Pakistan Offers Saudi Arabia to Repay the Loan with JF-17 Fighter Jets

Pakistan is offering Saudi Arabia to repay the loan not in money, but in fourth-generation JF-17 Thunder multi-role fighter jets.

Pakistani sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

These combat aircraft are jointly developed by Pakistan and China and are being actively produced at a Pakistani aircraft manufacturing facility.

This is a conversion of a $2 billion loan that Saudi Arabia previously provided to Pakistan to maintain financial stability.

One source said that the negotiations are currently focused on the supply of JF-17 Thunder fighter jets. At the same time, a second source confirmed that the JF-17 is the main focus of several options under consideration.

The first source valued the deal at about $4 billion, with an additional $2 billion allocated for equipment after the loan conversion.

Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu, Pakistan’s air chief, was reportedly in Saudi Arabia this week to discuss “bilateral defense cooperation, the regional security environment, and future avenues of cooperation.”

Pakistan has long provided military support to Saudi Arabia, including training, while Saudi Arabia has repeatedly supported Pakistan financially in times of economic hardship.

Recently, Pakistan has stepped up efforts to expand arms exports to boost its defense industry. Last month, Islamabad signed a deal to supply weapons, including JF-17 fighter jets, to the Libyan National Army, despite the UN embargo.

JF-17 fighter jet

The JF-17 is a fourth-generation single-seat, single-engine, multirole fighter jet. It is developed and manufactured by the Pakistani company PAC (Pakistan Aeronautical Complex) and the Chinese company CAC (Chengdu Aircraft Corporation). The aircraft has a triangular wing with a leading edge and developed root winglets, rotary horizontal winglets, and single-pivot vertical winglets.

The Block-III fighters received the KLJ-7A active head-up display radar, a thermal imaging sighting station and other new equipment, as well as WS-13 engines. The built-in armament includes a Chinese copy of the old Soviet 23-mm gun GS-23-2 with a 180-round ammunition (in the future, it may be replaced with a copy of the 30-mm gun GS-301).

The seven external suspension nodes carry a variety of air-to-air and air-to-surface weapons weighing up to 3,700 kg.