Pakistan has claimed to have downed multiple Indian fighter jets using its Chinese-origin J-10C fighter jet armed with long-range air-to-air missiles. The claims, despite not being supported by evidence, have been endorsed by Chinese state-owned media and military bloggers.
Pakistan claimed it had downed six Indian fighter jets over Kashmir and other regions, including the 4.5th-generation Rafale operated by the Indian Air Force (IAF) after India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ on terror training camps in Pakistan as retribution for the Pahalgam terror attack.
Pakistan later claimed to have used its newly acquired Chinese-origin J-10C fighter for what it described as a brief encounter.
The Pakistani foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, told the National Assembly that the J-10C shot down five Indian fighter jets, three of which were Rafales. Pakistan has been unable to furnish evidence to back these claims, and the Indian side has not confirmed any losses.
A high-ranking French intelligence official later told CNN that Pakistan downed an Indian Rafale fighter.
Notably, the Chinese state-owned Global Times (GT) has diligently provided extensive coverage of these claims. After being schooled by the Indian embassy against publishing unverified claims on May 7, GT published Dar’s remarks in great detail, emphasising that “Pakistan has confirmed participation of the J-10C” in response to Indian attacks.
“Pakistan, which has imported a bulk of the defense equipment, including J-10C fighter jets, claimed to have shot down five Indian planes, including a French Rafale jet,” it stated.
The same editorial line was adopted by the Chinese news company and blogging site Sohu, where Chinese military bloggers and netizens discussed the alleged downing of the Indian Rafale. One such article stated that Pakistan had shot down six Rafales by using electronic warfare to disable them first, followed by a strike. Meanwhile, another article described it as the “most serious air loss faced by India in decades.”
Referring to the unconfirmed downing of an IAF Rafale, Hu Shisheng, Deputy Secretary-General of the Academic Committee of the China Institute of Modern International Relations, said that this attack will likely have a significant impact on India’s military reform, especially in terms of fighter procurement.
Some of these reports and blogs heaped praises on the J-10C, arguing that Pakistan downed Indian Rafales as the Chinese-origin J-10C has a longer detection range than the Rafale, along with cutting-edge Electronic Warfare capabilities.
The above claim may be misplaced because, according to publicly available information, the Rafale is generally considered to have a longer detection range than the Chengdu J-10C. This is primarily due to its advanced RBE2 AESA radar, which reportedly has a detection range exceeding 200-240 kilometres. In contrast, the J-10CP has a range of about 120 to 200 kilometres.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister said that the J-10C fighter jets were deployed based on intelligence received beforehand. “There were instructions to only target Indian jets that released payloads,” Dar told lawmakers on May 7. “This is why only five jets were taken down. Had the directive been different, nearly 10-12 jets would have been struck.”
Source : Eurasian Times
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