Pakistan's Rising Arms Sales to Developing Nations
Pakistan is emerging as a major arms supplier to developing countries in Asia and Africa. Azerbaijan, Myanmar, Nigeria and Sudan have all made significant arms purchases from Pakistan in recent years. Azerbaijan expanded its order for JF-17 Thunder Block III multi-role fighter jets from Pakistan from 16 to 40 aircraft. The recent order extends a 2024 contract worth $1.6 billion to modernize Baku’s airborne combat fleet to $4.6 billion. This makes Azerbaijan the largest export customer of the Pakistan-made warplane. Bangladesh is negotiating purchase of up to 32 JF-17 Thunder Block III aircraft from Pakistan.
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| Pakistan PFX Concept Fighter. Source: Raksha Anirveda |
In Africa, Pakistan has recently signed a $1.5 billion contract to supply combat drones and military trainer aircraft. The order includes 150 armored vehicles, 220 drones and 10 K-8 Karakorum trainer/light attack aircraft. Earlier in 2021, Pakistan sold three JF-17 Thunder fighter jets and ten Super Mushshak trainer aircraft to Nigeria in a deal worth nearly $200 million. From 2018 to 2021, Pakistan sold 11 JF-17 Thunder Block I aircraft to Myanmar.
Air forces of about a dozen developing nations are buying and deploying Pakistani made aircrafts. The reasons for their choice of combat-tested Pakistan manufactured airplanes include advanced BVR (beyond visual range) features, affordability and ease of acquisition, maintenance and training.
Pakistan started developing defense hardware for import substitution to reduce external dependence and to save hard currency. Now the country's defense industry is coming of age to lead the way to high value-added manufactured exports.
Pakistan has unveiled its PFX (Pakistan Fighter Experimental) program as a significant upgrade to its JF-17 joint program with China. The new upgrade will have a number of stealth features ranging from the use of radar-absorbing composite materials and diverterless supersonic inlets (DSI) to internal weapons bay (IWB) which will significantly reduce the aircraft's radar signature. It is targeted for completion by the end of this decade. In addition, the PFX's twin-engine design will improve maneuverability and allow greater payload capacity.
The program is part of Pakistan's broader strategy to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers and strengthen the domestic defense industry. Currently, 58% of JF-17 components are manufactured locally by PAC, but Pakistan aims to increase this share to achieve full production autonomy for the PFX. It is not just about the PAF modernization but also about positioning Pakistan as an important player in the global military aviation market.
The PFX is an evolution of a plan that Pakistan announced in 2017 to develop and produce 5th generation fighter planes. It is part of Pakistan Air Force's highly ambitious Project Azm that includes building Kamra Aviation City dedicated to education, research and development and manufacturing of advanced fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and weapon systems.
The PAF has already started replacing its aging fleet with the induction of the Chinese J10C fighter jets which are considered 4.5 Gen. The J10-C has stealth features like diverterless supersonic inlets (DSI). Its BVR capability is supported by PL-15 missiles, with an engagement range of up to 200 kilometers, facilitating long-range target engagements.
The PAF has also begun the process of acquiring 5th generation Chinese J35 fighter jets. The delivery of 40 J35 fighters to Pakistan is expected within two years, potentially altering regional dynamics, particularly concerning India.
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Comments
@Tactical_Tipu
Admiral Arun is very much right that India's Naval ASW backed by P-8 Poseidon will be a major player.
But fortunately enough for Pakistan Navy, Pakistan Air Force enjoys complete air superiority and these ASW platforms could not be protected by any fighter of the Indian Air Force.
https://x.com/Tactical_Tipu/status/1987796790339653902?s=20
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Adm. Arun Prakash
@arunp2810
PN pursuit of Sea Denial strategy via acquisition of 8xYuan/Hangor class diesel subs will be countered by IN’s advanced ship/air ASW force. Of concern is this: by 2028 PN will field 11 subs equipped with air independent propulsion while we will have none! A 2022 backgrounder
https://x.com/arunp2810/status/1987470351329346043?s=20
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Sushant Singh
@SushantSin
Confirmation from Pakistan’s top naval official that Chinese submarines will soon arrive in the South Asian country suggests India’s dominance of the Indian Ocean could be tested and that Beijing has overcome a major technical hurdle
https://x.com/SushantSin/status/1987366830508319002?s=20
https://thedefensepost.com/2025/11/12/azerbaijan-jf17-jets/
The formation, including four single-seat jets and one twin-seat aircraft, flew over the capital as part of the celebration, according to Janes.
