Pakistan’s Networked Strike Took Down Indian Fighter, Says U.S. Analyst

Defence affair - Michael Dahm (analysis)

Michael Dahm, Senior Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, noted in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine that Pakistan's operational ability to establish a coherent “kill chain” under combat conditions has emerged as a defining feature of its air warfare doctrine.

According to Dahm, “Pakistan is capable of integrating ground-based radars with fighter jets and airborne early warning aircraft,” a statement that underscores the growing operational sophistication of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).

He added, “The Pakistani Air Force deployed… ‘A’ launched by ‘B’ and guided by ‘C’, hitting its intended target,” referencing a detailed May 12 report by China Space News, a publication closely affiliated with China’s defence-industrial complex.

The success of this kill chain, Dahm explained, is less about platform-versus-platform comparisons and more about how well each element—from sensor to shooter—is fused into a networked, real-time engagement loop.

In modern high-velocity conflict environments, where milliseconds can determine mission success or failure, the concept of the kill chain—an end-to-end cycle of detection, identification, tracking, targeting, engagement, and battle damage assessment—has become the heartbeat of 21st-century military operations.

Each stage of the kill chain is now supported by a vast architecture of ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) assets, satellite links, high-speed data networks, and increasingly autonomous fire-control systems driven by artificial intelligence.

In the context of the Pakistan-India confrontation, Dahm believes the sequence likely began with a ground radar or air defence system detecting an Indian Air Force aircraft entering contested airspace.

The radar cue was then transmitted to a forward-operating J-10C, Pakistan’s newest 4.5-generation multirole fighter acquired from China, which promptly launched a long-range beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile toward the target.

Guidance during the missile’s midcourse phase was reportedly handled by an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) platform—most likely the KJ-500—using encrypted datalinks to adjust missile trajectory for maximum probability of kill.

“It was a long-range, Beyond Visual Range shot, likely using the export variant PL-15E,” Dahm said, referring to one of China’s most formidable air-to-air missile systems, now fielded by both China and Pakistan.