ISLAMABAD: In a development that is reshaping strategic discussions across South Asia, a leading US aerospace analyst has spotlighted Pakistan’s growing prowess in integrated air warfare—arguing that the country’s effective assimilation of Chinese-supplied radar and weapons systems has provided it a critical edge over India in aerial confrontations.
In comments originally published in Air & Space Forces Magazine and reported by Defence Security Asia, Michael Dahm—a Senior Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies—lauded Pakistan’s ability to operationalise a seamless and real-time “kill chain”—a term that describes the military process from detection to engagement of targets.
Pakistan is capable of integrating ground-based radars with fighter jets and airborne early warning aircraft, said Michael Dahm, a Senior Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Dahm referenced a May 12 report by China Space News—a publication aligned with Beijing’s defence-industrial complex—that described a recent operation in which PAF assets tracked, engaged, and neutralised an Indian aircraft using coordinated systems. He described the process as “A launched by B and guided by C,” referring to a multi-platform attack loop involving ground radar, fighter aircraft, and an airborne early warning and control system (AEW&C).
Dahm explained that Pakistan’s advantage lies not in platform superiority, but in its ability to effectively fuse sensors, shooters, and communication systems into a unified operational framework. “It’s not about aircraft-versus-aircraft anymore—it’s about systems-of-systems,” he said.
Kill chain and the modern battlefield
The concept of a kill chain has become central to 21st century warfare. It encompasses an end-to-end sequence: detection, identification, tracking, targeting, engagement, and battle damage assessment. Each phase is supported by an elaborate architecture of ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), satellite connectivity, high-speed data links, and AI-enhanced fire-control systems.
In the South Asian context, Dahm suggested a likely engagement scenario where a Pakistani ground-based radar or air defence unit detected an intruding Indian aircraft. The cue was transmitted to a J-10C fighter jet—PAF’s latest Chinese-built 4.5-generation platform—which then launched a long-range, beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile.
Guidance during the missile’s flight was reportedly handled by a KJ-500 AEW&C aircraft via encrypted data links, enhancing the missile’s midcourse accuracy. Dahm believes the missile involved was the PL-15E—China’s premier long-range air-to-air missile, capable of engaging targets at distances exceeding 200 kilometres.
Pakistani sources cited by Defence Security Asia claim that a J-10C successfully downed an Indian Rafale at a range of 182 kilometres—a distance that, if verified, would mark a record in military aviation history.
Pakistan’s cohesion vs India’s fragmentation
Dahm drew a sharp contrast between Pakistan’s streamlined approach and India’s fragmented aerial doctrine. While the Indian Air Force (IAF) fields a numerically superior fleet, its operational diversity poses serious interoperability challenges. The IAF relies on a heterogeneous mix of platforms from France (Rafale), Russia (Su-30MKI, MiG-29), the UK-France consortium (Jaguar), domestic Tejas jets, and ageing Mirage 2000s.
Each platform runs different avionics, communications protocols, and electronic warfare (EW) systems, making real-time data sharing and sensor fusion difficult. “Even basic tactical datalinks are non-standard,” Dahm observed, noting that Indian Rafales and Su-30MKIs require third-party integration modules just to communicate effectively.
This platform diversity also extends to missile systems, with the IAF operating AIM-132 ASRAAMs, R-77s, Meteors, and Indian-built Astra missiles—each requiring unique maintenance and targeting protocols. What once was seen as strategic diversification, Dahm argues, has become a liability in the era of networked, fast-paced, AI-supported warfare.
Pakistan’s plug-and-play strategy
In contrast, Pakistan’s air doctrine has been increasingly centralised around a common architecture—largely sourced from China. The PL-15 missile, J-10C and JF-17 fighter jets, AESA radars, and the KJ-500 AEW&C system all operate within the same digital ecosystem. This standardisation allows for rapid sensor-to-shooter loops and robust intra-platform communications with minimal latency or data loss.
Dahm told Defence Security Asia that Pakistan appears to have even repurposed some of its Chinese AEW&C platforms for electronic warfare roles, although it remains unclear if these were employed during the reported engagement.
He cautioned against interpreting the development as a straightforward comparison of Chinese and Western military hardware.
It’s not about whether Chinese tech is better than Western tech. It’s about training, cohesion, and tactical doctrine—those things that are hard to quantify but often more decisive, Dahm said.
Implications for South Asia
Pakistan’s kill chain model closely mirrors the US military’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) framework, which seeks to synchronise assets across air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains. The South Asian country, through close defence-industrial collaboration with China, has essentially acquired a plug-and-play military architecture—where training, hardware, software, and doctrine come as a single package.
In contrast, India’s piecemeal procurement strategy continues to face integration delays, cost overruns, and strategic inefficiencies.
The air superiority of the future will be determined less by individual aircraft and more by “who can see, decide, and shoot first”—a game increasingly defined by networked efficiency, and one in which Pakistan appears to be gaining the upper hand, Dahm concluded