Col. Novruz Tahirov of the Azerbaijani Air Force served as backseat pilot in the lead twin-seat jet, demonstrating the rapid integration of the JF-17s into operational units.
Promoting Modern Air Power, Interoperability
Azerbaijan’s JF-17 jets are part of a $4.6-billion contract for 40 aircraft, first announced by President Ilham Aliyev in September 2024.
Deliveries began in October 2025, with the fleet’s initial tranche arriving at Nasosnaya Air Base in Sumqayit after participating in a bilateral exercise with the Pakistan Air Force.
Baku’s JF-17 adoption marks a major upgrade for the country’s air force, reflecting a strategy to move away from older Western and Russian platforms while supporting precision operations and networked missions.
Sources reported that the new jets will serve as cost-effective assets, would improve coordination with the systems of close ally Turkey, and strengthen defense ties with Pakistan.
At the Victory Day parade, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces also featured Turkish F-16s and Azerbaijani Su-25s, underscoring an increased focus on joint operations and multi-platform integration.
The JF-17 Thunder
The JF-17 was initially conceived in the late 1990s through a Pakistan-China strategy aimed at developing an affordable fourth-generation fighter for the Pakistani Air Force.
It has a length of 14 meters (46 feet), a wingspan of 9 meters (30 feet), and an empty weight of 7,900 kilograms (17,417 pounds).
The plane is fitted with a Klimov RD-93 engine, providing a range of 1,880 nautical miles (3,482 kilometers/2,163 miles), an operational altitude of 16,900 meters (55,446 feet), and speeds up to Mach 1.6 (1,976 kilometers/1,228 miles per hour).
For combat, the aircraft employs a 23-millimeter cannon, multi-domain missiles, guided and unguided bombs, and electronic countermeasures.
The platform, designed and constructed by Islamabad’s government-owned Aeronautical Complex and Beijing’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, has received multiple upgrades since its debut.
(VIDEO) Oil Leak at Dubai Airshow 2025 Puts India’s LCA Tejas Under Global Scrutiny
A viral oil-leak incident at Dubai Airshow 2025 has triggered global debate over the reliability, readiness, and export viability of India’s LCA Tejas fighter aircraft.
https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/tejas-oil-leak-dubai-airshow-2025-lca-india-fighter-jet-embarrassment/
(DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA) — Social media is abuzz with tweets showing images and videos of a potential embarrassment for India’s multi-role fighter aircraft Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas at the ongoing Dubai Air Show 2025.
The Indian Air Force is in Dubai to participate in the Air Show with the Suryakiran Aerobatic Team and LCA Tejas.
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Response from Indian Air Force Squadron Leader Panwar (Rtd)
@VarlinPanwar
It’s a very normal thing for any mechanical platform especially such a complex one. No need to drag your Anti-India propaganda into everything.
https://x.com/varlinpanwar/status/1990399247917674697?s=61&t=mgTxrmITUbpo9NntN5677Q
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-home-built-fighter-jet-tejas-crashes-dubai-air-show-2025-11-21/
NEW DELHI/DUBAI, Nov 21 (Reuters) - An Indian Tejas fighter jet crashed in a ball of fire in front of horrified spectators during an aerial display at the Dubai Airshow on Friday, and the Indian Air Force said it was setting up a court of inquiry to investigate the cause.
Video from the site showed black smoke rising behind a fenced airstrip. Dubai's government shared a photograph of firefighting teams dousing smouldering wreckage.
Jignesh Variya, 46, who was attending the show with his family, told Reuters the fighter jet had been flying for no more than eight or nine minutes and completed two to three laps when it went into a nose-dive, before flattening out but continuing to lose altitude and crashing at around 2:15 p.m. (1015 GMT).
"I could see three different fireballs when it collided with the ground," he said. "Everybody in the crowd stood up there on their feet, and then maybe in around 30 seconds, the emergency vehicles rushed over to the location at the crash site."
CRASH HAPPENED ON FINAL DAY OF AIRSHOW
It was the second known crash of the single-engine 4.5-generation fighter jet, which is built by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HIAE.NS), opens new tab and powered by General Electric GE.N engines. The first crash was during an exercise in India in 2024.
