Russia ready to supply RD 93 Engines to Pakistan

Russia ready to supply RD 93 Engines to Pakistan

    Russian engine company Klimov acknowledges that they would ready to supply RD 93 Engines and it's associated repair systems and maintenance facilitates to Pakistan for it's JF 17 fighter jets. The long delayed Russian and Pakistani negotiations regarding above was just cleared to improve the Russian and Pakistani relationship. India yet to respond the Russian engine sale to Pakistan, Which is not as much as threat to India, rather than the American delivery of F 16 fighters to Pakistan.

     Pakistan operates fleet of F 16 and JF 17 single engine fighter jets as their backbone of primary air defense against Indian Fighter jets. Pakistan agreed to buy more than 150 JF 17 fighter jets from the CAC/PAC - Which is a joint venture between Chinese and Pakistani aerospace industry. Three version of JF 17 planned to be developed, which can get modern system in future mid life upgrades.

    Pakistani air force operates Block 2 version of JF 17 and all earlier Block 1 versions has been modified into Block 2, while Block 3 yet to enter production. Pakistan plans to build those new Fighters with improved Russian engines. The Pakistani JF 17 powered by the Russian RD 93 Engines. which is a modified RD 33 engine who powers the MiG 29 and MiG 35 fighter aircraft's. IAF's and IN's MiG 29 fleet uses the same RD 33 engines.

     The Modified RD 93 engine has superior dry thrust compared to earlier versions. due to the modification of engine's gearbox. The increased thrust also decreases the service life of the engines life by just 2200 hours. The original RD 33 can fly more than 4000 hours. The Chinese and Pakistani officials acknowledged that the modified engine has better reliability, and said they face no problems of that engine even flying more than 7000 hours in Pakistani and Chinese JF 17 fleet. Without quoting the unknown crash of JF 17 in Pakistan. Which was believed to be engine issues. 

     Those engines can be transferred to Pakistan via the Chinese supply lines. To reduce the time limit Pakistan directly approached Russia for the engine sale. Not only the engine sale, Pakistan requested Russia to assist building RD 93 engine repair facility's and further developing the RD 93 to achieve more power. The negotiations hanged since years, and now only Pakistan gets a positive news from Russia.

     This supports from Russia allows the Pakistani's to get increased service availability of JF 17 fighter aircraft. Which also helps the Pakistani's to know how to solve the engine issues. Since the issue in WS 13 Pakistan plans to build all additional JF 17 with the Russian RD 93 Engines. WS 13 is currently conducting trails in China. Which will be installed in the future JF 17 versions and the Chinese fifth generation fighter J 31.

The RD 93 Engine

   For the PAF fleet of JF 17, Pakistan needs more than 1000's of RD 93 Engines to keep flying the JF 17 for years. Even if there is any issues broken out between their relationship, Pakistan can manage to keep flying those Fighters with the stock of large quantity of Engines. And it's also a good chance to Russia to boost the military export orders. This huge orders can further increases the Pakistani relations. Which can sweeten the Tor M and Su 35 contract negotiations. 

     Meanwhile, there is no sources, which clearly mentions about the transfer of technology and producing those engines in Pakistan with raw materials supply from Russia. This will further enhance the Pakistani knowledge in advance turbo fan jet engine technologies. China once tried to reverse engineer the RD 33 engines. However the actual achievement is unknown since the clone WS 13 still showing some problems. which is the major reason why Pakistan further moved with RD 93 from Russia.