JF-17 Thunder

This is a beta module. This module is still being developed and may still be missing some features and equipment options. It is playable and most of the content is there, but some final touches and fixes for minor bugs are still in the works. It is probably safe to buy unless you crave absolute fidelity and/or very few bugs.

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The “Jeff” — or more accurately the PAC JF-17 (Joint Fighter) “Thunder”, aka the CAC FC-1 (Fighter China) 枭龙, or “Fierce Dragon” — is a joint Chinese-Pakistani effort to create a low-cost, light-weight, single-engine, modern multi-role fighter that would be easy for PAC pilots to cross-train into from their older F-16s. The wording “low-cost” should not be read as “cheap.” It has a lot of fancy features and capabilities, but it is focused on what is deemed critical to have, and on what needs to work well, rather than taking a bloated kitchen-sink approach. Two immediate compromises that can be seen is that it is not as much of an ordnance truck as the Viper and the Hornet and that it isn't exactly the most fuel-efficient thing in the sky. But what it can do, it does very well, and often in the most user-friendly way seen in any DCS module to date. This is a modern aircraft with modern design sensibilities as far as the pilot workspace goes.

The JF-17 module is Deka Ironworks' first foray into full-fidelity simulations (they previously created the J-11 as a modified version of the Su-27 FC3 module), and it has been a very impressive start. In a game that is somewhat infamous for having modules released in a semi-working state and letting them linger Deka broke with tradition by releasing a module that was surprisingly feature-complete, by having a period of very rapid and responsive iteration on release to get rid of some of the more unfortunate bugs. The module is still early access, and bugs are to be expected, but it has seen very little of the outright unreliable jank that often characterises new releases. In addition, in a definitive break with flight sim development, Deka is highly receptive to player input and open to discussion of various implementations, rather than treating such input as an insult to their honour.

Deka's unorthodox approach has even managed to generate a bit of community controversy, with sniping back and forth between development teams when Deka's empirically and scientifically accurate aerodynamics data made the Jeff's equivalent to the AMRAAM missile, the SD-10, outperform its western counterpart. A fair amount of nasty suggestions were exchanged between interested parties, but so far, the SD-10 has remained untouched and the main outcome is that the AMRAAM finally got a slight (and in by many considered long overdue) range boost.

Features

• A number of very fancy modern weapons:
  • The controversially well-performing SD-10 medium range missile.
  • Its almost as controversial LD-10 anti-radiation missile variant.
  • The preprogrammable C-802AK anti-shop missile and the CM-802AKG man-in-the-loop cruise missile.
  • The JSOW-like GB-6 gliding munition dispenser, complete with regular CEM cluster munitions, SFW murderbots and a regular HE bomb payload.
  • The LS-6 guidance/glider kit for regular 500kg bombs.
  • C-701 TV/IR missiles (think smaller Maverick)
  • The BRM1 laser-guided rocket (kind of like Vikhrs, except you can carry 64 of them).
• The first public implementation of Eagle Dynamics' new ground-mapping radar to help guide all of the above.

It even has its own aircraft action film showing it off: Sherdill, for some genuine wonderful melodramatic dogfighting cheese (see a short segment below).

Flying the JF-17

Cockpit overview

Links and files

• Chuck's JF-17 Thunder guide at Mudspike.
• DCS: JF-17 Thunder by Deka Ironwork Simulations in the DCS shop.

More information

• CAC/PAC JF-17 on wikpedia.
• JF-17 Thunder on globalsecurity.org
• Bunyap's Test Flight - DCS: F-5E Tiger II video series.