On Chinese web resources, a snapshot of the first JF-17B two-seat fighter built for the Myanmar Air Force, passing, as you can see, flight tests at the enterprise of the Chinese aircraft manufacturer Chengdu Aircraft Industries Company (Group) (CAC, part of the Chinese state corporation AVIC) in Chengdu, Apparently, this aircraft with the Myanmar's tail number "1707", is the first serial two-seater JF-17B in general, and Myanmar will become the first recipient of the "Sparky" based on the JF-17 (in Pakistan, the prototype of the "Sparky" JF-17B, which made the first flight to End in April 2017, it is still in the testing phase).
Recall that earlier in the fall of 2018, Myanmar received six single-seat JF-17M modification fighters (export version of the JF-17 Block 2 aircraft) under the first contract concluded by Myanmar with Pakistan in March 2015, the cost of the contract was, as it was stated, 129 million euros . Single JF-17M have Myanmar airborne numbers from "1701" to "1706", the ceremony of entering the first four of them into the Air Force of Myanmar took place in Maithila (near Mandalay) on December 15, 2018. Myanmar thus became the first foreign download and the recipient of the JF-17 light fighter (FC-1) Thunder of a joint Chinese-Pakistani production.
The total number of Myanmar-ordered JF-17 planes in single and double seaters is unknown, but, according to several reports, is 16 units. It was also reported that the Myanmar side was conducting preliminary negotiations on the partial localization of the assembly of these aircraft in Myanmar.
By initial agreement, JF-17 aircraft for Myanmar were to be assembled in Pakistan at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) aircraft company in Kamra. However, the implementation of the contract was delayed due to tensions between Pakistan and Myanmar due to the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar. Therefore, the lead contractor for the implementation of the contract for the supply of JF-17 fighter jets to Myanmar was the Chinese CAC in Chengdu, which assembles Myanmar airplanes, and the Pakistani PAC produces for the Myanmar airplanes only airframe designs on a contract basis. Like all JF-17, Myanmar fighters are equipped with Russian-made RD-93 engines. First produced in Myanmar single-seat fighter JF-17M made first flight to Chengdu in June 2017.
(BMPD)