The Chinese-designed CAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder multirole jet fighter will become the main close air support aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) following an ongoing modernization program.

PAF is currently retiring 190 legacy Chengdu F-7P fighters (the Chinese version of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 fighter), and Dassault Mirage III/5 interceptors from its fleet. Some 50 of these planes have already been phased-out.

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Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, Chief of Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force, said his command will acquire the more modern JF-17 Block III variant of the standard JF-17. JF-17 Block III will be aircraft's first major upgrade and is projected to enter production in 2019-2020.

Air Chief Marshal Aman said the PAF is "very satisfied" with the JF-17. He also noted that bringing the JF-17 to complete maturity via the Block III is a priority for the PAF.

PAF currently operates 86 JF-17s consisting of 50 Block I jets and 36 JF-17A Block IIs. It will acquire 50 JF-17 Block III jets. PAF plans to operate a total of 250 JF-17s of different variants.

This third generation fighter is currently only in service with PAF, having been a made exclusively for Pakistan by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China.

Air Chief Marshal Aman also revealed the PAF plans to acquire a newer version of the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon from the United States to bolster its fleet of 76 F-16s.

The purchase of eight new F-16C/D Block-52+ in 2016 was dropped because of the U.S. Congress' refusal to release Foreign Military Financing support to partly subsidize the deal.

The JF-17 can be used in air-to-air combat missions and also has strong ground attack capabilities. It's a lightweight, third-generation fighter capable of all-weather missions.

JF-17 has prominent low-and-middle-altitude maneuvering combat capability at high subsonic speed, and a relatively good interception and supersonic capability. It has longer flight range, combat radius and flight time. It also has better short-distance take-off and landing characteristics, and can mount more bombs and missiles.

TagsCAC/PAC JF-17 Thunder, Pakistan Air Force, PAF, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, JF-17 Block III