Pakistan air force inducts new batch of Chinese fighter jets

China has supplied half-a-dozen new fourth generation fighter jets to Pakistan this week, a move seen as Beijing’s assistance to Islamabad in countering India’s recently-acquired French-built Rafale warplanes

China has supplied half-a-dozen new fourth generation fighter jets to Pakistan this week, a move seen as Beijing’s assistance to Islamabad in countering India’s recently-acquired French-built Rafale warplanes.

A Pakistan Air Force official briefs Prime Minister Imran Khan, center in cockpit, about Chinese-built J-10C fighter jet during a ceremony in Minhas Base near Islamabad, Pakistan on Friday. (AP)

The export of the jets was described by the state-owned maker of the aircraft as a major milestone in the export of Chinese advanced aviation equipment.

The six J-10CE fighter jets were inducted into the Pakistani air force on Friday at an event attended by Prime Minister, Imran Khan, reports in Chinese state and Pakistani media said.

The J-10CE is an all-weather, single-engine, single-seat, multirole, fourth-plus generation fighter jet.

China has equipped the aircraft with the country’s latest missiles, “the most powerful short-range combat missile, the PL-10, and China’s most powerful beyond-visual-range-missile, the PL-15”, according to state media.

Pakistan hasn’t said how many aircraft were bought in the deal, though authorities had earlier spoken of up to 25 jets.

“With the delivery of the J-10CEs, China and Pakistan opened a new chapter in aviation defence cooperation, and it will significantly contribute to the further deepening of the China-Pakistan All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership,” Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) said in a statement, Global Times reported.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) from 2016 to 2020, 38% of China’s total arms exports went to Pakistan, and military aviation was an important part of it.

According to AVIC, over the years, Pakistan has commissioned the J-6 fighter, the J-7 fighter and the Q-5 attacker besides joining China’s development of the K-8 basic trainer.

“In the 21st century, facing a new combat environment and the international market, China and Pakistan jointly developed the FC-1, an all-weather, single-engine, lightweight, multirole fourth generation fighter jet also known as the JF-17,” the AVIC said in the statement.

“The J-10CE is not only more powerful than the lightweight JF-17 because of its bigger size, it is also more powerful than Pakistan’s old US-made F-16 fighter, Shi Hong, executive chief editor of Chinese magazine Shipborne Weapons, had earlier told the tabloid.

It can rival the Rafale fighter jet that recently entered service with the Indian air force, Shi said.

The J-10CE is not the only advanced weapon system China has delivered to Pakistan recently. The Pakistan navy in January inducted its first Type 054A/P frigate.

The ship, delivered to Pakistan in November, was the largest and most advanced warship, a frigate with stealth capabilities, China had ever manufactured. Chinese state media reported the commissioning of the warship, quoting local and Pakistani officials, listing the vessel’s advanced capabilities, and noting that the delivery highlights Sino-Pakistan “all-weather strategic cooperative partnership”.

At least three more similar warships are expected to be delivered to Pakistan