i thinkwe should avoid western option to counter MRCA, due to political and economical reasons. if we opt for any western AC, there will always be the fear of embargoes os spareparts and they can also jamm them through codes. the other reason is they are very expensive. PAF should stick to JF-17 and J-10 and upgrade it to 4.5 gen AC by putting more sophisticated avionics, and wait for JXX to come out.
Brother, if u see PAF history it has always kept a mix of American, European n Chinese fighters in it fighter fleet. we do not expect an aircraft to be selected by PAF to counter MRCA soon, it may be 3 years or may be more, from now that PAF takes a decision, to counter this MRCA threat, well i can tell u this that PAF will always keep an American fighter with it, no matter wut the economic, political conditions, i am pretty sure that once this new government takes a strong hold of the country than our economy will grow very fast, n political situation will improve, we cannot stick to just JF-17 n J-10's they r not mature enough, they need time to mature, if u compare them to Western fighters, Western fighters r way ahead in avionics etc.
When we talk of J-XX, we really dont know what kind of avionics it will have, that can possibly give it an edge over F-35 and possibly if not exceed but stand against F-22 raptors, it is still in design n development where as both f-35 n f-22 r already servin the defence forces, there has always been uncertainity over the supplies of fighters from US. but brother, money has always talked n it talks today as well, frankly speaking if somebody has money he can go n buy a rolls for himself, if he doesnot have then he may not be able to buy a cheaper car as well, that is the case with Pakistan right now, but u will see big changes in the next decade, cause the next decade 2010-2020, will change Pakistan forever, with Gwadar port fully operational, IPI, possibly TAPI gaspipelines running from our country n economy growing at a constant 7% anually which will accelerate when the political situation stablises in the next few years, Pakistan would be a major player in the region n tha world as well. our country then can afford all kind of fighters, no matter either American f-35's or European.
But i can tell u one thing for sure PAF will surely counter MRCA with a much advance fighter, from the 5th generation league, possiblities include F-35's, J-XX.
my choice would be F-35's cause J-XX will not be able to match the avionics which r in F-35, n by the time J-XX comes out F-35 would be serving many airforces all around the world which included one of our brotherly nation of Turkey (they will have 100 F-35's by the end of 2019, Mashallah).
We shuld not worry abut MRCA too much cause it's goin to take IAF a year or may be more to study all the proposals word by word, then again there is lenghty process which follows on, they r likely to place the order for MRCA in late 2009, then after they do that, expect the first batch of planes to arrive by 2013, by that time PAF would have collected loads of money to place n order for 5th generation possibly, cause their is no use of buyin 4th geneation heavy fighters like f-15's, eurofighter, rafale, when u have the respective airforces of these countries already goin ahead with 5th generation F-35's.