Chinese-made Pakistani fighter jet shot down at least one French Rafale
Chinese-made fighter jets operated by Pakistan were responsible for shooting down at least two Indian warplanes, a battlefield achievement that marks a breakthrough for Beijing’s technology.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told parliament on Wednesday evening that Chinese J-10Cs were used to shoot down Indian jets, in what has been described as one of the longest dogfights in history.
According to Reuters, two US officials confirmed that Pakistan used the Chinese jets to fire air-to-air missiles that brought down at least two Indian aircraft. One US official said at least one of the planes was a French-made Rafale fighter jet.
On Wednesday, a French official told CNN that an Indian-operated French Rafale jet had been downed by the Pakistani air force.
India has denied or refused to comment on the downing of its jets, specifically the Rafale.
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On Thursday, BBC Verify said it had authenticated three videos that show the wreckage of a downed Rafale along with other clips and images that present evidence of downed Indian jets.
The combat between India and Pakistan is being carefully watched in Europe, Washington, and Beijing to see how arms systems perform.
The current clash between the two nuclear-armed neighbours marks the first time advanced Chinese weapons systems are going up against those of western powers. It is going to have deep repercussions for each country's arms industry and global standing.
For example, France may have to address how its prized Rafale jet was downed by a Chinese warplane. Open-source intelligence experts have been commenting online on the performance of China's PL-15 air-to-air missile against the Meteor, a radar-guided air-to-air missile produced by the European group, MBDA.
Pakistan and India have both traditionally been US partners. However, in recent years, the US withdrew from Afghanistan and its military cooperation with Pakistan, a key partner before the “war on terror”, diminished.
China has emerged as Pakistan’s biggest arms supplier, providing it with about 82 percent of its arms imports between 2019-2023, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Pakistan has US-made F-16s, but those warplanes are grounded per US end-use monitoring during tensions with India.
India has drifted closer to the US and western Europe. Pakistan’s military said it also shot down a MiG-29 and an Su-30, which are Russian aircraft. Russia and India have a long-standing arms relationship.
If Pakistan is able to effectively down Indian warplanes with Chinese jets, it could reduce some of the leverage the US has over Pakistan.
Ukraine’s three-year-old battlefield has also been carefully watched to see how Russian weapons systems perform. Early on, US officials said that Ukraine’s destruction of Russian tanks and warplanes would dent the lure of Moscow’s arms industry.
However, Russia has since expanded its military production.
The Chinese market reacted to the news. AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Co, the maker of the J-10C, saw its share price soar by 20 percent on Thursday.
Pakistan’s military also said it had shot down 25 Israeli Harop drones on Thursday.
However, the match-up between Western technology and Chinese armaments will be the most intensely studied in Washington and Beijing, as the two superpowers find themselves increasingly at odds on the world stage and tensions flare around Taiwan.
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