USAF Report Reveals Unexpected Weakness in Pakistan's J-10CEs

Remember how Pakistan got those shiny new J-10CE fighter jets? Well, a leaked report from the US Air Force (USAF) throws some shade on their potential dominance in the sky. Here's the deal:

Pakistan hoped these jets, armed with China's fancy PL-15E missiles, would give them a big advantage over India's air force. The PL-15E boasts a super-long range, supposedly hitting enemy planes from way out. But according to the USAF report, that long range might be a bit of a tall tale.

Turns out, these missiles might not be as powerful as advertised. The report suggests they only reach their top range under very specific conditions, like the fighter jet launching them needing to be flying super fast and super high. Real-world combat situations are messy, so the USAF estimates the missiles' actual effective range is more like 65 miles – not quite the knockout punch Pakistan might have been hoping for.

Here's the kicker: This range is roughly what Pakistan's older F-16s can already achieve with their missiles. So, all that hype about the J-10CEs and PL-15Es giving Pakistan a big edge? The USAF report suggests it might not be that big of a deal after all.

Meanwhile, India's got its own long-range missiles that could potentially outrange the PL-15E according to the report. So, things might be a bit more balanced in the air than Pakistan was hoping for.

 

[Akshat]

Whether you like it or not...PAF's plans to upgrade their fleet with what ever limited funds they have looks more planned and well thought through compared to India. Although we spend way more it seems most of the money goes in purchasing outdated items or spending exagerrated amounts in upgrading obsolete or near obsolete fighters. Be it Jaguars, Migs or the mirages.

And yet we keep winning wars and everything, except one war where IAF wasn’t involved. Interesting.

 

[Akshat]

Dual Pulse A2A missiles are pretty useless. AMRAAMs could not take down Su30 at 30km range. There is a reason why IAF is adamant on 114 rafales despite its inferiority to Su 30 in all aspects. Thats the METEOR A2A missiles which is the only RAMJET A2A missile in the world.

Inferiority? 😂😂😂

It has a lower RCS. It has far better sensor suite. It has much higher availability. These are the things that matter. Not just weight class or fancy stunts.

 

[rtnguy]

Inferiority? 😂😂😂

It has a lower RCS. It has far better sensor suite. It has much higher availability. These are the things that matter. Not just weight class or fancy stunts.

Su 30MKI has more power, more thrust, better radar, far better weapons payload than Rafale. Upgraded Su sensor suite is superior to Rafale. Rafale lower RCS is useless since its well above Stealth Threshold so RCS does not matter for non stealth aircraft.

 

[beencensured]

Professional force who knows what it needs to do to keep its edge? Its edge? Can you please tell me which war has it ever won? In its entire history?

With Pakistani brain, war is not so winnable, but now they have invented ai and sensor fusion, so it may help them much compensate. Chinese have brain and already gave them rockets to target Delhi. India never utilized the Shimla accord to stop this. .

 

[ABHIJIT APSINGIKAR]

Su 30MKI has more power, more thrust, better radar, far better weapons payload than Rafale. Upgraded Su sensor suite is superior to Rafale. Rafale lower RCS is useless since its well above Stealth Threshold so RCS does not matter for non stealth aircraft.

Although I do feel Rafale is inordinately expensive, the Rafale is indeed a great 4--4.8 generation fighter aircraft and its capabilities cannot be understated. Its greatest strength comes from its extremely potent SPECTRA EW system. The SPECTRA system is highly classified and has neither been sold to Egypt, UAE, Qatar or Indonesia. Only the NATO allies and India, Rafales have a full spec avionics suite that includes SPECTRA.

SPECTRA has this unique feature of active spoofing, where it takes the adversary's radar signal and remodulates it to feed spoofed signal back with ghost contacts. For an enemy radar it would see targets and tract them which really would not exist and since the radar priority changes it would compel enemy to unload missiles and waste them on ghost targets.

 

[Santosh Kumar pal]

Though A2A missile range is important,in the real world war scenario, fighter jet pilot's war technique capabilities will determine will decide who is the ultimate winner or loser in fighter jet war.
So, AMRAAM AlM-120C,Chinese PL-12 and PL-15 A2A missiles have better range but India airforce should not loose any kind of hope.Our lndian airforce pilots can defet PAF fighter jets with Astra Mark 1 and Astra Mark 2 missiles with using war technique capabilities.
That's why our pilot Avinandan vartaman killed advance F16 jet with old generation russian A2A missile with vintage Mig 21 fighter jet.

