The Joint Fighter-17 (JF-17) and Mikoyan-Gurevich-21 (MiG-21) were the talk of the globe in February of 2019, and the latter was involved for all wrong reasons.
The JF-17 is a small single-engine 4 4th generation combat aircraft. It was jointly developed through both the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) from China.
The JF-17 fighter is able to perform a variety of functions, including interception, ground attack aerial reconnaissance, and anti-ship. Furthermore it is able to deploy various weapons like air-to air missiles, air-to-surface missiles, and.
The other side on the other hand, the MiG-21 is a single-engine 2nd Generation fighter jet supersonic interception. It was created by Mikoyan Gurevich Design Bureau at the beginning of 1950 in the Soviet period. The first flight took place in 1955 and was finally released in the year 1959.
About 60 countries were operating at the time the MiG-21 at one time. It’s still operational in several countries nearly sixty years since its initial flight. With an estimated 11,500 passengers people on board, the MiG-21 is still the most widely-produced supersonic aircraft and also the largest-produced combat aircraft.
In February of 2019, JF-17 along with MiG-21 were engaged in an aerial combat. On February 26, Indian Air Force (IAF) first crossed into Pakistani airspace. The next day, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) launched a counter-attack.
PAF employed the JF-17 and was able to shoot down the IAF’s MiG-21 in the process of returning from successfully attacking Indian army installations. The result was that Air Chief Abhinandan Varthaman, was shot down in Pakistan following the incident. MiG-21 aircraft was destroyed in midair after chasing the JF-17.
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The JF-17 is set to carry out aerial maneuvers for the National Day Parade to be held on the 23rd of March from Islamabad as well as perform this for many more years to come In October of last year, the IAF had announced that it would retire MiG-21 which is its longest-running fighter jet, within the coming 3 or 4 years, in the aftermath of a series of tragic events, including numerous accidents and international scandal.
Let’s review the thorough analysis of both the JF-17 with the MiG-21 fighter aircrafts.
Basic Description
| Attributes | JF-17 | MiG-21 |
| Weight | Light-weight | Light-weight |
| Engine | Single-engine | Single-engine |
| Generation | 4th generation | 2nd generation |
| Role | Multi-role | Fighter and interceptor |
General Characteristics
| Features | JF-17 | MiG-21 |
| Crew | 1 (single-seat JF-17A) or 2 (dual-seat JF-17B) | 1 |
| Length | 47 feet | 49 feet |
| Wingspan | 31 feet | 23 feet |
| Height | 15 feet | 13 feet |
| Wing area | 263 sq. ft. | 250 sq. ft. |
| Empty weight | 7,965 kg | 5,339 kg |
| Max takeoff weight | 13,500 kg | 8,800 kg |
| Fuel capacity | 5,830 kg | 4,380 kg |
| Powerplant | 1 x Klimov RD-93 afterburning turbofan with DEEC, 49.4 kN thrust dry, 84.4 kN with afterburner | 1 × Tumansky R-25-300 afterburning turbojet, 40.18 kN thrust dry, 69.58 kN with afterburner |
Performance
| Characteristics | JF-17 | MiG-21 |
| Maximum speed | Mach 1.6 | Mach 1.06 |
| Combat range | 1,450 km | 1,210 km |
| Service ceiling | 55,510 feet | 58,400 feet |
| G limits | +8/-3 | +7 |
| Thrust/weight | 1.09 | 0.76 |
Armament
| Weapons | JF-17 | MiG-21 |
| Guns | 1 × 23 mm GSh-23-2 twin-barrel cannon or 1 × 30 mm GSh-30-2 twin-barrel cannon | 1 × internal 23 mm Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23L autocannon with 200 rounds |
| Hardpoints | 8 (2 × wingtip, 4 × under-wing, 1 × under-fuselage, 1 × under-chin) with capacity for dual ejector racks on each under-wing hardpoint | 5 (4 underwing + 1 ventral, reserved for fuel drop tanks) |
| Air-to-air Missiles | PL-5DE PL-9C PL-10E R-Darter PL-12 PL-15E | K-13 R-55 R-60 |
| Air-to-surface missles | CM-102 MAR-1 LD-10 Ra’ad-II HD-1A | – |
| Anti-ship missiles | C-601 C-705KD C-802AK CM-400AKG HD-1A | – |
| Unguided bombs | 250 kg Pre-fragmented bomb Mk-82 Mk-83 Mk-84 HAFR-1/HAFR-2 RPB-1 | 2 × 500 kg bombs 2 × 250 kg bombs |
| Guided bombs | GBU-10 GBU-12 GBU-16 LT-2 H-2 SOW H-4 SOW GB-6 NORINCO GB-250A NORINCO GB-500 LS-6 GIDS Takbir GIDS Range Extension Kit | – |
Avionics
| JF-17 | MiG-21 |
| KLJ-7-A Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Fire-Control Radar | RSIU-5V |
| ALR-67 Rader Warning Receiver (RWR) | SRZO-2M |
| S740 Missile Approach Warning System (MAWS) | ARK-10 |
| JZ/YD 125 IFF System | SPO-10 |
| MIT-STD-1553 Databus | ASP-PFD-M |
| Link-17 Tactical Data Link | RP-22M |
Variants
| JF-17 | MiG-21 |
| JF-17A Block 1 | MiG-21 izd. 65 |
| JF-17A Block 2 | Mig-21 F |
| JF-17B Block 2 | MiG-21 P-12 |
| JF-17 Block 3 | MiG-21 Bison |
MiG-21 has a number of variants. Only some of them are mentioned here.
Operators
| JF-17 | MiG-21 |
| China | Angola |
| Pakistan | Azerbaijan |
| Myanmar | Croatia |
| Nigeria | Cuba |
| Egypt | |
| Guinea | |
| Guinea-Bissau | |
| India | |
| Libya | |
| Mali | |
| Mozambique | |
| North Korea | |
| Romania | |
| Sudan | |
| Syria | |
| Uganda | |
| Yemen | |
| Afghanistan |
