China sells JF-17 Thunder at very cheap prices to Myanmar

Myanmar was the first country to buy JF-17 Thunder warplanes developed by China and Pakistan. At present, Myanmar has ordered 16 JF-17 Thunder worth around US $ 250 million and has begun to be received by the Myanmar Air Force, Kienthuc said. With the current unit price of around US $ 25 million or cheaper than the French-made AMX 56 tank, which costs US $ 27.5 million. Myanmar has signed a contract to order 16 JF-17 Thunder from China since 2015. Strangely, instead of paying US $ 25 million / unit, Myanmar only paid US $ 16 million / unit or half more than the price of the French tank, which is listed as the cheapest jet fighter in the world. Thus, the total contract value for 16 Thunder fighter jets is just over US $ 250 million. This amount is only enough to buy 3 units of F-16 Block 70/72 made in the US or 3 Su-30SM made in Russia. Observers said that to stimulate the purchase of this aircraft, China agreed with lower prices to promote the image of JF-17 in the export market. Although advertised with many amazing features and surprisingly low prices, so far apart from Pakistan as a developing country, Myanmar is the only country to order these fighter jets. Although Beijing has repeatedly stated that there are dozens of customers who show interest and are preparing to buy JF-17, so far no new customers have been revealed. Joint Fighter-17 (JF-17) Thunder also known as the China-1 Fighter (FC-1) Kiao Long in China, is a one-seat multipurpose fighter developed by China and Pakistan based on J-7 fighter (MiG-21 Uni Soviet). This aircraft made its first flight in August 2003, and was introduced in March 2017. JF-17 uses an RD-93 engine made in Russia, China also studies and manufactures WS-13 engines, but is considered unstable. Regarding weapons systems, JF-17 is equipped with 7 weapon poles which can carry up to 3.4 tons of weapons including air-to-air missiles and anti-ship missiles. The types of missiles included include PL-5, PL-9C, PL-12 and AIM-9, C-802A anti-ship missiles made in China, and several other types of bombs. The jet is also equipped with a 23mm GSh-23-2 23mm double barrel machine gun or GSh-30-2 30mm cannon. JF-17 is equipped with a radar that can track 10 targets and launch missiles to 2 targets simultaneously. The target detection range in front of the aircraft is more than 75 km and behind is 35 km, while the target detection at sea level is 135 km. Pakistan plans to buy 110 JF-17 Thunder, 50 of which will be shipped from China and the rest will be produced domestically and will be upgraded to Block II standards. It is known that the version of the JF-17 fighter aircraft ordered by Myanmar from China is called JF-17 Block II. This version was born in 2013, began testing in 2015. Compared to Block I, Block II version has the ability to refuel in the air, better aerodynamic arrangement, and an improved electronic warfare system. #MilitaryChannel #JF17Thunder

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