The homegrown jet, whose name means "brilliance" in Sanskrit, is seen as crucial for India's efforts to modernise its air force fleet of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet fighters.
The crash happened during the last day of the airshow, the Middle East's largest aviation event, which started on Monday. Flying had resumed later on Friday, witnesses said, with jets back in the sky above the show site.
"A court of inquiry is being constituted to ascertain the cause of the accident," the Indian Air Force said in a statement. It confirmed the sole pilot had been killed.
The UAE aviation authority was not immediately available to comment on whether it would lead a local investigation. The Indian embassy said it was in touch with UAE authorities. Experts stressed it was too early to say what caused the crash.
GE said in a statement it was ready to support the investigation.
Dubai's government said emergency teams were managing the situation on-site.
First manufactured in 2001 but dating back to studies first carried out two decades earlier, the Tejas was designed as a light combat jet to replace India's fleet of Russian MiG-21s.
Fidato
@tequieremos
“Tejas is no match to JF-17. Babus in India cannot manufacture planes. Pakistanis know more about Indian Airforce than Indians themselves.”
~ Abhijit Lyer
@Iyervval
https://x.com/tequieremos/status/1991892627978117559?s=20
About Abhijit Iyer-Mitra
Abhijit is senior fellow at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. He used to coordinate the National Security Programme at ORF. Abhijit has been a visiting fellow at Sandia National laboratories Albuquerque and the Stimson centre in Washington DC.Abhijit is a defence economist by training. He has written for national and international dailies and has several academic publications and books.
https://www.orfonline.org/contributors/abhijit-iyer-mitra
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Big setback for India as Armenia halts negotiations to purchase Tejas jets, decision made after Dubai crash
https://www.india.com/business/big-setback-for-india-as-armenia-halts-negotiations-to-purchase-tejas-jets-decision-made-after-dubai-crash-wing-commander-namash-siyal-indian-air-force-iaf-sukhoi-rafale-mirage-8202048/
New Delhi: Armenia has halted negotiations to purchase Tejas fighter jets from India. According to Israeli media outlet Jerusalem Post, this decision was made after the Tejas aircraft crash at the Dubai Airshow on November 21, killing Indian pilot Wing Commander Namash Siyal.
Armenia was preparing to purchase 12 Tejas aircraft from India for approximately $1.2 billion (Rs 10,000 crore). The deal was in its final stages, which could have been Tejas’s first foreign deal.
However, there has been no official statement from the Armenian government on this matter. The Indian government has also not yet commented on this report.
Why is Tejas special?
Currently, the top fighter jets in the Indian Air Force (IAF) fleet include the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, Rafale, Mirage, MiG-29, and Tejas. Tejas is unique and distinct from the other four fighter jets because of its distinct features.
Most of the aircraft’s components are manufactured in India. It is equipped with the Israeli EL/M-2052 radar, a modern technology, which enables Tejas to track and engage 10 targets simultaneously.
The Tejas can take off from a very short runway, i.e., about a 460-meter runway, and its weight is only 6500 kg.
The Tejas crash at the Dubai Air Show
An Indian Air Force (IAF) Tejas fighter jet crashed on Friday, 21 November 2025, during a demonstration at the Dubai Air Show, at around 2:10 pm local time.
The incident occurred during an aerial display on the final day of the Dubai Air Show. The Tejas fighter aircraft was performing a low-altitude manoeuvre. The aircraft suddenly lost altitude, and within seconds, it crashed to the ground. The aircraft exploded and caught fire. The pilot, Wing Commander Namash Siyal, died on the spot.
https://defencesecurityasia.com/en/pakistan-libya-4-6-billion-defence-deal-military-export-analysis/#google_vignette
The landmark agreement underscores Libya’s push to rebuild its fractured armed forces while accelerating Pakistan’s rise as a cost-competitive defence exporter beyond Western and Russian supply networks.
(DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA) – Pakistan and Libya reportedly inked a US$4.6 billion (approximately RM21.62 billion) defence deal, marking a significant development in South–South military cooperation and aligning Libya’s efforts to rebuild its armed forces with Pakistan’s expanding role as a competitive defence exporter beyond traditional Western and Russian supply networks.
