Air power represents one of the essential and most necessary component of national/ multi-national military power as being basic part of elements of national power, possessing specific characteristics of Air strategy, aerial superiority, strategic & Tactical air force with air supremacy to reflect and secure the Grand/ National strategy of a nation with the will of the national interest, In wartime, air power has major applications in prosecuting the chosen overall military strategy of a Grand strategy, it can be used largely independently or as well as in joint operations (land & sea power)As Sir Winston Churchill (1949) said;
“For good or ill, Air mastery today is the supreme expression of military power, and fleets and armies, however necessary and important, must accept subordinate rank. This is a memorable milestone in the march of man”.
The operation SWIFT RETROT, Pakistan Air Force engaged in a dogfight when IAF jets pursued PAF aircraft, F-16 on stand-by for defensive role & JF-17 for combat and offensive attack. Using Electronic warfare, PAF breached and then disconnected the communication line between IAF jets and its command-and-control system. The PAF claimed to have shot down two IAF jets inside its territory, during that combat, a MiG-21 Bison and a Su-30MKI. The MiG-21 pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was captured after ejecting over Pakistan’s territory. India confirmed the MiG-21 loss but denied the Su-30MKI claim, while asserting it downed a PAF F-16, a claim Pakistan and U.S. officials refuted after verifying Pakistan’s F-16 inventory.
The stealth race in South Asia ; Indo-Pak rivalry
Following Pahalgam attack (22nd April 2025), in this terror attack 26 Indian citizens were killed, after that India started to build a narrative and false flag claims on Pakistan for funding and sponsoring the terrorist, either to investigate the incident “THE HINDUTVA” sentiment of implementing a war for under pure liar narratives, disseminated by Indian centric media houses, to extending & proving its regional hegemon for strengthening its muscles via that strategic miscalculated move to attack deep inside Pakistan, on the night of 7th May initiated OPERATION SINDOOR, launched ballistic and cruise missiles on different locations in various cities under cover of targeting terrorist hideouts, sleeping cells & militant infrastructure, as the result of that 26 people were martyred.
Leading OPERATION SINDOOR Indian Air Force with its fleet of MIG-29, MIRAGE 2000 (secondary option in terms of effective use), Russian-made SU-27, SU-30MKI, and recent upgradation and modernization of IAF with French Rafael (a 4.5 generation fighter jet, stand-off weapon SCALP (Storm Shadow) Cruise Missile with 250 km range, HAMMER and Heron drone, with total numbers of 70+ jets were airborne.
Pakistan Air Force engaged those jets and trapped Rafales, SU & MIG in an invisible dogfight with J-10CE, it’s an export variant of the Chengdu J-10C, a 4.5-generation multirole fighter jet developed by China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, features with a delta wing and canard design, a WS-10 engine, AESA radar, and advanced electronic warfare capabilities.
With a maximum speed of Mach 1.8, designed for air-to-air combat and strike missions, armed with PL-15E missiles (with extended range of 200km delivered directly by PLA’s weaponry ), with BVR (beyond visual range ) capability as called by PAF FIRST LOOK, FIRST SHOT, FIRST KILL capability, that reflects the futuristic approach towards that ongoing tensions, PAF inducted recent delivered and upgraded version of PL-15E and used it in offensive attack launching it remaining within its own airspace played a central role in downing Indian fighter jets, including three Rafales, one SU-30 MKI, and a MIG, during India’s “Operation Sindoor”.
The PAF with its fleet of JF-17 inducted CM-400AKG, it is a supersonic, air-launched, anti-ship missile (AShM), ranging from Mach 4 to Mach 5.5, also it can achieve hypersonic speeds (Mach 5+) at high altitudes or during terminal descent, range is approximately 100–240 km, Equipped with Inertial Navigation System (INS), satellite-based GNSS(Global Navigation Satellite Systems) and terminal seekers (passive radar or infrared) for precision targeting.
It can lock onto radar signals from enemy air defense systems, enhancing its anti-radiation capabilities. It follows a semi-ballistic trajectory, climbing to high altitudes before descending near-vertically, making it difficult for air defense systems to any intercept. developed by the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). Moreover, it is designed as a stand-off weapon (SOW) for precision strikes against high-value targets, such as naval vessels, aircraft carriers, and fortified ground installations.
The missile is a key component of Pakistan’s maritime anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) strategy and has been integrated with the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) JF-17 Thunder multirole fighter, that is the crucial and lethal part of PAF’s maritime war strategy to ensure the security, sovereignty of the motherland, CM-400AKG is the counter for any upcoming extended naval/maritime interference of Indian aircraft carriers, during that ongoing conflict, INS VIKRANT felt biggest setback and did not took part in open sea battlefield as India dreamed about using it for naval extension of regional power hegemon.
Recently, the Russian-made missile defence system was delivered to India, and it deployed its batteries over its neighbors’ borders. In May 2025, PAF, with its JF-17s, armed with CM-400AKG missiles, destroyed an Indian S-400 air defense system in Adampur, Punjab, as part of Operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos, which proved the PAF’s professionalism and training skills for a hot war time period and preparedness for any misadventure from the Indian side.
Modern U.S. Air Force Doctrine (2020): “Control of the air is the foundation for all other military operations; without it, no campaign can succeed.” The PAF with limited resources counter Indian advanced air force which equipped with, missile defence systems (S-400, BARAK-8), fleet of 4.5 generation French Rafael, marked a lot of setbacks for India not only in terms of military specifically in air dominance, aerial superiority, war affairs, geopolitics, geo-economics’, at same time breach the dream of aerial superiority, dominant hegemon of IAF and its HINDUTVA promoted inspiration.