The Biggest News from India-Pakistan Air Battle: the Kill Chain


https://www.airandspaceforces.com/india-pakistan-air-battle-kill-ch...

May 19, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak
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The most important element of an air-to-air engagement in the recent India-Pakistan conflict may be how Pakistan integrated its Chinese-origin weapons and air defenses to shoot down at least one Indian Rafale fighter, an expert on the Chinese military said.

The effectiveness of the kill chain may have been more important than the capabilities of the specific fighters, said Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, who is an expert on Chinese military affairs.

Pakistan can “integrate ground radars with fighter jets and airborne early warning aircraft,” said Dahm. “The Pakistani Air Force deployed …’ A’ launched by ‘B’ and guided by ‘C’” and hit the target, he added, citing a May 12 report from China Space News, a Chinese defense industry magazine.

Speaking on a recent podcast, Dahm said the chain may have started with a Pakistani ground radar—“maybe a surface-to-air missile system, or some other type of radar system”—which “illuminated the Indian target.” Then, a Pakistani J-10C fighter “launched its missiles, probably at range, and finally, an airborne early warning and control aircraft used a midcourse datalink to update and guide the missile to the Indian fighter.”

It was a “long-range shot, beyond visual range,” likely using the export version of China’s PL-15 air-to-air missile, which Dahm said has an 80 nautical mile range.

The kill chain is the same kind the U.S. is attempting to create within and between its services through the Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) concept.

“When, and if, we do find out more about the details of the engagement, this may tell a story, more about systems integration and how well Pakistan has done systems integration, versus how well India has done systems integration,” Dahm said.

No details are available about where the Rafale was when it was hit, although Pakistani news agencies showed wreckage that may or may not have been the remains of an Indian Rafale on Pakistani territory. Pakistan claimed after the engagement that it had shot down five Indian aircraft—four fighters and a drone—which conducted an airstrike in Pakistan.

Pakistan seems to have very recently converted several Chinese airborne early warning and control aircraft into electronic warfare aircraft, Dahm said, but it’s unknown whether those aircraft were manipulating the electromagnetic environment. Pakistan’s radar systems and the J-10 are also Chinese in origin.

“What does this say about Chinese technology versus Western technology? Probably not a whole lot, but it probably says a lot more about systems of systems, about training, about tactics … about all of those difficult-to-quantify things,” rather than the relative capabilities of the J-10 versus the Rafale, Dahm said.

He also noted that while India’s air force is bigger than Pakistan’s, it includes “a hodgepodge” of Western, Israeli, Russian, and Indian-produced technology, which makes systems integration much more difficult.

Dahm said that while many news outlets are playing up the angle of the fourth-generation J-10C shooting down a fourth-and-a-half generation Rafale, the comparison of aircraft “probably tells us absolutely nothing.” It’s not known whether the Rafale was departing the target area or whether it had fired any missiles at the Pakistani aircraft, he said.

The Rafale was sold to India with the Meteor missile, which Dahm described as “a beast”—a solid-fueled ramjet missile with a top speed of Mach 4 and a range of 108 nautical miles—with a “wicked … no-escape zone.”

Defense Intelligence
@DI313_
Indian🇮🇳 journalist Vishnu Som reports that Pakistan🇵🇰 fired two CM-400AKG hypersonic missiles from a JF-17 jet targeting Adampur Airbase, which holds key Indian air defense assets like the S-400 system. One missile reportedly missed, while the outcome of the second is unclear.Notably, Som added that certain sensitive details could not be publicly disclosed.

https://x.com/DI313_/status/1924476944550125844

Habibullah Khan
@Huk06
By Summer 2026 Pakistan will have 4 of the most advanced air warfare platforms in the world:

J-35A: The assassin of the skies. A 5th generation fighter jet with the most advanced stealth, data decision making, network integration, and intelligence capabilities in the world. It can detect and hunt anything within 1200+ km of it without anyone seeing it coming.

PL 17 AAM: The kill shot you never see. An active radar-guided beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. Powered by a dual pulse rocket motor and with a top speed above Mach 4, and a range of 400+ km. Best of all it can fold its fins and hide in the weapons bay of the J-35A so the stealth of the fighter jet is not compromised!

KJ-500: God's eye in the sky. One of the most advanced airborne early warning platforms in the world. Able to detect and track multiple airborne and surface targets at extended ranges (upto 5700 km), while also coordinating with friendly aircraft and even guiding their missiles to execute complex kill chains.

Hurricane 3000: The drone destroyer. World's most advanced High-Power Microwave (HPM) Weapon System. Sends high-power microwave energy pulses o disable or destroy drones by targeting their electronic components, rendering them inoperable. Can knock out entire drone swarms in one multi-pulse sweep! Perfect for defending air defense installations with its range of 3KM!

Pakistan has demonstrated incredible resilience and capability in the face of aggression and convincingly won the biggest Beyond Visual Range air battle in history. By next summer we will be even more deadlier.

https://x.com/Huk06/status/1924769476161032210