Re: Which Aircraft Should PAF opt for ????
My suggestions:
Pakistan needs an AWACs capability. If you cannot see your airspace without realtime satellites, then you need real time area interrogation. Only an AWACs will give you that.
Once you can see your airspace then you need to tobe able to secure it against the known threats:
Known Threats
Capable 4th generation aircraft in substantial numbers
That means that you have to neutralise the advantage. That means that you need to have substantial EAD in place.
That also restricts your purchasing capability to France and China. technically I would rate French technology substantially better than Chinese. So French SAMs over rebuilt Russian technology anyday. Or French EW systems inegtrated into Russian fire control systems and EAD systems
If you like the F16 then think about trying a re-engine. French Engines as they are robust, reliable and available.
If you can't get F16's (and in the current climate that is not necessarily so), then you should buy Rafales.
Rafale's will provide a sophisticated capability and let you have lesser capable aircraft like J7's etc to manage the lower air space threats.
I have an aversion to Chinese jets as they are not of the same build quality - it is not quantity that counts, its is quality, capability and pilot training. There is no point in buying a cheap 3rd generation fighter if it has no hope of lasting in an "aviation knife fight". Unless you have the right electronics, the right flight systems, the right weapons matched to the threat, then all you have is a plane that is a target for another nations fighter pilots and SEA systems.
The problem with the French is as AussieDigger said, they can turn off parts if they want. You have already experienced this to some extent with the US.
In the current climate, the french are not going to be difficult, they need to sell Rafales as no one else has bought the aircraft and they want to recover their costs. It would also make integration of air systems into Pakistans SAM systems, current EW capability an easier fit.
Everyone gets excited about russian aircraft and forgets that they have lousy uptime. It doesn't matter if it is cheaper if you are going to spend twice as much (actually more) time on the ground maintaining it. If its on the ground, then you are losing sortie times. When your airforce is smaller, it will work harder and that means you will have higher down times.
The F7's, F10's will suffer from the build mentality mindset that was responsible for their development in the first place.
You can't build a decent air force by buying cheap and hoping that having more aircraft in the air will give you leverage.
Someone in the airforce actually needs to design an integrated solution for the entire force structure.