The Myanmar (Burmese) opposition emigrant resource "Narinjara News" in an article titled "Pakistan fails to find a solution to Myanmar's military junta JF-17 nightmare" ("Pakistan fails to find a solution to the nightmare of the JF-17 military junta of Myanmar") published interesting material about the problems in the Myanmar Air Force with the acquired fighters JF-17M Thunder of Chinese-Pakistani production. Myanmar became the first foreign customer and recipient of the JF-17 light fighter (FC-1). Although when reading this material, one should make an obvious allowance for the obvious bias of the publisher, however, reports of serious technical problems experienced by the Myanmar Air Force with JF-17 aircraft appear not for the first time. It can also be recalled that, according to a number of reports, airframe defects and problems with its strength are the scourge of JF-17 aircraft in the Pakistani Air Force.
A solemn ceremony with the participation of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the commissioning of the first four acquired Chinese-Pakistani JF-17M Thunder light fighters into the Myanmar Air Force. Maythila, 15.12.2018 (c) twitter.com
The good news for the resistance movement and the opposition Government of National Unity (PNE) of Myanmar may be that there seems to be tension between Islamabad and Naypyidaw over the issue of recently delivered JF-17 fighter jets to Myanmar.
It is reported that the leader of the military junta of Myanmar, Min Aung Hline, expressed his dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, and the Chief of Staff of the Pakistani army, General Asim Munir, because all the JF-17 Thunder aircraft that Pakistan supplied to Myanmar in the period from 2019 to 2021 were recognized as "non-combatant" [the first JF-17M fighters were delivered to Myanmar in 2018. - bmpd].
The JF-17 Thunder multipurpose fighters recently acquired from Pakistan have been stopped flying due to malfunctions. The planes are part of a deal to acquire the JF-17 jointly produced by the Pakistani aircraft manufacturer Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (RAS) and the Chinese enterprise Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation, which the Myanmar military junta concluded in 2016 [apparently, 2015 is meant].
However, shortly after the delivery of these aircraft, the Burmese Air Force was forced to stop flying them due to the detection of malfunctions and defects in the airframe design. A similar problem arose with the acquired fleet of aircraft in 2022. In total, there are 11 JF-17 fighters in the country, but none of them are currently in operation due to technical problems.
In September 2022, a group of Pakistani engineers secretly visited Myanmar and made several futile attempts to fix the problems. Now the military junta is furious and, according to sources, has sent Islamabad a "tough message" demanding to answer for what happened.
At the same time, the junta is pushing Beijing to intervene. The recent visit of the Chinese ambassador to Myanmar to Naypyidaw was allegedly related to a message from the top leadership of the CPC to General Ming Aung Hlaing.
According to sources, Pakistan is struggling to renegotiate the deal for new variants of the JF-17 aircraft. Probably, these new variants will be developed by the same alliance of Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (RAS) and the Chinese enterprise Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation.
However, there have been no reports yet on whether the leadership of Myanmar's military junta has accepted this revised proposal. According to informed sources, the military junta is very unhappy that the inability to use these aircraft prevents the implementation of most of its plans to build up air power to deliver precision strikes against Myanmar resistance units fighting under the banner of the People's Defense Forces (NDF) - the armed wing of the PNE.
After it became known about the crisis caused by the malfunction of JF-17 aircraft in Myanmar, Pakistan's attempts to sell this type of aircraft to other countries, especially Latin American ones, came to an impasse.
Now, when the military junta in Myanmar refuses to conduct new negotiations on the purchase of aircraft from Pakistan, other countries also do not want to cooperate with Pakistan on this issue.
In addition to the experience of Myanmar, JF-17 aircraft have not proven themselves in the best way in Nigeria. In 2009, the Nigerian Air Force received 15 F-7NI fighters. By 2018, six of the 15 planes had crashed [the connection between the F-7NI and the JF-17 is not very clear. - bmpd].
The remaining nine have fallen into disrepair. Five of them were sent to China for repair and modernization, and in 2022 they were returned to the Nigerian Air Force. However, already in July 2023, another FT-7NI combat training aircraft delivered by China crashed.
Argentina is one of the few countries that refused to purchase JF-17 aircraft from China and Pakistan.
The cost of operating and maintaining JF-17 aircraft and what it means
In fact, Myanmar became the first country to purchase JF-17 Thunder aircraft of joint Pakistani-Chinese production in 2015. These aircraft, built on the basis of the installation of the Russian Klimov RD-93 engine and Western avionics on a Chinese-made airframe, have huge operating and maintenance costs compared to other modern weapons systems.
According to international experts in the field of aircraft engineering, even after the repair, the JF-17 aircraft will be "difficult to operate" even with the appropriate technical competencies. This means that the Myanmar Air Force needs specialists capable of solving technical problems as they arise. The military junta planned to send its technical specialists to Islamabad for modernization and maintenance training, but this work has been suspended for the time being.
Experts also point to a number of important features of the JF-17 aircraft, which, in their opinion, is the KLJ-7A1 radar of Chinese production, which does not provide effective detection of air targets or the use of medium-range air-to-air missiles. According to one of the experts, this radar is not accurate enough and, as a result, ineffective. In addition, "there are other problems", up to the strength of the fuselage of the aircraft, which cannot withstand overloads.
The Myanmar junta relies heavily on the power of its aviation, striking ethnic armed revolutionary organizations and civilians with the Myanmar Air Force. It is negotiating with China and Pakistan to help it build the capacity of air-to-surface missiles used on JF-17 aircraft. However, this process is not easy for the military junta, even after billions of dollars have been spent on it.
It should be emphasized that China itself has not yet included a single JF-17 aircraft in its arsenal.
