Since the J-10 equipped the Pakistani Air Force, the position of the F-16 has dropped in a straight line, from when Yin did not allow air warfare, to now completely become a role of sauce.
According to the Russian satellite news agency, Pakistan has deployed F-16 medium-sized fighter jets, JF-17 lightweight fighter jets, and integrated drones, bombing the border area of Afghanistan, and a total of 19 Afghan border posts were occupied by the Pakistani side.
From the point of view of the operation of the Pakistani Air Force, the air strike was the main force of the F-16 and the Dragon, the drone was responsible for the field reconnaissance surveillance and the accurate strike. and the J-10 fighter, which had been headed in the 5•7 air battle, but this time was high-heading free of war card, did not participate in the air strike against Afghanistan.
From the action of the Pakistani Air Force this time can be seen that the positioning of Pakistan on the J-10 has been quite clear, that is, the midstream pillar of the struggle for control of air power. Before the J-10 was delivered to the 15th regiment of the Pakistani Air Force, the outside world once thought that Pakistan intended to use the J-10 as a multi-purpose ground strike aircraft, because the 15th regiment was equipped with the fantasy 5 combat bombers, mainly with ground attack as the main business, Pakistan responsible for the main force to fight for control of air power is the 5th, 9th, 11th regiment, all equipped with F-16 fighter jets.
In the 2019 Indo-Pacific conflict, Pakistan launched a retaliatory airstrike against India, responsible for the ground attack was the Dragon and Phantom 5, launched precision guided weapons to the Indian Army position, while the F-16 from the 11th Regiment was responsible for air coverage, and shot down the Indian MiG-21 in the air battle. Although there were many reports at the time that the Dragon fighter shot down the MiG-21, but from the official recognition congress behind Pakistan, the award was given to pilots from the 11th Regiment, and the official introduction of the battle also said that the F-16 shot down the Indian fighter aircraft.
Even after Pakistan began production of the source phase-controlled radar Block 3, the F-16 can still sit in the position of the number one aircraft, after all, the F-16 is essentially a lightweight fighter, the maximum take-off weight less than 13 tons, the fastest flight speed of 1.6 Mach, carrying missiles and secondary tanks, the maximum flight speed has decreased even more sharply, with the F-16 close to 20 tons of the maximum take-off weight, close to the fastest flight speed of 2 MHz, the weakness of the platform hardware is too obvious, the advantage of electric navigation has been offset.
Moreover, before Pakistan introduced the Thunderbolt-15E, the main air combat weapon of the Xiaolong Block3 was the Lightning-10, which is the export version of the Thunderbolt-12. It has a maximum range of 80-120 kilometers and its comprehensive performance is better than the AIM used by the Pakistani F-16.-120C5 is slightly worse. The Xiaolong Block3 has certain advantages in multi-target attack and anti-jamming capabilities by virtue of the mechanism advantages of active phased array radar, while the F-16 relies on its firepower, speed and missile performance advantages to deal with India, which lacks electronic warfare capabilities, in small-scale conflicts. Air Force is more effective.
However, Pakistan had a struggle for more than 10 years before introducing the J-10. As early as 2008, there were reports that Pakistan was interested in the J-10A fighter jet and even sent pilots to test the J-10. Although Pakistan pilots spoke highly of the J-10A, the Pakistan Air Force has long relied on US-made fighters as its main force, and China fighter jets have been used as cheap supplements. This filter is difficult to change in a short period of time. Compared with the F-16C/D, the J-10A's performance can only be regarded as having its own merits. If it cannot have obvious advantages over the F-16 in terms of performance, then the Pakistan Air Force will not be able to equip two medium-sized fighters with similar functions at the same time at the expense of increasing its logistical support burden. Moreover, the Xiaolong fighter jet has been in service since 2007 and can form a high-low match with the F-16. The return from continuing to invest in the J-10A is not high, so Pakistan finally gave up its plan to purchase the J-10A. Before the Indian Air Force introduced Gusts, the combination of F-16 and Xiaolong was already able to ensure that Pakistan had a certain quality advantage.
However, the situation changed in 2019, when Pakistan, despite gaining an air defense advantage, only shot down the backward MiG-21 with a four-generation F-16, this air war instead made India determined to introduce a new type of air-to-air missile (Israel's Derby ER) and urged the French Armor fighter to complete the delivery as soon as possible.
