Isaac, has also confirmed these speculations in an interview. He said, “The country would re-consider the JF-17 specially for the new Block-3 variant.”

Brigadier Xavier Isaac - Argentine Air Force Chief

This also marks an important development for the fighter which is co-produced by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) from Republic Of China.

PAC & CAC

It has appeared as a factor low cost, single engine fighter option in the global market. JF-17 Block-3 is in the final stage of developments and features an AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar. In comparison to its rival HAL Tejas made by India, Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder has been successful in getting multiple global customers. Countries choosing JF-17 Thunder over HAL Tejas mainly attributed to the low rate of production by HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited).

Abhijit Iyer Mitra

According to Abhijit Iyer Mitra, a senior fellow at The Institute of Peace and Conflict Histories, New Delhi, “there were many details why foreign states were preferring JF-17 to India’s Tejas. There are 10 main reasons why they just failed to impress even the Indian army in his combat performance.”

1. Tejas has a very minor set of weapons integrated with it, mostly Indian and some Western. So on one hand you force the countries to buy the Indian weapons and they don't work for them or if you get Western, they will ask what's the benefit of buying Indian.
2. With the Pakistan JF-17, essentially slots into the Chinese supply of chain. Which has a vast selection of proven and demonstrable weapons. So the nations buying the jf-17 already have Chinese weapons to mate or are comfortable with buying Chinese weapons that anyway have a proven track record. In fact, countries with bad human rights records would prefer the Chinese that they don't impose sanctions at.
3. China has a Security Council veto and any country buying weapons from China can have a significant influence over any Security Council decisions same with the US or French or Russian weapon sales while India has no veto.
4. The JF-17 is just a better slotted plane. If you are looking to replace MIG21 to MIG-27 and Chinese J-6 and J-7 type fighters or older versions of American fighter like the F-4, F-5 and F-104 or upgrade form of arm trainers, then the JF-17 offers the right capability and the right price.
5. Tejas is just a very jumbled aircraft. It does not fit any recognized market segment.
6. The JF-17 thunder is modest fighter but whatever advancement it brings are solid and proven.
7. Tejas is a nightmare, but it is not proven. There has been too much mixing and matching and inspired the confidence of zero purchasers.
8. Finally, the question of re-export. JF-17 uses mostly Chinese but some Italian avionics and radar and the Russian engine equipment. All of them are cleared for re-export to third republics.
9. Tejas just uses American engines, Israeli radar and the mishmash of avionics from countries that will never authorized for the export. Shahid Raza, a defense expert from Pakistan shared the similar reasons for JF-17 thunder dominating its Indian counterpart, Tejas, in international export market.
10. Tejas also suffers from the fact that currently there is no major operator of this aircraft, even Indian Air Force has only a handful of these aircraft in service. This decreases the confidence of any probable buyer.

Fighter Air Crafts

He says, “other countries like Azerbaijan, Iraq and Argentine are likely to place orders for advance versions of JF-17 Thunder, motivated by a reasonable price tag, smooth accessibility of after sales services and generous financing.”

To increase the global sales of its star Tejas fighters, HAL decided to setup its logistics in Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. These countries use Russian aircrafts whose service availability is considered poor which HAL wants to take advantage and pitch its own aircraft. However, none of the countries took the debates forward.

Infect, aircraft is yet to be fully inducted in Indian Air Force itself.