The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has released footage showing it has armed its combat aircraft with long-range Chinese missiles.
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The footage, published online on Tuesday comes amid spiralling tensions with India following a terrorist attack in Kashmir last month that killed 26 people. New Delhi has blamed Pakistan for the incident, but Islamabad has denied any links to the attackers.
The three-minute video showed warplanes, including the JF-17 fighter, armed with Chinese-made PL-15 missiles and described them as the “PAF’s potent punch”.
The PL-15, originally developed for the fifth-generation J-20 stealth fighter, is China’s most advanced fighter-to-fighter missile and is reported to have an engagement range of 200km to 300km (125-185 miles).
Although other weapons that featured in the video were labelled as being the export version, the PAF did not say this was the case for the PL-15, hinting that it may be using the same version as the People’s Liberation Army. If confirmed, this would be the first time a foreign military has been armed with that version, rather than the shorter-range export version.
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However, military analysts also said Pakistan’s biggest advantage was likely to lie in the Chinese-made active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar system fitted to the JF-17.