You didn't get what I wrote. Comment was in reference to the airframe design + the engine its paired with. As I said, JF needs a strong engine with this design to have good turn rate and nose pointing authority. It can not pull 9G like others can. Anyways, you can believe in whatever you like.
There is a reason why I asked you to kindly consult the information thread. After spending around 10+ years on the forum, I will tell you this, I do not possess the technical knowledge to comment on airframe design. I can however comment with confidence, only on the management of the program, marketing ( as I do possess knowledge as far as these fields are concerned) and maybe a bit of surface level analysis having spend a lot of time on this forum back in the day where serious discussions was a thing ..
I fail to understand how people who are new here and do not really possess the technical know how (newsflash: it is quite obvious) comment with such sweeping statements such as the jet is under powered or it doesn't belong in the 4th generation.
So again, I refer you to some examples,
1.the Mirage 2000 with its snechma M53-P2 can produce around 95 KN of thrust (21,400 pounds of thrust) with a loaded weight of around 30,000 pounds, has a Thrust to weight ratio of 0.71. The earlier model of the Mirage 2000 had the M-53-5 which produced even less at around 19,400 pounds of thrust.
2.Take the Gripen with the earlier models being powered by Volvo RM-12 producing 18,100 pounds of thrust. Compare that with the RD-93's 19000 pounds of thrust, along with the loaded weight of jf-17 at 20000 pounds i.e. a T/w of 0.95.
3. As far as G limits go, some models of the F/A-18A/c could pull less than the JF-17 i.e. around +7.5/-3 when they were introduced.
Question: Are you comfortable saying that the Gripen, Mirage 2000 and the F/A-18 do not belong in the 4th generation?
It is quite well documented that PAF was quite strict when it came to the performance parameters of the aircraft, just look at the difference between the first prototypes and the PT-04. Or one could simply listen to AVM (retd.) Shahid Latif regarding the program. The answer to most queries is the block building approach. What remains to be seen is how the rest of the JF-17 fleet will be upgraded once the deliveries of the block-III is complete.