A dog fight between the Pakistani aircraft of China and the fighters of the French manufacturing Indian rafale will be closely analyzed by the military seeking ideas that could offer an advantage in future conflicts.
A Pakistani combat plane made to Chinese knocked at least two Indian military planes on Wednesday, two US officials said. Reuterswhich marks a greater major milestone for the advanced Beijing combat plane.
Air shock is a rare opportunity for the military to study the performance of pilots, combat aircraft and air-air missiles in active combat, and use that knowledge to prepare their own air forces for battle.
Experts said that the live use of advanced weapons would be analyzed worldwide, even in China and the United States, that they are preparing for a possible conflict over Taiwan or in the widest region of the Indo-Pacific.
An American official, who speaks under anonymity, said Reuters There was great confidence that Pakistan had used the Chinese manufacturing J-10 plane to launch Aire-Aire missiles against Indian combat planes.
Publications on social networks focused on the performance of the China Air-Aire-Air Missile against the meteorite, an air-aire missile guided by radar produced by the European MBDA group. There has been no official confirmation of these weapons.
“Air war communities in China, the United States and several European countries will be extremely interested in trying to obtain the greatest truth of the truth in tactics, techniques, procedures, what kit was used, what worked and what not,” said Douglas Barrie, a senior member of Military Aerospace in the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
“It could be said that the most capable weapon of China against the most capable weapon of the West, if in fact it was taking; we do not know,” Barrie said. The French and the Americans would probably expect a similar intelligence of India, said Barrie.
“The PL-15 is a big problem. It is something that the US army pays close attention,” said a defense industry executive.
Rafale Dassault Aviation manufacturer declined to comment and the MBDA consortium could not be contacted immediately to comment on a French holiday.
Scarce details
Western analysts and sources said that crucial details were still clear, even if the meteorite was transported and the type and amount of training that pilots had received. The weapons companies would also be anxious to separate the technical performance of the operational factors, analysts said.
“There will be audits of what works and what does not work, but I believe that the other overlap is the proverbial fog of the war,” said Byron Callan, an expert in Defense based in Washington and capital managing partner of Capital Alpha Partners.
The US arms companies are receiving constant comments on how their products are working on the war in Ukraine, he said.
“Therefore, I hope the same is the case with the European suppliers of India, and Pakistan and China probably share the same comments. If the PL-15 works as it is announced or better than expected, the Chinese would like to hear that.”
A source from the defense industry of a western country that operates the meteorite said that an online image of a search engine seemed to present the component of a missile that had lost its goal.
There are contradictory reports on whether Pakistan has the national version of the PL-15 of the Plaaf, the Chinese Air Force or the lower range export version presented publicly in 2021.
Barrie, who has written extensively about the missile, said he believed that Pakistan probably has the export version.
A source of the Western industry dismissed the statements that the PL-15 with rockets had a longer range than the air breathing meteor, but recognized that its capacity “may be greater than what was thought.” The meteorite range has not been officially published. “At this moment it is not possible to judge anything. We know very little,” said the source of the industry.
The range and performance of the PL-15 have been a western interest focus for years. His appearance was seen as one of the many signs that China had moved far beyond the dependence of the technology derived from the Soviet era.
The United States is developing the advanced AIM-260 tactical missile through Lockheed Martin partly in response to PL-15 and its visual range performance, part of a broader restart of Western priorities towards China.
European nations are exploring a median update for Meteor, that the specialized publication Janes says that propulsion and guidance could involve, but analysts say that progress has been slow.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, in March granted the contract to build the most sophisticated combat plane of the United States Air Force so far, which would probably include stealth, advanced sensors and avant -garde engines.
