TESTING THE DRAGON’S ARSENAL: THE ROLE OF CHINESE J-10C FIGHTERS IN THE MAY 2025 INDIA–PAKISTAN WAR AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE KASHMIR CONFLICT

Abstract

The May 2025 India-Pakistan crisis was the most intense military conflict between the two countries in decades and soon turned into a matter of the second category, which is regarded as the first large-scale testing of Chinese high-end airpower in South Asia. Central to that discussion was the Chinese-supplied J-10C fighter of Pakistan, which, according to Reuters, citing the U.S. officials, was reported to have been engaged in at least two shootdowns of Indian aircraft in the first aerial engagement of 7 May 2025. Acknowledging later that India was (initially) losing air, other reports after the conflict indicated that one of the Rafale and at least two others of the Indian air force could have been lost, although precise numbers were in dispute. The present paper is a qualitative case-study that employs the method of document analysis and process tracing in order to investigate the role of the J-10C into the conflict as well as to evaluate its wider aspects of the Kashmir dispute. Three interconnected reasons why the J-10C was significant to the paper include: as a battle platform in a beyond-visual-range conflict, as a demonstration of the further development of China-Pakistan strategic alliance, and as a rhetorical tool that transformed the perception of the crisis in Kashmir. The paper also states that the importance of the aircraft is not in the crude kill numbers but in its contribution to deterrence, escalation and strategic discourse. The war proved that non-nuclear-based operations are getting increasingly more technologically thick, rapid and increasingly geographically wide. Kashmir is becoming, in this setting, a place where not only territorial competition but also competitive signaling with military weaponry, coalition politics, reputational testing of advanced weapons systems are also taking place.