No one is mocking the pilots, especially the one who lost his life. They are patriots fighting for their country much like our pilots, but a mid air collision for an airforce of their stature raises a lot of questions about their operational standards.
It's because of the hull has to taper to a v-shape at the bottom, that combined with the taller height, makes it better at surviving IEDs. This comes at a cost of adding the risk of the vehicle tipping over, a wider track width mitigates that to some extent, and improves high-speed handling. If...
Actually, a dual rack of PL-15s would be significantly lighter than payloads it already carries on the inner pylons, Fuel tanks, bombs etc. Weight isn't an issue, it's more to do with the fact that the inner pylons aren't configured for missiles internally.
Completely different class of fighters, you can't reasonably replace a medium-weight attacker, with a light-weight multirole fighter. It's like replacing a Pickup truck, with a Sedan. JF-17 can't carry as much payload as the Mirage, and THAT alone makes it ill suited to replace the Mirages in...
The main limitation of a light-weight fighter like the JF-17, is it's lack of capability in a multi-mission role. I always speculated this was one of the main reason the PAF adopted the J-10. Think about it, the J-10 doesn't bring anything game changing over the Block 3, other than it's a...