Pakistan’s JF-17 appears to be roughly as effective as Western fighter jets—at a third of the upfront price tag, and with far lower ongoing costs.
Pakistan’s JF-17 Thunder (or FC-1 Xiaolong) is a lightweight, affordable, single-engine, multirole combat aircraft that was jointly developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation. This bird is meant for maneuverability, and it features an advanced avionics suite to ensure that capability.
The plane also comes with highly effective beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile capabilities. There are currently three iterations of this plane (with the Block III being the most advanced and recent).
More importantly, however, the JF-17 is combat tested and has a demonstrated success against advanced Western-made warplanes. That’s because the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) utilized these warplanes in their recent war with neighboring India.
About the JF-17 Thunder
- Year Introduced: 2007
- Number Built: 110+
- Length: 49 ft (14.93 m)
- Wingspan: 31 ft (9.45 m)
- Engines: Russian-made Klimov RD-93 (Blocks I & II); RD-93MA (Block III)
- Top Speed: 1,190 mph (1,910 km/h) / Mach 1.8
- Combat Radius: 560 mi (900 km)
- Service Ceiling: 55,500 ft (16,930 m)
- Loadout: SD-10 AAMs (beyond-visual-range, BVR), PL-5EII (short-range) missiles, LS-6 Glide Bombs, C-802AK anti-ship missiles, and GBU-series laser-guided bombs
- Aircrew: 1
How Pakistan’s Thunders Shocked India (and the World)
In May 2025, following a terrorist attack in India’s portion of the disputed Kashmir region, the Indian Air Force (IAF) deployed its various Western-made (and Russian-made) warplanes against Pakistan. The PAF responded by sending their JF-17s—armed with Chinese-made PL-15 air-to-air missiles—into combat against the IAF. To the astonishment of many, the JF-17s were mostly successful against what everyone assumed were more advanced Indian warplanes.
The JF-17 was designed for air-to-air interception, ground attack, anti-ship, and reconnaissance mission sets. While the Blocks I and II were capable fighters, the Block III is the most impressive. It features an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, holographic wide-angle heads-up display, enhanced fly-by-wire system, and infrared search-and-track (IRST).
Pakistan’s May air clashes with India—where JF-17s operated alongside Chinese J-10Cs—gave Islamabad something it previously lacked: real-world credibility. This was pointed out even in a recent Reuters article. That matters way more than any splashy advertisement or defense expo display. Remember, Pakistan doesn’t just want to use the JF-17. It wants to export it. And winning a war with your larger neighbor—or at least tying it, against everyone’s expectations—is proof that your warplane works. Moreover, the JF-17 is cheap, readily available, and has a politically flexible supplier network, unlike current “values”-driven Western platforms. As Reuters pointed out, this development mirrors Turkey’s Bayraktar TB2 after it proved itself in the killing fields of Syria, Libya, and Ukraine.
Combat-Tested Platforms Are Export Gold
Although the JF-17 is a Pakistani system, people need to remember that it was co-developed with one of China’s leading aerospace firms. In effect, then, the JF-17 and Pakistan’s defense export industry in general, becomes a commercial gateway for the Chinese military-industrial complex.
What’s more, the cooperative model between Chengdu Aircraft Corporation and Pakistan Aeronautical Complex could easily become the model for wider exports to foreign countries.
Most of the countries that have expressed interest in purchasing the JF-17 from Pakistan have been countries in the Global South. These nations are politically fragile (hence their designation as “developing”), are facing insurgencies or other internal instability, are often sanctioned or diplomatically constrained by the moralizing Western powers and are Muslim-majority.
Thus, Pakistan offers these states religious affinity, a long history of training Middle Eastern militaries, and a willingness to bundle together training, advisers, equipment, and drones.
Now here’s the real clincher for any Developing Country looking to purchase Pakistan’s JF-17s. The JF-17 costs anywhere between $30–$40 million, whereas more Western-made warplanes cost between $90–$120 million. Suddenly, higher-end capabilities once reserved for only the wealthiest, developed militaries can now be made available to countries with considerably smaller budgets. In essence, the Pakistani JF-17s are major disrupters on the global arms market.
Think about it: one could conceivably purchase three JF-17s for the price of a single Western fighter. What’s more, unlike many of those Western warplanes, the JF-17 is significantly easier to operate and much cheaper to maintain—and can even be maintained locally. And there is no fear of sanctions being imposed at a later date, the way there is with Western systems.
China’s Silent Hand Behind Pakistan’s Rise
The only real constraint on Pakistan’s desire to sell the JF-17s globally comes down production capacity within Pakistan’s defense industrial base. They make around 20 JF-17s per year. Should they simply double that production rate to 40 birds per year, that might prove more difficult than they think—and that number is still relatively modest compared to what other arms exporting nations can do.
This is where Pakistan’s alliance with China comes into play, though. China can inject tooling, capital, and other important components to boost Pakistani production of the JF-17. Private-sector drone output can scale faster, too. What’s more, the already growing demand from potential global customers warrants a sustained expansion of Pakistan’s defense industrial base to support the growth of the JF-17 production line.
Alas, because Pakistan is not a fully sovereign exporter, but rather a licensed component in China’s larger export network, it must consult with Beijing before making any final sales. China can, therefore, block potential sales to any sanctioned states and to any potential clients that complicate China’s diplomatic strategy globally.
In this case, both Libya and Sudan are sensitive for China, meaning that Beijing would likely balk at Pakistan selling a plane such as the JF-17 that may be produced in Pakistan but is licensed from China.
Why the West Is Losing the Mid-Tier Arms Market
Pakistan’s rise in the global arms export market indicates a much larger, longer-running trend going forward. Essentially, Western defense contractors are losing the low-to-mid tier arms market. High-cost, slow-delivery, compliance-heavy systems cannot ultimately compete with systems that are produced fast, cheap, and with politically flexible suppliers. So Turkey, South Korea, and now Pakistan is filling this vacuum. All this erodes American influence, one contract at a time.
But it is not only Pakistan that benefits from these potential sales. It is China. Pakistan is becoming a Chinese-aligned, mid-tier arms hub serving the Global South with affordable, combat-tested systems. Thus, Pakistan is becoming a strategic multiplier for China; it is becoming the symbol of a parallel global arms ecosystem that resides outside Western control.
That system, by the way, is getting stronger each day.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert is a senior national security editor at The National Interest. Weichert is the host of The National Security Hour on iHeartRadio, where he discusses national security policy every Wednesday at 8pm Eastern. He hosts a companion show on Rumble entitled “National Security Talk.” Weichert consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. His writings have appeared in numerous publications, among them Popular Mechanics, National Review, MSN, and The American Spectator. And his books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. Weichert’s newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter/X @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Shutterstock / VanderWolf Images.
