MADE IN CHINA AIR DEFENCE SYSTEMS FAIL TO PROTECT PAK AIRSPACE REPEATEDLY

These Chinese assets are either malfunctioning, or have overpromised, or are being handled by untrained personnel.

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The recent missile and drone strike by Iran into Pakistan has raised questions in various quarters, both in Pakistan and internationally, on whether the Pakistan military was capable enough to protect its airspace, which has been repeatedly violated in the last few years.

Despite claiming to have multiple air defence assets, which have been bought whi le spending huge amounts, these defence systems, most of which are of Chinese origin, have failed to secure Pakistani airspace.

In May 2011, US Air Force assets and men spent three hours and six minutes inside Pakistan during the Abbottabad raid to kill Osama Bin Laden. Neither the entry of the four helicopters—two Black Hawks and two Chinooks—from Afghanistan, nor their exit was detected by the Pakistani air defence system, most of which are of Chinese origin. The US Air Force flying machines entered Pakistan airspace through the Afghanistan border at 11.20 a.m. and left at 2.26 a.m. Pakistani fighter jets were scrambled on the orders of then Pakistan Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani at 2.50 a.m.—more than 43 minutes after Kayani had issued the orders.

Similarly, when multiple Indian Air Force assets flew into Balakot, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in February 2019, to target the training camps of terror organization Jaishe-Mohammad, then too the  Pakistan Air Force defence system that was put in place to counter such developments, was not able to respond in reasonable time.