Without any warning, the Chengdu JF-17 "Sword of the South" fighter jet from the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex began to show signs of being in high demand since early last year:
Firstly, at the beginning of 2025, Pakistan and Azerbaijan signed an export contract for the JF-17 Block3 fighter jets. The scale of this contract varies, with some reports stating 16 aircraft, while others say that after confirming the 16-aircraft contract, Azerbaijan added another 24意向 contracts, totaling up to 40 fighter jets.
This is the fourth user of the JF-17 fighter jet, following Pakistan, Myanmar, and Nigeria. At the Azerbaijani military parade in November 2025, the JF-17 fighter jets purchased by Azerbaijan made a high-profile appearance in Baku, thus officially opening the curtain on the JF-17's successful sales.
The JF-17 at the Azerbaijani military parade
At the end of 2025, it was reported that Pakistan had reached an agreement with General Haftar of Libya to export 16 FC-1 Block3 fighter jets to the Libyan National Government in Benghazi. In addition, there were large quantities of other types of weapons and equipment, with the total value of the contract reaching as high as 4 billion US dollars.
It is currently unclear how General Haftar plans to pay for this military equipment, but considering that General Haftar is currently supported by the Russian "African Corps" and also by the Gulf emirate country UAE, the former has provided General Haftar with a large number of armored vehicles, even including T-62 tanks, while the latter is obviously not short of money. It is estimated that this money would be covered by them.
After General Haftar received the JF-17, within just over a month, the JF-17 seemed to be in high demand. First, Iraq, after years of rumors about buying the JF-17 fighter jet, this contract seems to become real now.
Then there is Saudi Arabia. On January 8, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia was negotiating a "loan-to-loan" arms trade with Pakistan. In short, Pakistan previously owed Saudi Arabia 2 billion USD in loans, and now can't repay it, so they proposed to repay this loan with the JF-17 fighter jet. At the same time, Saudi Arabia will also pay Pakistan another 2 billion USD to purchase配套 weapons, ammunition, maintenance support, and training services. If this 4 billion USD contract can be finalized, it means Saudi Arabia will purchase at least 40 to 60 JF-17 fighter jets, which is the second major order after Azerbaijan.
On the same day, according to Reuters, Pakistan was also negotiating with Bangladesh to seek the export of the JF-17 fighter jet to Bangladesh. It is said that this negotiation took place when Bangladesh's Air Chief, Hasan Mahmood Khan, visited Pakistan, but no specific numbers of JF-17s to be purchased, nor the payment method or delivery date were discussed.
Considering that Bangladesh is indecisive in foreign arms procurement, it seems to be preparing to purchase used EF-2000 "Typhoon" fighter jets, and the J-10CE is also included in the consideration range. It is estimated that this visit to Pakistan to buy the JF-17 is just an initial intention. However, it does not hinder Pakistan from promoting the fact that Bangladesh wants to purchase the JF-17 fighter jet.
After Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh, Indonesia also joined in. According to Reuters news on January 12, Pakistani security officials revealed that on that day, Indonesian Defense Minister Saffie and the Chief of the Pakistan Air Force met in Islamabad to discuss the contract for Pakistan to export fighter jets and reconnaissance drones to Indonesia.
The information indicates that Indonesia is trying to directly purchase up to 40 JF-17 Block3 fighter jets from Pakistan, along with some reconnaissance drones, and the "negotiations have entered the final stage", but the statement released by Indonesia stated that the negotiations with Pakistan have not yet reached an agreement.
Finally, on January 14, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shahbaz Sharif, gave a decisive statement. According to the mainstream media in Pakistan, "Dawn", Sharif confirmed at the cabinet meeting that Pakistan has already exported the JF-17 fighter jet to Nigeria, Myanmar, and Azerbaijan, and Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and Indonesia indeed have the intention to purchase the JF-17 fighter jet, and the contracts are indeed being negotiated.
If these contracts can be finalized, plus the non-state actor, General Haftar, the JF-17 fighter jet will suddenly have nine users, with a total number of about 500 aircraft. As a fighter jet specifically designed for export, this model is considered very successful.
