It was assessed that Pakistan’s J-10CE fighter jet may have shot down the Indian Air Force’s Rafale aircraft using the PL-15 air-to-air missile from a distance of about 200 km.
This assessment is based on comments from Pakistani government officials and the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies. RUSSIAN) was included in a study published by
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According to the report, aerial engagements between Pakistan and India during Operation Sindor in May 2025 provided meaningful—but still incomplete—insight into comparing the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) aircraft and missile combat capabilities with Western and Russian platforms.
The study was carried out by the Indian Air Force during a series of long-range engagements. Rafale They point out that at least one plane was shot down. also Su-30MKI It is possible that one fighter jet was also shot down, and circumstances were also presented that suggest that two to three additional Indian aircraft may have been hit.
According to RUSI, the destruction of aerial targets at a distance of about 200 km is considered an extremely rare event in air combat. The effective range of an air-to-air missile depends on a variety of factors, including the speed and altitude of the launching aircraft, the target’s maneuvering parameters, and engagement geometry.
The official range of the PL-15E, the export version of the PL-15 missile, is known to be approximately 145 km, but the analyzed data suggests that the actual hit may have occurred at a much greater distance. This difference could mean that Pakistan may have used the non-export version of the PL-15, which is said to have a range of 200-300 km.
Pakistan’s specialized media reported that about a week before the start of hostilities, China transferred to Pakistan a batch of missiles sourced directly from its own military reserves, which were not subject to export restrictions.
PL-15 was originally Chinese stealth fighter J-20It was developed to arm the weapon, and it influenced the design of a more compact exterior so that it could be mounted in the internal weapons bay. The missile uses active radar guidance and has a two-way data link, allowing the launching aircraft to provide in-flight trajectory updates and transmit in-flight telemetry data.
The extended range is achieved through a dual-pulse solid fuel rocket motor, which is designed to maintain high kinetic energy even in the final stages of flight, increasing the probability of hitting moving targets at long distances.
Source: Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI). This content was created with the help of artificial intelligence and has been reviewed by the editorial staff.