 

[Akshat]

With Pakistani brain, war is not so winnable, but now they have invented ai and sensor fusion, so it may help them much compensate. Chinese have brain and already gave them rockets to target Delhi. India never utilized the Shimla accord to stop this. .

More future rants with nothing to show for in the present or past.

 

[Akshat]

Su 30MKI has more power, more thrust, better radar, far better weapons payload than Rafale. Upgraded Su sensor suite is superior to Rafale. Rafale lower RCS is useless since its well above Stealth Threshold so RCS does not matter for non stealth aircraft.

Where is the so called upgraded superior sensor suite? And RCS always matters. There is a reason countries around the world are working to reduce it even on 4th gen planes. Even a minor difference works a lot. And with Rafale and Su30, the difference can be as much as 50% in targeting range since RCS difference is in the range of 10 times (after missiles).

 

[BCharlie]

Criminal chinese ccp and its PLAAF missiles are short on performance and long on hype.
BTW India has a far superior Meteor missile on Rafales.
Perhaps India can procure some of Russian new generation of long range BVRAAMs just in case.
No worries, mates.

Indian Astra Mk II intercept ranges - head on chase range is 130 kms and tail chase is 160 kms.

Thats what we call Paper Tigers; We have such superior Air Force compared to that Chinese Junk with Pakistan and is of no match;

 

[BCharlie]

Without knowing the results of Chineese a2a missiles India should not be complacent. What if it works?. We should have strategy to have upper hand over them.

It wont and never work.. We have full assurance from America & Israel. So, no worries.

 

[BCharlie]

It's commonly known, except to a few on this site, that Chinese weapons and technology are never as good or as reliable as they claim it is. All of their exports are a disaster with Pakistan, Myanmar and Nigeria complaining about the jets, tanks, ships, missiles, submarines etc. Their technology has been unreliable, insufficient, poor performance, no consistency, unreliable supply of spares or parts, short lifespan along with poor to little service support.

India has to speed up developing our own weapons and technology along with manufacturing it in India. There is a lot of critical technology that we are behind on which is producing a reliable, fuel efficient, consistent and affordable engine for tanks, IFV, APC, naval ships, fighter jets, helicopter. A lot of our products are still under development, facing delays or going through the usual long phase of testing and the private sector needs to help more in key weapons or technology programs.

Maybe you missed the whole subject.. Iran rockets, missiles, drones, ballistic missiles etc all are with Chinese Tech.. Did you not notice when America put sanctions 2 days ago on 3 or 4 Chinese companies & 1 Belarus company for selling missile components to Iran.. Pakistan also buys from them too. All Iranian Ballistic Missiles, Drones, Rocket missiles reached Israel.. whatever missiles were shot down over Iraq, Jordan etc was by missiles fired by US destroyers, Frigates in the Med Sea... Israel this & that iron steel paper wax Domes were singing and doing nothing.. Thats what we should look at .. just saying all is Chinese junk is an ego satisfier. Always, Always expect to happen the most as all what is unexpected, will surely happen.

 

[BCharlie]

Some of the comments writers are Chinese propagandists with Indian names. Watch out for them when they praise Chinese stuff too much.

You are so right.. but we are still waiting to read praises of our own products. what we read here about our product is its late, very late, then we are still discussing, talking & talking & doing nothing. Praising is good, but listening to criticism is also being brave ..

 

[Enthusiast]

IAF has a good strategy of destroying the infrastructure of the enemy after performing SEAD missions. If the runways are damaged, fighters wont take off, if fighters dont take off, air superiority will be achieved and every air assets which are on the ground would get targeted. For tactical superiority, our pilots have good experience in air to air combat and can score big victories against pak/china. The first 1 month of war (in case of a conflict against china) is gonna be full of good news, but however if it extends beyond that, we wont be able to win that war. We will have to involve the navy and try and score a stalemate to stop the war. Its like Connor Mc Gregor. If he cant defeat the opponent in the first 2 rounds, he is not gonna win.