A Chinese real estate developer (Poly Real Estate) even purchased the J-10 to use as a display for real estate sales. The French could go and buy a house and the manager of this company would inevitably be willing to let them inspect this airplane up close.
The Poly Group is itself an arms trader. The presence of weapons in its companies is not surprising. However, there is no information to prove that it is an intact and genuine fighter jet.
There are a number of companies in China that make high-fidelity 1:1 display models of fighter jets. They even refurbish some old real fighter parts and use them in their display models.
The science museum in my city has many of these high precision models. Ordinary visitors can't tell the real ones from the fake ones.
Some of China's decommissioned fighters (including demonstrators used for testing) can be made available to organizations for public static displays after technical processing (removal of combat functions and classified information components).
We never know when the political winds shift and the F-16s get a decent upgrade in short order, as well as Pakistan being invited back into the western training circuit. Exposing the PAF to stealth fighters like the F-22, F-35 and advanced drones.
The F-16 is more about keeping a foot in the western tech room.
I don't see the value in upgrading the F-16s at PAF.
In the current international situation, no one can provide F-16 upgrades to PAF for free.
Based on common sense, if PAF upgrades the F-16 (to or near F-16V standards), it will be a huge expense.
For reference: unit prices for upgrading F-16s in various countries
USAF: about 10 million dollars
Taiwan Air Force: about $32 million
Argentina: about 39 million dollars
The exact cost depends on the scope of the upgrade and the level of the upgrade.
All the more reason to improve the JF-17’s electrical supply with a more powerful engine, so we can upgrade the fleet with the Block 3’s radar and get full use of it, as well as add an IRST for passive detection (and being cured by the AWACS) until the right time to use its own radar.
The RD-93 engine generates less power (a common problem with Russian engines). This results in a very limited avionics system for the JF-17B3. I'm not sure about the RD-93MA.
The radar of JF-17B3, KLJ-7A, is very powerful and uses more electrical power. Using the RD-93 to power the KLJ-7A is very strenuous. It would have a hard time supporting longer radar runtimes at full power. Also, it limits the JF-17B3 from carrying more electronics.
The WS-21 engine follows the same technical path as the RD-93, but the details and materials are quite different. It is a very desirable alternative. However, the WS-21 engine is more expensive, it is very much more expensive than the RD-93 engine. ------ The J-35 foreign trade version uses all WS-21 engines. So, it certainly has enough power generation.
I have been wondering if the 4.5 gen rafale got taken down with so much ease by our aircraft---then what gen would the JF17 BLK3 & J10 CE's would rank at---???
A 4.75 Gen or a 4.99 Gen---?
The biggest contributor to winning this air battle was the air warfare system platform behind it. J-10CE/JF-17B3+PL-15E.These are just the surface parts of this massive system. There are more and more powerful things hidden behind the scenes and they have not surfaced.
Objectively speaking, as far as fighter jets alone are concerned, the Rafale is a good fighter, and it is on a par with the J-10CE. In terms of overall performance, the Rafale is better than the J-10CE.
The root cause of India's air war losses is the chaotic and outdated air combat command system. In other words, they can't win this air battle even with F-22/F-35 and will lose to J-10CE as well.
Or, let me put it another way.
If we make some modifications to the PAF's F-7PG to make it support PL-15E, and a two-way datalink. Then, guided by other equipment (ground radar or AEW&C), it would be equally capable of launching a PL-15E in the same position to shoot down an IAF Rafale.
But we can't say that this F-7PG is much more advanced than Rafale . Right?