Pakistan Fighter Programme: Pakistan, which was dependent on countries like China and Türkiye for its defense equipment, now wants to be self-reliant. Moving forward in this direction, Pakistan is now trying to develop indigenous fighter jets for its Air Force. Pakistan’s new fighter aircraft will be on single engine, which is planned to be developed as a 4.5 generation fighter program. But what is interesting about this plan of Pakistan is that the design of Pakistan’s new fighter program seems to be taken from China’s existing JF-17 fighter aircraft.
According to IDRW report, Pakistan is going to equip its new fighter aircraft with updates like reduced radar cross section feature, infrared search and track (IRST) system and active electronically scanned array radar (AESA).
Effort to reduce dependence on China,
Initial reports indicated that the PFX would be a twin-engine fighter aircraft. However, according to the new report, Pakistan’s focus is on a fighter program which is completely developed indigenously. Apart from this, there is also an effort in this program to avoid excessive dependence on Chinese technology. Let us tell you that Pakistan’s dependence on China in its arms program has increased rapidly, but Pakistan now wants to reduce it.
The ambition is to become self-reliant like India
This indigenous fighter program of Pakistan shows that Pakistan’s ambition is now to establish self-reliant defense production like India. It is noteworthy that India has made significant progress in the field of indigenous defense production by becoming self-reliant. According to the IDRW report, Pakistan may again consider a twin-engine fighter jet after 2035. Apart from this, Pakistan also plans to indigenously develop the fifth generation fighter jet in the future.
pfx There are still many obstacles in front of the program
There are many obstacles in front of Pakistan’s PFX program. Which also includes the development of indigenous technologies like IRST, AESA radar and stealth technology. Since Pakistan has no experience in producing these systems, Pakistan needs substantial investment and help from international partners to achieve its goal.