Allies Eye India Data on Chinese Weapons

As India's armed forces continue sifting through and analyzing the information gathered during last month's clashes with Pakistan, there is growing interest among New Delhi's strategic partners in gaining access to electronic and digital signatures of Chinese-origin weaponry scooped up by Indian air defence systems.

- Rezaul H Laskar

NEW DELHI:

The air forces of India and Pakistan were involved in several engagements between May 7, when New Delhi launched Operation Sindoor to target terrorist infrastructure in retaliation for Pahalgam terror attack, and May 10, when the two sides reached an understanding on halting military actions. Experts have characterized these as the most intense air-to-air combat engagements in recent times.

People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that Indian air defence systems and radars gathered considerable information on Chinese-origin equipment, particularly the J-10C and JF-17 combat jets, PL-15 active radar-guided beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile and HQ-9 long-range surface-to-air missile. This was the first known use in combat for most of this equipment, they said.