(GEO MILITARY AFFAIRS) — The massive aerial clash between Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters earlier last month — widely described as the “largest Beyond Visual Range (BVR) engagement in history” — has quickly become a case study for air forces worldwide.
Thailand is among the latest to take a keen interest in the unprecedented BVR encounter, with its Royal Thai Air Force reportedly convening a seminar dedicated to analysing the Pakistan-India aerial standoff.
Images circulating on social media show the Royal Thai Air Force holding a forum titled “Analysis of India-Pakistan Air Conflict May 7–8, 2025,” which explicitly labelled the event as “the largest BVR air combat in history.”
According to senior Pakistani officials cited by major US broadcaster CNN, the engagement between PAF and IAF fighters was “the biggest air battle in history,” involving an extraordinary 125 combat aircraft from both nuclear-armed rivals.
CNN reports that despite both air forces staying within their respective airspaces, they exchanged missile fire at distances of up to 160 kilometres, launching advanced air-to-air missiles while relying heavily on their AESA radars for targeting and tracking.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed that PAF fighters faced off against at least 75 to 80 IAF jets during what he described as the largest BVR clash ever recorded.
“And we successfully shot down five of those Indian fighter jets,” Dar claimed.
As widely reported, India is alleged to have lost six fighters during the exchange — including three Dassault Rafales, one Sukhoi Su-30MKI, a MiG-29 Fulcrum, and a Mirage 2000.
India’s Rafale fleet, inducted in 2016, remains the IAF’s most advanced multi-role combat asset, designed for both air dominance and precision strike.
Dar further claimed that the IAF’s losses were inflicted by PAF J-10C fighters armed with China’s PL-15E BVR air-to-air missiles.
“The much-hyped Rafale fighters failed miserably, and the Indian Air Force pilots proved they lack proficiency,” the Pakistani minister asserted.
One PAF J-10C is specifically reported to have downed an Indian Rafale at an unprecedented distance of 182 kilometres using a PL-15 missile — an engagement Pakistani defence journalists have cited as possibly “the longest recorded kill in aerospace history,” though this remains unverified.
In comparison, Russian sources have previously claimed that a Russian Su-35S once shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29 at 213 kilometres using the long-range hypersonic R-37M air-to-air missile, which has a maximum advertised range of 400 kilometres.
Developed by China’s Airborne Missile Academy (CAMA), the PL-15 has rapidly gained a reputation as one of the world’s most formidable BVR missiles — on par with America’s AIM-120D AMRAAM and Europe’s MBDA Meteor.
The Pakistani J-10C that launched the missile reportedly remained in Pakistani airspace during the engagement, firing the PL-15 at the Indian Rafale in the early days of the conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan first took delivery of its Chinese-built J-10C fighters on 4 March 2022, when the initial six aircraft arrived at Minhas Airbase in Kamra and were officially inducted into service as the PAF’s No. 15 “Cobras” Squadron.
The induction of the J-10C was widely seen as Islamabad’s strategic response to New Delhi’s Rafale acquisition, aimed at restoring a measure of aerial parity in South Asia’s volatile skies.
The J-10C is considered a 4.5-generation fighter, boasting an advanced Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, sophisticated electronic warfare systems, and the capability to carry long-range BVR missiles such as the PL-15.
Pakistan initially announced an order for 25 J-10Cs in December 2021, with the first batch delivered in time for Pakistan Day celebrations on 23 March 2022.
Since then, Islamabad has received additional units and is reportedly negotiating to expand its J-10C fleet to as many as 60 aircraft — a move intended to fortify its air defence posture amid India’s continued expansion of its Rafale fleet.
Meanwhile, US aerospace analyst Michael Dahm, a Senior Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, has emphasised that the most significant takeaway from the India-Pakistan BVR clash was Pakistan’s demonstrated ability to integrate its Chinese-built fighters, sensors, and command systems into an effective “kill chain.”
Quoted by Air & Space Forces Magazine, Dahm argued that mastering the kill chain — the seamless sequence from target detection to engagement and battle damage assessment — is far more critical than any single aircraft’s advertised performance.
“Pakistan managed to integrate its ground-based radar with fighter jets and airborne early warning aircraft (AEW&C),” Dahm explained.
“The Pakistan Air Force executed an attack launched by ‘A’, delivered by ‘B’, and guided by ‘C’,” he added, citing details from a 12 May report in China Space News, a Chinese defence industry publication.
In modern warfare — where speed, real-time intelligence, and precision are decisive — the kill chain is at the heart of any credible air combat doctrine.
Typically, it comprises six phases: Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage, and Assess, each reinforced by advances in ISR drones, high-speed data links, satellite communications, and increasingly autonomous weapons.
Dahm described a likely scenario in which Pakistan’s ground radar — possibly part of its air defence network — detected incoming Indian fighters.
A PAF J-10C then fired a BVR missile from standoff range, while an AEW&C aircraft used a mid-course data link to guide the missile towards its target.
“It was a long-range, Beyond Visual Range shot, most likely using the export variant PL-15E,” Dahm said.
The PL-15’s development, led by China’s CAMA, has established it as one of the world’s most potent BVR missiles — rivalling the best Western equivalents like the AIM-120D and Meteor.
Pakistan’s approach to integrating its kill chain mirrors the US military’s Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2) concept, which seeks to fuse operations across all services and domains.
“When — and if — more detailed data about this engagement emerges, it may reveal just how advanced Pakistan’s system integration really is, compared to India’s,” Dahm noted.
He also pointed out that Pakistan is believed to have modified some of its Chinese AEW&C aircraft for electronic warfare missions, though it remains unclear whether those capabilities were actively used to manipulate the electromagnetic battlespace.
“What can we really conclude about comparing Chinese and Western technology? Perhaps not much,” Dahm reflected.
“But what truly matters is the level of system connectivity, crew training, tactics, and all the other elements that can’t be measured on a spec sheet.”
He argued that these factors often outweigh the simple comparison of one fighter type against another.
While India’s air force is numerically larger, Dahm highlighted its highly diverse inventory — a complex mix of Western, Israeli, Russian, and indigenous technologies — which poses significant challenges for seamless kill chain integration.
The IAF operates one of the most eclectic fighter fleets in the world, fielding platforms that span multiple origins: French Rafales, Russian Su-30MKIs, MiG-29s, Dassault Mirage 2000s, domestically built Tejas jets, and even older SEPECAT Jaguars from the UK.
This diversity gives India notable strength in numbers and multi-role capacity but also creates interoperability hurdles, with different avionics, electronic warfare suites, data protocols, and communication systems needing to work in unison with ground-based radars and AWACS platforms.
In the era of data-driven warfare, how well those disparate systems can be fused into a single, resilient kill chain may well determine who commands the skies.
— GEO MILITARY AFFAIRS