How to view the JF-17's success
Is the JF-17 really selling well? Dajewan's opinion is that we cannot fully believe the news from Pakistan. After all, since the "May 7" air battle in May 2025, Pakistan has somewhat been "overconfident," and has started to take on the role of "the guardian of the Islamic world."
The most obvious sign is that it has begun to take on defense agreements with countries. First, it signed a joint defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, and now even Iran and Turkey have shown strong interest in joining this Pakistani joint defense agreement.
Many signs indicate that Pakistan is offering a one-stop service of arms trade, combat training, and defense agreements, aiming to make foreign exchange and gain reputation with its military strength. Therefore, it is understandable that Pakistan is now vigorously promoting that our JF-17 fighter jet is selling very well.
At the same time, don't be fooled by Pakistan's hype. Upon closer inspection, many of them have some twists. For example, the contract with General Haftar, for such a non-state actor, who is also a local warlord fighting against the unity government in western Libya, we have always been very cautious about exporting equipment. Even if the Pakistan Aeronautical Industry doesn't mind, the JF-17 fighter jet has the technology of AVIC (China Aviation Industry Corporation) in it, and whether AVIC agrees or not is unknown.
As for the contracts with Bangladesh and Indonesia, these two countries have always been confusing in their purchasing of tactical aircraft and their own air force main equipment system construction. For example, Bangladesh ignores the combat-tested J-10CE fighter jet and goes to buy used and inferior EF-2000. There are even reports that they plan to "combine" the EF-2000 and J-10CE - the EF-2000 is the "high"? This shows how much this country is obsessed with Western weapons.
As for Indonesia, the country has always been a mess when it comes to purchasing main combat equipment. It considers the F-15EX, "Rafale", Su-35S, KF-21, J-10A, and now even the JF-17. But any behavior that is poorly considered, our view is that it can't be counted until the contract is signed at the last moment.
However, at least technically speaking, the JF-17 fighter jet is currently a very cost-effective "mid-fourth generation" fighter jet in the international arms market - referred to as "mid-fourth generation" mainly because the JF-17 fighter jet still has a third-generation body base.
Compared to the typical fourth-generation aircraft like the J-10 and F-16, there is still a certain difference. Pakistan upgrading the JF-17 from the fourth-generation standard Block2 to Block3 is basically doing its best:
For example, there has not been much improvement in the airframe structure, only a certain degree of improvement in the use of composite materials on the fuselage skin, thereby reducing the time required for aerodynamic calibration of the engine inlet.
In the power system, there is only a slight improvement, replacing the original RD-93 engine with the Kamov RD-93MA turbofan engine, increasing thrust. This maintains or improves the original overall thrust-to-weight ratio despite the increased weight of the avionics system, and since the fan diameter hasn't changed much, there's no need to modify the rear fuselage specifically.
Keeping the airframe structure and engine "as is" greatly reduces the development difficulty of the JF-17 Block3 and also shortens some development time, but the potential of the aircraft body is thus limited.
In terms of aviation electronics and fire control systems, the JF-17 Block3 has undergone significant improvements. For instance, the original fourth-generation performance aviation electronic system has been replaced with a more integrated and intelligent fourth-and-a-half-generation aviation electronic system. The original flat slot array full-waveform fire control radar has been replaced with a foreign trade type active phased array radar, enhancing the aircraft's RWR (radar warning system)/MAWS (missile approach warning system) and ECM (electronic countermeasures) capabilities, among others.
This improvement model is relatively solid in actual effectiveness and conforms to the direction of technological upgrades for typical fourth-generation fighter jets.
But the most important thing is - the JF-17 fighter jet has实战经验 (combat experience). The "May 7" air battle last year almost became a "living advertisement" for the Pakistan Air Force, which is why Pakistan is now so confident. And the fact that so many countries are interested in the JF-17 fighter jet proves that there is a big difference between equipment with combat experience and those without it.
Therefore, although Pakistan probably has some exaggeration in it, as a military observer of the country that developed the JF-17 fighter jet, we still wish the JF-17 fighter jet to have great success and sell well in the Year of the Horse.
Original: toutiao.com/article/7597392167171850752/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author alone.