The French have been marketing the Rafale as their national pride and most sophisticated fighter for many decades. In fact, the Europeans often parade it as their best fighter. Even better than the EF. It hurts them to admit that this happened. It has been a humiliation.
The Rafale is indeed an excellent fighter jet. When analyzing the comprehensive performance of the airframe alone, it is certainly superior to the J-10CE.
In a recent CCTV interview with PLAAF pilots, they explicitly stated that the Rafale’s dogfighting capabilities are significantly better than those of the J-16—though they did not mention another truly critical aspect: BVR (Beyond-Visual-Range) combat.
This is precisely where the key difference lies. In the era of BVR (Beyond-Visual-Range) combat, the Rafale fighter clearly has not kept pace. To be more precise, the BVR capabilities of the Rafale fighters operated by both the Indian and Egyptian air forces are evidently far inferior to those of the J-10CE fighter. A crucial distinction here lies in the BVR air-to-air missiles (AAMs) they carry.
It’s like this:
Suppose I were to face off against heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
If we fought bare-handed, I would obviously be no match for him.
However, if he were holding a short wooden club while I held a fully loaded AK-47, with 100 meters between us, then I would have a 99.999999% chance of winning...
Yet, no one would consider me a better fighter than Tyson.
Or,
let’s consider a different scenario. Suppose a Rafale fighter were sent to China and AVIC carried out a deep integration of the PL-15E beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVR AAM) onto the aircraft. If that Rafale were then to engage in aerial combat with a J-10CE, the J-10CE would not necessarily achieve a decisive victory.
