Fair With a Difference

Prasun K. Sengupta

The 18^th edition of the Dubai Airshow, held at Al Maktoum International Airport from November 13 to 17, featured more than 1,400 exhibitors from over 95 countries, 350 plus international leading speakers, 80 plus start-ups and 20 country pavilions who, collectively, re-defined the future of the global aerospace industry, along with more than190 aircraft on static and flying displays.

PAF JF-17 Thunder (Block-3)

Three Israeli companies - Israel Aerospace Industries, ELBIT Systems and RAFAELhad booths that were bereft of both exhibits and marketing officials, perhaps due to the ongoing war in Gaza. The expo will also go down in history as the first such event where the new-generation multi-role combat aircraft (MRCA) of both India and Pakistan were showcased in both static displays and daily aerobatic demonstrations. While the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) flew in one JF-17 Block-3 variant for static display (shown armed exclusively with China-origin guided weapons) and two Block-3s for aerobatic demonstrations, the Indian Air Force (IAF) flew in three Tejas Mk.1 light-MRCAs, of which the one on static display was shown armed with Tariq all-weather, day/night, long-range precision-guided munitions (LR-PGM) belonging to the UAE-based EDGE Group’s Al Tariq subsidiary.

It may be recalled that last February, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Al Tariq with India’s state-owned Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL) for jointly producing kits for this LR-PGM in India, while EDGE also inked another MoU with state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), which outlined several areas of cooperation between EDGE and HAL, including the joint design and development of missile systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as integration of the Tariq LR-PGM with the Tejas family of L-MRCAs (FORCE, March 2023, pages 48-49).

The state-owned Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC), which licence-assembles the Chengdu JF-17 Thunder Block-3 MRCA, revealed that the first batch of the Block-3 variant (50 on order) entered service with the PAF early last March, joining No.16 Black Panthers squadron. The aircraft on static display at the expo was shown armed with the C-802AK anti-ship cruise missile and ASEL targetting pod. PAC, responsible for final airframe assembly and 58 per cent of aircraft construction, has to date supplied 50 Block-I JF-17s and 62 Block-2 JF-17s, the first of which entered service in 2010 and the last of which went to the PAF in June 2019.

The Block-2 introduced several improvements, including inflight refuelling capability. Included in the Blo