The scale, scope and timing of the agreement underscore a recalibration of defence diplomacy across North Africa and South Asia, where affordability, rapid induction timelines, operational sovereignty and reduced political conditionality are increasingly decisive factors shaping procurement behaviour.
For Pakistan, the reported pact marks one of the largest single defence export packages in its history, matching in headline value its earlier US$4.6 billion (RM21.62 billion) JF-17 agreement with Azerbaijan, while for Libya it represents a rare attempt to pursue structured, state-to-state military modernisation after more than a decade of fragmentation, attrition and institutional decay.
The deal is widely understood to have been formalised during Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir’s historic mid-December 2025 visit to Benghazi, the first by a Pakistani military chief to Libya, where discussions culminated in the signing of a military cooperation framework at the headquarters of the Libyan National Army (LNA) under Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Haftar.
This engagement, conducted against the backdrop of Libya’s unresolved political bifurcation and Pakistan’s export-oriented defence industrial push, has been interpreted by regional analysts as a pragmatic alignment driven less by ideology than by hard operational requirements and mutual strategic opportunity.
Beyond its immediate transactional value, the agreement reflects a broader shift in how emerging and post-conflict states structure defence partnerships, prioritising turnkey capability packages and long-term sustainment over isolated platform acquisitions.
For Libya, the decision to engage Pakistan signals a strategic intent to rebuild military effectiveness through institutionalised training, maintenance and doctrine transfer rather than reliance on ad hoc foreign support or proxy forces.
For Pakistan, the deal reinforces a deliberate effort to translate operational experience and indigenous production capacity into enduring geopolitical influence across Africa and the wider Middle East.
Taken together, these dynamics suggest the Pakistan–Libya defence agreement is as much a statement of strategic positioning as it is a procurement contract, illustrating how defence exports are increasingly being leveraged as instruments of diplomacy, influence and long-term alignment in an evolving multipolar security order.
Strategic Context and the Revival of a Dormant Defence Relationship
Libya’s pursuit of a comprehensive defence partnership with Pakistan reflects a recognition that its post-2011 security vacuum cannot be addressed through piecemeal acquisitions, irregular foreign assistance or reliance on proxy forces alone.
https://www.turkiyetoday.com/nation/turkish-air-force-receives-52-super-mushshak-trainer-aircraft-from-pakistan-3211585?s=1
ccording to Scramble Magazine, Pakistan Aeronautical Complex completed the delivery of 52 MFI-395 Super Mushshak training aircraft ordered by Türkiye. The order was placed during the 2016 IDEAS Defence Fair held in Karachi.
Despite significant delays that plagued the program, the project is considered one of the most important defense industry cooperations between Pakistan and Türkiye in the military aviation field. Early Super Mushshak aircraft underwent acceptance and flight-line tests at Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) facilities before being handed over to operational units.
The Super Mushshaks are primarily operated by the 123rd Squadron based at Izmir Cigli Air Base, where they conduct flight training operations. Additional aircraft are assigned to the 126th Squadron operating from Istanbul Ataturk Airport and Yalova.
According to the report, with the introduction of the MFI-395 Super Mushshak, the service life of the Cessna T-41D Mescalero in the Air Force Academy inventory and the SIAI Marchetti SF260D aircraft used by the 123rd Squadron in the Turkish Air Force is expected to end.
https://www.gamereactor.eu/pakistan-strikes-one-of-its-largest-ever-weapons-sales-in-4bn-deal-with-libya-1651913/
Pakistan has agreed a weapons deal worth more than $4 billion with Libya's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA), as per Reuters, marking one of the biggest arms sales in the country's history.
The agreement was finalised after talks last week in Benghazi between Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Saddam Khalifa Haftar, the LNA's deputy commander. The deal is expected to be carried out over about two and a half years and covers equipment for air, land and sea forces, officials said.
Libya remains under a United Nations arms embargo
According to officials familiar with the agreement, it includes fighter aircraft such as the Chinese-Pakistani JF-17 and Super Mushak trainer planes, alongside other military hardware. The LNA has confirmed a defence cooperation pact with Pakistan, including weapons sales and joint training, without disclosing details.
Any arms transfer is likely to draw scrutiny as Libya remains under a United Nations arms embargo imposed in 2011, though Pakistani officials said the deal does not violate international restrictions. The agreement underscores Pakistan's push to expand defence exports, promoting its military industry and positioning itself as a lower-cost alternative supplier outside Western arms markets.