Pakistan Air Force’s Precision Strikes: A Game Changer in South Asian Military Dynamics
By S. Mishal Zahra Bukhari
With the rise of sun of 10th of May, as the call to Fajr prayer echoed, with the verse of Sura Al-Saff (61-4) in the hearts, Pakistan air force launched operation Bunyan Um Marsoos. Within a few minutes of touching the sky, PAF explicitly showed the precise, powerful and game changing strikes against India. The Pakistan Air Force’s precision strikes on Indian jets have demonstrated a shift in the South Asian military balance, drawing global attention to the growing technological advancements and strategic capabilities of Pakistan’s defense forces. This doesn’t only show the military power of Pakistan, but also the way of fighting a war, the way of showing deterrence, the technological capabilities, the use of diplomacy and the correct timing of retaliation. Moreover; this gave Pakistan a leverage in maintaining balance of power in the region.
All the areas targeted by Pakistan air force were selected keeping in view all the strategical aspects. Most of the targeted areas were located at North or Northwestern India, close to Indo-Pak border. The precision is also evident from the fact that the combat radius (the maximum distance an aircraft can travel from its base, engage in combat, and return to its base without refuelling) of JF-17, which is approximately 1350 km and within this range lies the areas like state of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and part of Jammu and Kashmir. This means that JF-17 thunder can easily target the areas within that distance from Pakistan airfields. These all areas, including others like Jalandhar, Gujrat, Delhi, Pathankot, Udhampur, and Beas, are the hubs of military ammunitions.
The jets used by Pakistan air force against Indian strikes are the proof of great use of technology. JF-17 thunder used to destroy S400, air defence system of India in Adampur, that made India suffer a great loss pf $1.5 billions is the symbol of power for Pakistan air force. Indian rafale is more advanced as compared to JF-17 thunder. Maximum speed of JF-17 thunder is 1.6 March and of rafale is almost 2.0 March. The combat radius of rafale is 1850 km which is more than JF-17 thunder. Even with more combat radius and speed of rafale, Pakistani fighter pilots destroyed the Rafale because of many years of continuous training. The range of JF-17 in air is 100 km, while on surface is 70 km. This difference of range is because the surface targets are not clear due to buildings that interferes in radar signals. Despite of this range, according to the military spokesperson, the PAF aircrafts shot down three Rafale jets, one MiG-29, one SU-series aircraft, and an Israeli-made Heron combat drone. This was indirectly an attack on Israeli technology.
There’s another way for a country to show its potential. This way is neither implied behind the mountains nor through missiles and shows your technological advancement and also creates a psychological impact on the enemy. This way is called “Cyberwarfare”. Here the strategy was to hack the radars, satellite communication and industrial control system by Pakistan cyber force (PCF) along with the operation Bunyan um Marsoos going on side by side. This shows the technological advancements of Pakistan in this era of information where cyberwarfare is one of the main parts of the war.
Now, a red line has been created by Pakistan for the security of its region. The last armed confrontation between India and Pakistan was in 1971 on the issue of east Pakistan. The failure of west Pakistan in that may had created a mindset in India’s perspective of being superior, but current circumstances forced the Indians to rethink about their security, strength and ability to do war. This mind set of being superior has been broken by PAF’s skills but there are some traces left and evident from the statement of Dr. Aparna Pande, research fellow for India and South Asia at the Hudson Institute, he said that: “India has never accepted mediation in any dispute, be it India-Pakistan or India-China, or any other” (CNN, 11th May).
There’s a huge global reaction on effectiveness of Pakistan’s air capabilities. JF-17 was developed by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, China. After all these air strikes by PAF, a Chinese defense analyst Victor Gao said that China should be grateful to Pakistan and Pakistan army, who have established the reputation of Chinese defense technology on the global stage and opened the door for China’s recognition as a superior military power. On the other hand, Indian Rafale was French technology. A senior French intelligence official has confirmed to CNN that one Indian Air Force Rafale fighter jet was shot down by Pakistan and they are in the search of confirmation of more, while Indian media was totally denying this.
Pakistan air force came up on the screen for a few minutes and played its part really powerfully and then left the screen. This has created a soft power of Pakistan all over the world, mainly south Asian region. The military dynamics of south Asia are more in hands of Pakistan and this power can be used to fulfill Pakistan’s interest in the future.
The writer is a research intern at the Kashmir Institute of International Relations (KIIR) and serves as the Coordinator of HEAL Pakistan, a youth-driven effort for humanity, education empowerment , awareness and leadership.”
