New J10-C Or Iconic F-16: Which Pakistani Fighter Jet Is Better ...

With just days remaining in the National Day Parade, the excitement among the public to witness the fighter jets performing aerial maneuvers above the Parade Ground is at an all-time high.

Talking of fighter jets, one name that immediately comes to mind is F-16. In 1983, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) acquired the first batch of F-16 jets from the US. The first Pakistani F-16 was flown by Squadron Leader Shahid Javed at PAF Base Sargodha which is now known as PAF Base Mushaf.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter jet. It was initially designed as an air superiority day fighter aircraft. It later evolved into a formidable all-weather multirole jet.

Despite manufacturing the JF-17 fighters in collaboration with China in February 2010, F-16s still remain relevant in the national aerial defense and they will continue to do so in coming years.

Before inducting the JF-17s, PAF also used A-5C, J-7, Mirage III, and Mirage V jets to guard the aerial boundaries of Pakistan for decades.

F-16s, JF-17s, and the recently inducted J10-Cs now constitute the primary aerial defense of the country. PAF inducted the J-10C fighter jets after acquiring them from China in just eight months rather than years that defense manufacturers normally take to deliver a fighter jet such as the J-10C.

The J-10C fighter jet is a multi-role combat aircraft capable of all-weather operations. It is primarily designed for air-to-air combat but it can perform strike missions as well.

In the last article of this special series, we compared JF-17 and J-10C. In the latest edition, we are going to compare F-16 and J-10C. So without further ado, let’s dive straight into it.

Basic Description

While the F-16 is lighter than J-10C and belongs to a previous generation, both have a similar engine and are designed for a similar role.

Attributes	F-16	J-10C
Weight	Light-weight	Medium-weight
Engine	Single-engine	Single-engine
Generation	4th generation	4.5th generation
Role	Multi-role	Multi-role

General Characteristics

The length of F-16 is shorter than J-10C while its fuel capacity is also significantly lower than J-10C. Both jets have almost similar remaining features.

Features	F-16	J-10C
Crew	2	1
Length	49 feet 5 inches	55 feet 2 inches
Wingspan	32 feet 8 inches	32 feet 2 inches
Height	16 feet	18 feet 8 inches
Wing area	300 sq. ft.	400 sq. ft.
Empty weight	8,936 kg	9,750 kg
Max takeoff weight	16,875 kg	19,277 kg
Fuel capacity	8,618 kg	7,380 kg
Powerplant	1 × Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 afterburning turbofan, 79 kN thrust dry, 131.5 kN with afterburner	1 x WS-10B afterburning turbofan engines, 89.17 kN thrust dry, 142 kN with afterburner

Performance

F-16 has a superior maximum speed and ferry range compared to the J-10. The rest of the characteristics are almost identical.

Characteristics	F-16	J-10C
Maximum Speed	Mach 2.05	Mach 1.8
Ferry Range	4,217 km	2,950 km
Service ceiling	58,000 feet	56,000 feet
G limits	+9	+9/-3
Thrust/weight	1.09	1.10

Armament

Both jets are loaded with a wide range of guns, rockets, air-to-air missiles, and air-to-surface missiles.

Weapons	F-16	J-10C
Guns	1 × 20 mm (0.787 in) M61A1 Vulcan 6-barrel rotary cannon, 511 rounds	1× Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-23
Hardpoints	2 × wing-tip air-to-air missile launch rails, 6 × under-wing, and 3 × under-fuselage pylon (2 of 3 for sensors) stations with a capacity of up to 7,700 kg of stores	11 (6× under-wing, 2× under-intake and 3× under-fuselage) with a capacity of 5600 kg of external fuel and ordnance
Rockets	LAU-61/LAU-68 rocket pods (each with 19/7 × Hydra 70 mm/APKWS rockets, respectively LAU-5003 rocket pods (each with 19 × CRV7 70 mm rockets) LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4 × Zuni 127 mm rockets)	90 mm unguided rocket
Air-to-air Missiles	AIM-9 Sidewinder AIM-120 AMRAAM IRIS-T Python-4 Python-5	PL-8 PL-10 PL-12 PL-15
Air-to-surface Missles	AGM-65 Maverick AGM-88 HARM AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW)	KD-88 YJ-91
Anti-ship Missiles	AGM-84 Harpoon AGM-119 Penguin	–
Bombs	CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition CBU-89 Gator mine CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon Mark 84 general-purpose bombs Mark 83 GP bombs Mark 82 GP bombs GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) GBU-10 Paveway II GBU-12 Paveway II GBU-24 Paveway III GBU-27 Paveway III Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) series Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD) B61 nuclear bomb B83 nuclear bomb	250 kg and 500 kg Pre-fragmented bomb LT-2 LS-6 GB3 GB2A GB3A FT-1

Avionics

F-16	J-10C
AN/APG-68 radar	Type 1473H pulse-doppler fire control radar
MIL-STD-1553 bus	K/JDC01A targeting pod
	Type Hongguang-I infra-red search and track pod
	CM-802AKG targeting pod for KD-88 and YJ-91
	KG600 electronic countermeasure pod
	Blue Sky navigation/attack pod

Variants

F-16	J-10C
F-16A	J-10A
F-16B	J-10AH
F-16C	J-10S
F-16D	J-10SH
F-16E	J-10B
F-16F	J-10B TVC Demonstrator
F-16IN	J-10C
F-16IQ	J-10CE
F-16N
F-16V
QF-16

Operators

F-16	J-10C
US	China
Pakistan	Pakistan
Bahrain
Chile
Denmark
Egypt
Greece
Indonesia
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Morocco
Netherlands
Oman
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Singapore
South Korea
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
UAE
Venezuela

Note that Pakistan is the first country that has acquired the J10-C from China and most details of the export variant of the Chinese fighter jet are yet to be revealed officially.

📢 For the latest General & Pakistan news and analysis join ProPakistani's WhatsApp Group now!

Follow ProPakistani on Google News & scroll through your favourite content faster!

Support independent journalism

If you want to join us in our mission to share independent, global journalism to the world, we’d love to have you on our side. If you can, please support us on a monthly basis. It takes less than a minute to set up, and you can rest assured that you’re making a big impact every single month in support of open, independent journalism. Thank you.

• Monthly
• One-time

• Rs.500 per month
• Rs. 1500 per month
• Rs. 2500 per month

• Rs. 1000
• Rs. 2000
• Rs. 5000

Continue