In a major move to boost its air warfare capability, Pakistan is to purchase 36 J-10 fighter aircraft from China in a deal worth more than $1.4 billion, with options open for induction of more similar aircraft.

China will supply the 36 J-10 fighter jets, enough to equip two squadrons, under a preliminary agreement that could lead to "more sales", a Pakistani official has said.

they`ve allready ordered 42 FC-1 strike aircraft - but now china has opened up the J-10 , can see alot of orders - with reported capabilites similar to a block 50 F-16 (in both A2A and A2G) it might bring the balance back to the region and maybe slow down the constant skirmishes between india and pak.


or not.

Greetings,

It seems that the Chinese find it easier to mitigate the risk of the rapid modernization of the Indian Air Force infrastructure along its borders (3 new Su-30MKI squadrons and perhaps eventually 5) by opening up their shiny toys more to the Pakistanis.. and quite rightly so.
The Pakistanis, who are not so much in favor (anymore) with the US in terms of getting military assistance (in the form of blank cheques and winged weaponry seemingly an overkill for fighting footsoldier-terrorist-talibans) , will also understandably gravitate to Chinese.
Pretty much sets the pattern of how things will slowly shift and settle into new partnerships and alliances.

What is interesting is how the Indians,(who are still IMO fence sitting with non-alignment vis-a-vis the west/Russia) will look and react to this. The Indians seem to be alarmingly complacent with the apparent edge in fighter force generations over the Pakistanis, and hence they(Indians) were busy playing catch-up to the rapid military infrastructure modernization of the Tibetan plateau by the Chinese.

The Indian response could very well lie somewhere in the soup of the 'LCA induction, MRCA selection>>induction, FGFA/PAK-FA selection>>induction, naval carrier fighter selection>>induction. In this soup are also ingredients of incorporating new n/w centric warfare methods: AWACS, MD, space-based monitoring assets etc etc.
But unfortunately, the general trend in the higher echelons of Indian strategic thinking and foresight is just to complacently fall back to this 'soup or magic potion' as a means of salvation, without realising that it will take the better part of this decade for this 'soup' to spit out nuts and bolts (operational fighter squadrons).

And in the interim, Pakistan (with no real plans for building an aircraft or n/w centric infrastructure from scratch) can just 'assemble' a new 100 a/c strong air force from 'aircraft kits' they get from China within a 2-3 years.

All this amounts to the risk exposing India to scenario not seen before and since the 80s: fighter generation equality or even inferiority with respect to Pakistan.

Cheers,

DD3

That may be overstating the case a little DD. I personally would not rate the J-10 or JF-17 anywhere near the Su-30MKI currently in service, never mind the future MRCA (so long as the Typhoon or MiG 35 are selected if the F-35 is not an option).

I believe the abilities of the MKI are only approached by the latest 'super-J-10' and that is not the model Pakistan is getting. Even so I think the MKI still holds a decisive range advantage to go with its exceptional agility and high standard of weapons and avionics suite.

Maybe as an Indian you would prefer the PAF to re-equip with Spitfires

true to a certain extent.. but lets not gulp down that MKI kool-aid all the way yet.

As far as a dual-front sharing of high-end assets go, current quantities are possibly enough to maintain minimum credible parity at both fronts: China and Pakistan.
But the addition of say 50-100 odd aircraft of decent caliber on both fronts would definitely tip the scale in favor of the opposition force(s).

What is concerning is the uncertainty around timelines for these modernizations augmentations of the Indian Air Froce and the ease with which Pakistan to slap together a lego airforce..