Pakistan equips JF-17 fighters with Chinese long-range PL-15 missiles

Pakistan has for the first time equipped its JF-17 Thunder fighter jets with Chinese PL-15 long-range missiles. This happened against the backdrop of an escalating conflict with India in Kashmir.

Here's What We Know

The Pakistani publication The STRATCOM Bureau published a photo of a JF-17 Block III Thunder fighter jet with long-range PL-15 and short-range PL-10 air-to-air missiles. According to the source, the missiles have just arrived from China and will be deployed across the entire JF-17C fleet.

The publication also notes that the delivery was made from the Chinese Air Force warehouses and the missiles do not have the restrictions typical of export versions.

The PL-15 missile, developed in 2011, has a range of up to 200 km thanks to a twin-pulse rocket engine and is equipped with an active radar head with an AFAR (Active Phased Array). The range of the export version of the PL-15E is 145 km.

Importantly, if the missile's characteristics meet the declared ones, the Pakistani Air Force will be able to counter Indian Rafale missiles armed with Meteor missiles. This is especially important in the context of the escalation in Kashmir, where militants recently shot dead about 50 tourists.

Source: X