A startling recovery of unexploded ordinance in Punjab has reportedly triggered a discreet but urgent technical inquiry within China’s defence manufacturing sector.
Following the intense aerial skirmishes of May 2025—referred to as Operation Sindoor—Indian security forces retrieved several Chinese-made PL-15E air-to-air missiles that had impacted the ground in a near-pristine state.
Intelligence assessments suggest these advanced weapons, fired by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), failed to detonate due to malfunctions in their proximity fuses and self-destruct mechanisms.
A Quiet Investigation in Luoyang
According to recent intelligence reports, the recovery of these intact missiles has caused concern at the China Airborne Missile Academy (CAMA) in Luoyang, the manufacturer of the PL-15 series.Sources indicate that technical teams from CAMA were dispatched to Pakistan shortly after the conflict to audit the remaining stockpile of approximately 240 PL-15E missiles, which were part of a major defence deal signed in 2021.
The investigation focuses on why multiple missiles, specifically the export variant PL-15E, failed to trigger their terminal phase explosives.
Instead of intercepting their targets or self-destructing upon missing, several units simply exhausted their fuel and glided to earth.
One recovered unit, bearing the serial number P15E12203039, provided a significant clue: its markings suggest it was manufactured around 2015.
This has led analysts to speculate that some of the inventory supplied to Pakistan may have been drawn from older production batches or constructed with aging sub-components, potentially affecting their reliability under combat stress.
The Technical Failure
The PL-15E is the export version of China’s premier long-range air-to-air missile, the PL-15.While the domestic Chinese variant utilizes a dual-pulse solid rocket motor to achieve ranges estimated between 200 km and 300 km, the export version is generally understood to have a reduced operational range of approximately 145 km.
The malfunction appears to center on the missile's guidance and fusing systems.
The recovered debris includes the advanced Ku-band Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) seeker, developed by the China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC).
Preliminary assessments suggest that these seekers may have lost their lock on Indian fighters mid-flight. Rather than a mechanical motor failure, the evidence points to electronic disruption.
When the missiles lost contact with their targets, their failsafes did not engage, allowing them to land largely intact in fields near Hoshiarpur.
Electronic Warfare Dominance
Indian defence officials have firmly denied Pakistani claims that the PL-15E salvos downed Indian Air Force (IAF) jets, including the Rafale and Su-30MKI. Instead, sources attribute the survival of the Indian fleet to superior electronic warfare (EW) capabilities.The IAF’s Rafale fighters are equipped with the SPECTRA suite (Self-Protection Equipment to Counter Threats to Rafale Aircraft), a highly advanced, fully integrated EW system.
It is believed that SPECTRA, along with podded jammers on the Su-30MKI, successfully jammed the data links and active radar seekers of the incoming PL-15Es.
By blinding the missile’s "eyes"—the AESA seeker—the Indian jets forced the weapons to veer off course. The recovery of the missiles confirms that they burned out their energy without ever achieving a terminal solution.
An Intelligence Windfall
For the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the retrieval of these missiles represents an unprecedented intelligence opportunity.Possessing a near-intact adversary missile allows Indian scientists to physically dissect the dual-pulse motor and, more importantly, the AESA seeker and Electronic Counter-Countermeasure (ECCM) circuits.
Understanding the specific frequencies, processing logic, and material construction of the PL-15E provides invaluable data.
Engineers are already reportedly using these findings to update the threat libraries for India’s own EW programs.
This "reverse-engineering" of the threat will likely influence the defensive suites of the upcoming Tejas MkII and the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), ensuring they are tuned to defeat China’s primary aerial weapons.
Strategic Implications
The incident underscores a critical lesson in modern air combat: on-paper specifications do not always translate to battlefield success.While the PL-15E is a formidable weapon with high speed (Mach 4+) and long range, its performance in Operation Sindoor was compromised by robust countermeasures and potential quality control issues.
For China, this review is a necessary step to protect the reputation of its expanding arms export industry.
For India, the fields of Punjab yielded more than just metal scraps; they provided a strategic advantage that will likely resonate in the region’s air power balance for years to come.
