Mark,
Thankyou for the clarification---we all get mesmerized looking at those photos of these birds of pray and then there are all this ordinance lying in front of it in a half moon circle---and we assume that this monster can carry all of it and deliver it in one go---ain't that a har-d on for a young air force enthusiaist. I just wanted to re-direct the discussion to the objective of the JF 17.
Most people don't understand that on a lots of deep strike missions of the future warfare, it will only be just one smart bomb, two missile, electronic jamming equipment, a sortie of possibly three planes, data linked, flying so close, showing as one, one plane guiding the others, each plane switching the roles after delivering the goods. For precision bombing, deep strike missions, smaller is invisible, smaller is better. Sometimes, there will be just this one plane going in with just with one bomb and no extra protection. The pilot already knows that he is on a one way trip permit. If he gets back in one piece alive, that is an extra bonus. In these type of missions, you need something small, something potent, something that can get in, just to do the job.
PAF has taken a leap of faith with the JF 17---they knew that they can't compete with the SU 30, the jaguar, the mig 29 for the size and payload---the next best step was to get something smaller in size and potent in performance. If you look at the landing gear and wheels of the JF 17 and the F 16 side by side, you can see a clear difference---the F 16 sits taller, with a heavier landing gears and bigger wheels. JF 17 has smaller wheels, a lighter landing gear and sits lower. This all means that these two planes have two different jobs and missions in the mind of PAF. Seemingly, the Jf 17 is to complement the F 16.
The importance that PAF has on extremely low level flt training missions for their pilots has a unique significance in combat ( correct me on this ). Flying at deck level, closer to the ground clutter, they are comparatively difficult to detect, they are also a difficult target for the missiles to lock onto from above.