Read on Twitter
How surprising.
https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/exclusive-40-of-pakistans-frontline-fighter-jets-docked-for-a-variety-of-reasons/676721
https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/exclusive-40-of-pakistans-frontline-fighter-jets-docked-for-a-variety-of-reasons/676721
The bigger question is of the 60% aircraft that are supposedly operational - how many of them are restricted from flying at full G/envelope lest they too crack up?
This is exactly what I and several others had been alluding to whenever the theory of the 100 feet tall PRC MIC came up. PRC plays fast and loose with testing, rushes to production. Countries like Pak, desperate, short of funds take the risks and then find out they were conned.
This is not the first time Pak has discovered the foibles of its PRC made gear. Earlier in 2019, we saw how PAF didnt deploy a single one of it's so called better than Erieye Chinese AWACS vs India. Instead during ops they used Erieye, purchased more thereafter.
It's much vaunted Al Khalid program, a rebadged PRC MBT2000 variant, launched with much hype and PR, sputtered. Now they are buying the "new" PRC VT4 whose performance is yet to be seen.
In 2019, a whole bunch of JF17s, armed with SD-10s could not launch on a mere 2x IAF Mirage 2000Is. The previous day the JF17s went up against the Su30s but in round 2 were deployed against Mirages. Flopped there too. +1 for attempted swarm tactics. 0 for the platform, clearly.
PAF fanboys on reading all the above.
