Pakistan Air Force cannot fly its airborne early warning systems and deep penetration radars as the S-400 missiles will take them down in the event of hostilities

New Delhi: Pakistan has acquired 50 JF-17 Block III fighters after Prime Minister Imran Khan's visit to China, now it is being pitched against India’s S-400 air defence system due to its stealth characteristics according to an HT report.

The airframe of Block-III single-engine JF-17 fighter is said to be built with composite material to give its stealth features required to evade the air defence system of the adversary and target high-value assets.

The JF-17 is powered by the same Russian RD-33 engine, which is used by Indian MiG-29 air defence fighters and often suffer flame-outs. The S-400 system is not only about shooting enemy planes from the skies. It is about giving trans-border visibility up to a depth of nearly 300 kilometres into the enemy plain territory, according to the report.

Pakistan Air Force cannot fly its airborne early warning systems and deep penetration radars as the S-400 missiles will take them down in the event of hostilities. Pakistani JF -17 fighters will be fighting without the support of AWACS and dated Chinese radars. The only exception to this scenario is high mountain terrain which is present only in union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The Pakistan Air Force itself is not very confident about JF-17 fighter as compared to the American F-16. Not a single JF-17 crossed the Line of Control (LoC) or even launched a weapon during the Pakistani unsuccessful raid in the Rajouri-Mendhar sector on February 27, 2019, the day after Indian Air Force terminated the Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist training camp at Balakot in retaliation to the Pulwama terror strike.