(DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA) — In a dramatic shift that has reverberated through strategic circles in South Asia, a leading American aerospace analyst has highlighted Pakistan’s successful integration of its Chinese-supplied weapon systems and radar networks as a critical factor in its recent air superiority over India.

Michael Dahm, Senior Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, noted in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine that Pakistan’s operational ability to establish a coherent “kill chain” under combat conditions has emerged as a defining feature of its air warfare doctrine.

According to Dahm, “Pakistan is capable of integrating ground-based radars with fighter jets and airborne early warning aircraft,” a statement that underscores the growing operational sophistication of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).

He added, “The Pakistani Air Force deployed… ‘A’ launched by ‘B’ and guided by ‘C’, hitting its intended target,” referencing a detailed May 12 report by China Space News, a publication closely affiliated with China’s defence-industrial complex.

The success of this kill chain, Dahm explained, is less about platform-versus-platform comparisons and more about how well each element—from sensor to shooter—is fused into a networked, real-time engagement loop.

In modern high-velocity conflict environments, where milliseconds can determine mission success or failure, the concept of the kill chain—an end-to-end cycle of detection, identification, tracking, targeting, engagement, and battle damage assessment—has become the heartbeat of 21st-century military operations.

Each stage of the kill chain is now supported by a vast architecture of ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) assets, satellite links, high-speed data networks, and increasingly autonomous fire-control systems driven by artificial intelligence.

In the context of the Pakistan-India confrontation, Dahm believes the sequence likely began with a ground radar or air defence system detecting an Indian Air Force aircraft entering contested airspace.

The radar cue was then transmitted to a forward-operating J-10C, Pakistan’s newest 4.5-generation multirole fighter acquired from China, which promptly launched a long-range beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile toward the target.

Guidance during the missile’s midcourse phase was reportedly handled by an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) platform—most likely the KJ-500—using encrypted datalinks to adjust missile trajectory for maximum probability of kill.

“It was a long-range, Beyond Visual Range shot, likely using the export variant PL-15E,” Dahm said, referring to one of China’s most formidable air-to-air missile systems, now fielded by both China and Pakistan.

According to Pakistani defence sources, one J-10C is believed to have successfully downed an Indian Air Force Rafale from a distance of 182 kilometers using a PL-15 missile—what some defence observers have called the longest recorded air-to-air kill in military aviation history.

While independent verification of the kill distance remains elusive, the PL-15 missile—developed by the China Airborne Missile Academy (CAMA)—has emerged as a strategic equalizer to Western analogues like the AIM-120D AMRAAM and the European Meteor.

With its dual-pulse motor and active radar seeker, the PL-15 is capable of engaging agile airborne targets well beyond 200 kilometers, placing it firmly in the elite category of long-range BVR munitions.

The kill chain demonstrated by Pakistan mirrors the U.S. military’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) doctrine, a next-generation warfare concept designed to unify land, air, sea, space, and cyber assets into a seamless decision-making web.

“If and when we learn more about the specific engagement details, it may reveal how well Pakistan has achieved systems integration—especially when compared to India’s fragmented approach,” Dahm said.

He also noted that Pakistan has likely converted some of its Chinese-supplied AEW&C aircraft into dedicated electronic warfare (EW) platforms, though it remains unclear whether electromagnetic manipulation played a role in the recent engagement.

Dahm cautioned against simplistic narratives that pit Chinese hardware directly against Western systems, stating, “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,” he emphasized, arguing that organisational cohesion and tactical doctrine often matter more than raw specifications.

Dahm also highlighted the structural disadvantage faced by the Indian Air Force (IAF), which, despite its numerical advantage, operates a fleet composed of disparate technologies sourced from France, Russia, Israel, and domestic programs—each with different data architectures, communication protocols, and EW systems.

India’s Platform Diversity: Strategic Asset or Tactical Liability?

The IAF’s frontline inventory includes French Rafales, Russian Su-30MKIs and MiG-29s, Anglo-French Jaguars, Indian-built Tejas fighters, and Mirage 2000s—all running incompatible avionics and fire-control suites.

This fragmentation complicates real-time data sharing, sensor fusion, and cross-platform targeting—a core requirement for any fully functional kill chain in modern air warfare.

Even basic tactical datalinks are non-standard, with Russian Su-30MKIs and French Rafales requiring third-party integration modules to communicate in real time, causing latency and vulnerability in time-sensitive operations.

The use of diverse missile ecosystems—AIM-132 ASRAAM, R-77, Meteor, Astra—further adds to the logistical and targeting complexity, requiring separate maintenance, storage, and command protocols.

This diversity, once viewed as a hedge against over-dependence, is increasingly becoming a structural liability in an era where speed, automation, and interoperability dominate the battlespace.

India’s air doctrine still lacks a fully digitized combat cloud architecture, making it harder to coordinate multi-platform, multi-domain operations with the same speed and precision as adversaries like Pakistan or China.

Pakistan’s Streamlined Airpower: A Template for Networked Warfare

Pakistan, in contrast, has adopted a more focused and integrated strategy, aligning its air combat doctrine around platforms sourced predominantly from China and the U.S., resulting in minimal compatibility friction.

The JF-17 Thunder and J-10C both employ Chinese-made AESA radars, EW systems, and datalinks that allow seamless information exchange with KJ-500 AEW&C platforms and ground-based radar networks.

This homogeneity allows Pakistan to operate a streamlined “sensor-to-shooter” loop with minimal latency—detection from radar, cueing by AEW&C, and immediate engagement by fighters—all linked within the same electronic warfare and data-sharing architecture.

Such a model enables not just faster reaction times, but also greater survivability and situational awareness for frontline pilots and commanders.

Chinese-designed systems like the PL-15 are fully integrated into this ecosystem, with data relays, midcourse guidance, and kill assessments occurring within a single sovereign digital domain—limiting vulnerability to spoofing, jamming, or inter-platform data loss.

Pakistan’s focus on a coherent kill chain doctrine was evident in the air battle now under scrutiny, which involved the orchestrated use of ground radars, AWACS, BVR missiles, and strategic targeting of high-value enemy assets at long range.

With China acting as both supplier and systems architect, Pakistan benefits from plug-and-play military packages where software, hardware, training, and tactical doctrine are delivered as an integrated suite.

This stands in stark contrast to India’s piecemeal defence procurement strategy, where platforms are often acquired first and integration solutions sought later—causing long delays, cost overruns, and operational incompatibilities.

In the age of fifth-generation warfare, where victory hinges on speed, automation, and data fusion, Pakistan’s kill chain-centric model offers a decisive edge in any future aerial confrontation in South Asia.

— DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA