Honestly I find this news report hard to believe.
The PAF personnel at Farnborough were quoted in Air Forces Monthly as saying that they simply did not have enough time to prepare a proper aerial demonstration, which is why they had a static display. So now their airshow aerial debut will be in Zhuhai.
The news report twisted this to say that China told them to not fly in Farnborough.
PAF Personnel said in the same article that WS-13 has been fitted on a JF-17 but was probably 5 years away from being inducted.
The report changed this to mean WS-13 is ready.
The lower thrust-to-weight ratio of JF-17, and world reknown maneuverability of F-16 also make me doubt the claims that JF-17's consistently beat F-16's in dogfights. In PAF, only the very best and most experienced pilots get to fly F-16s. I don't know if that is true for JF-17's.
So this news report could be all based on rumors.
China was one of the factors for not doing the aerial display at the FIA as being a joint product of China & Pakistan, China would have liked the first aerial display in China just like the J-10 had in 2008, and the other reasons of not fully prepared and the insurance and other issues are also valid, but they could have been solved if they really had wanted to fly it at FIA. These were all the factors which contributed in the final decision of flying it or not.
The WS-13 being 5 years away figure was given by the incharge of the JF-17 PAC Kamra, an Air Vice Marshall, and this 5 years was the worst case scenario figure, another official of PAC junior to the AVM said it could be ready within or by 2 years time period. So worst case scenario is 5 years, while if all goes well as per planned, we may start seeing WS-13 equipped FC-1s & JF-17s in 2-3 years time.
JF-17s beating PAF F-16 A/B in dog fights is not a new thing and they are doing it not just once or twice, rather multiple times whenever they have been pitted against each other in simulated dog fights and JF-17 has so far the upper hand. Do remember the pilots flying the JF-17s are from the F-16s, the best of what PAF has are flying the JF-17s, thus it can give you an idea what is the capability of the JF-17s and the pilots flying JF-17s when had been given an option to revert back to F-16 program, refused to do so and opted to stay with the JF-17s.
So JF-17s beating F-16 A/Bs in dog fights is pretty much true.
And as per a member of a Pakistani defence forum who visited the JF-17s at FIA and talked to the pilots, the thrust to weight ratio of JF-17 is above then 1, 1.1 i believe was the figure quoted, compared to the previously known of less then 1. The thrust of RD-93s in current JF-17s is more then what has been quoted so far, but still classified and as per inside sources from the same source, Chinese friends had some role in this too.
