Pakistan to buy US, Chinese and Russian planes

[icymist]

Islamabad, Keen to upgrade and shore up its air defence, Pakistan has decided to purchase state-of-the-art Chinese F-10 (Jian-10) multi-role fighter-cum-bomber planes, and possibly also go in for the US made ultra modern F-16 planes and Russian planes later this year and in 2007.

According to The News, the first batch of high-profile JF/Thunder-17 aircraft jointly being manufactured by Pakistan and China will be ready for induction early next year. Air Chief Marshal Tanveer Mahmood Ahmad Chief of the Air Staff will visit China shortly to inspect the project. It will be his first foreign trip as the Air Chief.

Highly placed defence production sources told the paper that Pakistan's Secretary for Defence Production, Lt. General Ali Jan Orakzaie, visited China last month to explore possibilities of acquiring the high-tech planes and other weaponry systems for the three services preferably with transfer of technology basis. During his visit to China in February, President Pervez Musharraf was given a demonstration of the F-10 (also called as J-10 or Jian-10) considered to be the Chinese most secret flying machine. The multi-role fighter is a part of Chinese fourth generation fighter programme.

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