Report: Pakistan Eyeing French Weaponry


By JOHN LEICESTER – 19 hours ago
PARIS (AP) — Pakistan is trying to buy French missiles and radar for a jet fighter it is developing with China, a defense journal said Thursday, and experts warned that such a deal risked the technology falling into Chinese hands despite a European arms embargo on China.
Pakistan is talking to France about obtaining air-to-air missiles from the MBDA company and radars from Thales for its version of the JF-17 warplane, Jane's Defense Weekly said in a report posted on its Internet site.
Those missiles and similar radars also equip Taiwan's French-built Mirage fighters, and the island's weapons systems could be compromised if Pakistan transferred the technology to China, Jane's said.
The journal cited unidentified Russian and Chinese sources as saying the French sale to Pakistan was "likely" to go ahead.
A spokesman for MBDA initially said it was bidding to supply systems for the Pakistani jet, but later retracted his statement, saying he had been misinformed. Thales declined to comment, and French government officials would not discuss whether a deal was in the works.



Full story
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h...AMczYccdiYprHg

Obviously this sort of stuff will go the other way as well.

They already have Mirage aircrafts....

Pakistan's Mirages are the older type mainly Mirage III & 50, all upgraded and perform well for the type overall. Really out class by India's Mirage 2000, Su-30 series any model, and even the India A model Fulcrums too. Even the Mig-21/93 has a better radar and can launch AA-12s. These older Mirages aren't as comparable to even the Mirage 2000 as one may think just because their both Mirages, two totally different aircraft. I would assume the RC400 radar would fit into the JF-17 (2) drop tanks and (4) MICA, or maybe for short range go with a six missiles setups. I wonder if they would have been better off designing the jet from the beginning with a French engine plus radar/weapons? Can't think of the Mirage 2000 engine off the top of my head but it was a good solid performer with low maintenance. I can't help feeling that a lot of Viper information was pumped into this project by Pakistan.

The problem is that Dessault is stopping the export of the Mirage-2000-D and focusing strictly on the Rafale (which it was offering to India at the same price).