rafale is a 4.5 gen either as both have just 2 customers(same as jf-17 with Nigeria and Myanmar) infact if i count the first 7 years of its operation there were zero export customers, so i doubt rafale is even a 3rd gen AC
as France still has not replaced all of its mirages with it, this is also true for typhoon, as Austria have retired them and is opting for f-16s
you have to act like a fool to talk to fool
they need a NATO standard aircraft
do you see a mig 29/su 35?
for thunder to prevail in western market, Pakistan will need to entirely revamp it to western standard meaning replacement of the engine and most of radar and avionics.
even if pakistan achieve this, small NATO countries will not buy it because USA will simply block the sale due to fact that atlleast some of equipment is built in Pakistan, as things stand now i will surpise if they even block a purely pakistani piece of equipment like a Super Mushak
on the contrary i think even advertisement of jf-17 in western block is waste of money and should be done, let alone expecting a sale
JF-17 has a very limited market because most countries have disbanded their air force, the market lies in Africa, part of south east asia(which is not out of far due to chinese sea issue), latin america(worsening economy) and in tuff block of muslim countries divided by strong USA and russian presence
so i doubt JF-17 is going to get many export customers, my guess 3-4 countries and around 100
in Myanmar, Nigeria, may be Azerbaijan, srilanka(if it doesnt scumb to india), Egypt(a near sale now unlikley),an odd African Muslim block country, may a latin american country, unlikely but possibly a GCC country
but it wasn't built for export, it was built for PAF
but again how many countries got the ideal gripen in vast NATO allied countries market, not many(hungry/Czech on lease the very many excess of Swedish aircrafts, Thailand ~13, south africa, future brazil)
