After Sunday Observer report on Pak jet:

India offers fighter jets to SLAF

By Dhaneshi Yatawara

India has joined the competition to sell Sri Lanka a new generation of fighter jets for the Air Force, even as SLAF commander Air Marshal Gagan Bulathsinghala prepares to visit Pakistan to look at models on offer there. Last week the Sunday Observer exclusively reported that Pakistan had offered her latest locally manufactured fighter jet, the JF-17 supersonic strike fighter, to the SLAF. SLAF officials have denied persistent reports in the global arms industry that the Air Force was poised to buy the Pakistani JF-17 jet, saying only that the SLAF Commander would be “looking at” the Pakistani offer but was not committed to buy.

However, later last week, top level Air Force sources disclosed that following the Sunday Observer report, India had approached Colombo with a rival offer.

According to SLAF sources, the Air Force is now looking to replace its ageing fleet of strike aircraft comprising a mix of Israeli origin Kfir fighter-bombers and Chinese-built F-7 fighters.

“We are looking around and will go for the best buy,” SLAF sources said. Responding to reports in the arms industry that Colombo was eyeing the new generation JF-17, a Pakistani version of an originally Chinese designed supersonic strike aircraft, SLAF officials acknowledged that the JF-17 ‘Thunder’ fighter jet was “good value for money”.