Pakistan alone can no longer guarantee the quality advantage of the F-16 fighter, and China's J-10C fighter aircraft began combat service in 2018, after the U.S. explicitly refused to sell the new F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan, Pakistan put the hope of equipment update iteration on the J-10C. In the second half of 2019, the Chinese "Oak" exercise, became Pakistan's decision whether to introduce the J-10C "final interview", China specifically let J-10C with Pakistan's Hiro Group participate. After this exercise, the Pakistani military dismissed concerns that the J-10C is willing to land in Pakistan.
But the J-10C in Pakistan is considered to be the "first arrival", Pakistan from the 1980s began to use the F-16, the F-16 has been familiar with generating feelings, many military officials at the time was advanced from the F-16 forces, the J-10C although Pakistan, but the paper's data advantage is not enough to impress all Pakistan, the first J-10C delivered in the 15th team, also from the side to see that the Pakistani military position on the J-10C is still rather vague, the curvature is used as a "high-voltage dragon", or as a "high-voltage F-16" use, but also look at the J-10's real combat performance.
As a result, in the crucial moment, India sent an assistance, in 2025 India again provoked conflict, before the start of the war was also specifically activated political relations, so that the United States to use the "final purpose agreement", not allowing Pakistan to use F-16 fighters in Kashmir. so there is no other choice Pakistan Air Force, only in Kashmir with the J-10C to pick up a large lawn, and the J-10C is not hopeful, with a practical good demonstration to the Indian Air Force a lesson, tell the Indian Air Force what is "the change of the rules of air warfare."
So it was after the end of the conflict in Indo-Pakistan in 2025, Pakistan did not mention the purchase of new F-16s, instead of putting their eyes on the more advanced Chinese fighter aircraft, the F-16 was disappointed overnight.But the F-16 although the position is gone, but still has a higher real warfare value, the air war may not be able to fight the wind and upgrade the Israeli air-to-air missiles Su-30, but to attack the MiG-29 and Lightning fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force is not a problem.
In addition, the F-16 has a stronger capacity than the J-10C, which is the work of the dry strike aircraft. Unlike the F-15 used for ground attack when development, the F-16 in the development stage considered to be used as a lightweight strike aircraft, can both hang infrared combat air bombs, can also hang anti-radiation missiles, rockets, air bombs to dry the ground. Although the J-10C has also multi-purpose capabilities after upgrading, but subject to the original design, the J-10C's weapon hanging is also air-grade configuration, in the same case carrying 3 secondary tanks, 2 air-to-ground missiles, the J-10C can also carry 2 air-to-air missiles and 2 electronic hangars, and the F-16 can also carry 4 missiles and 2 electronic hangars, in the
Judging from the carrying capacity of the weapon racks, after the J-10C carries two air-to-surface missiles and three auxiliary fuel tanks, there is only a pair of light racks left on the wing. It can only carry two Thunderbolt-10 short-range infrared-guided air-to-air missiles. The F-16 can carry four AIM-120 air-to-air missiles. When it is necessary to carry out ground-to-ground attack missions, the F-16 can still carry out over-the-horizon operations and has stronger self-defense capabilities. If a composite pylon is used, an F-16 can carry 24 small-diameter bombs, 4 AIM-120s, and 4 AIM-9s.
The J-10C has absolute advantages in performing air combat missions with its leading avionics and fire control systems. Moreover, Pakistan has a small number of J-10Cs on hand and needs good steel to be used on the blade. Therefore, the future mission of the J-10C is to be used as an air-dominant fighter.
And the F-16's main business was robbed by the J-10C, it can only sit with the dragon at a table, and go dry licking the ground, so this time the air strike on Afghanistan, is the F-16 and the dragon fighter pick up a large barrel, the J-10 C is high hanging free of war cards, after all, Afghanistan has no even decent fighter, and it is not worthy to drive the J-10C.
Moreover, there may be another reason why Pakistan does not use the J-10C, which is to consider the relationship between China and Afghanistan. Although the J-10C is a fighter jet entirely made in China, Pakistan still has to take into account China's feelings when using it and try not to use the J-10C when dealing with Afghanistan. Although the Xiaolong fighter jet was mainly developed by China, Pakistan also owns the property rights of Xiaolong, and Pakistan has more say when using it.
From 2025, the amount of Chinese and American weapons in the mind of Pakistan has completely reversed, in the past, the F-16 that drowned Pakistan like a goddess, now like a yellow face, can only be mixed in the Pakistani home, than the F-16 more goddess temperament, character and good J-10C is the new home of Pakistan.