How Pakistan Shot Down India’s ‘Invincible’ Rafale
Pakistan successfully shot down six Indian aircraft, which included three advanced French Rafale jets, during the four-day conflict in May.
Despite India’s initial denial of any Rafale losses, a French intelligence official confirmed the downing shortly after the aerial confrontation. Subsequently, India’s military also admitted that an undisclosed number of its fighter jets had been destroyed.
How Pakistan Brought Down the Rafale
In a report released yesterday, Reuters detailed how one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world was downed by Pakistan’s Chinese-manufactured J-10C.
The report indicated that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Chief Air Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu specifically ordered the targeting of India’s French-made Rafale jets following India’s airstrikes against Pakistan in the early hours of May 7.
The hour-long aerial engagement, conducted under the cover of darkness, involved approximately 110 aircraft, marking it as the largest air combat operation in decades, according to experts.
Pakistan’s Secret Weapon, the PL-15
Central to the downing of the Rafale was an oversight by Indian intelligence regarding the range of the Chinese-made PL-15 missile that was fired by the J-10 fighter. This intelligence failure led Rafale pilots to incorrectly assume they were outside the reach of Pakistani missiles, which are estimated to have a range of about 150 km based on the commonly referenced range of the PL-15’s export variant, as stated by an Indian official.
“We ambushed them,” a PAF official remarked, further explaining that Pakistan executed an electronic warfare operation targeting Delhi’s systems to disrupt and confuse Indian pilots.
According to Pakistani officials, the PL-15 missile that hit the Rafale was launched from a distance of approximately 200 km, while Indian officials proposed an even longer range — marking it as the longest-range air-to-air strike ever documented.
The report indicates that Pakistan not only benefited from the element of surprise due to the extensive range of its missiles but also achieved a more effective integration of its military assets with ground and aerial surveillance. This integration provided a clearer perspective of the battlefield.
Kill chain
The report highlights that Pakistan established a “kill chain,” a multi-domain operation that connects air, land, and space sensors. This network included a Pakistani-developed system known as Data Link 17, which linked Chinese military equipment with other resources, including a Swedish-manufactured surveillance aircraft.
Experts noted that this system allowed J-10 fighters operating closer to India to receive radar information from the surveillance aircraft positioned at a greater distance, enabling the fighters to keep their radars turned off and remain undetected.
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