The four-day clash between India and Pakistan in early May 2025 saw intense use of high-tech drones, missiles and air defenses, but the systems imported from China produced disappointing results for the Pakistan military, analysts said.
India’s airstrikes, for instance, successfully hit multiple targets within Pakistan, meaning the missiles penetrated Pakistani air defenses reliant on Chinese surface-to-air missiles.
The Chinese air-defense systems “do not appear to have been as effective as the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) would have hoped,” Bilal Khan, founder of the Toronto-based Quwa Defence News & Analysis Group, told the Agence France-Presse news service.
“If Chinese-origin radar or missile systems failed to detect or deter Indian strikes, that’s bad optics for Beijing’s arms export credibility,” Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a think tank based in London, told the CNN news network.
After the fourth and final night of fighting, the Indian Air Force said it targeted as many as 11 PAF air bases and inflicted sustained and long-term damage by knocking out 20% of PAF’s infrastructure. Pakistan initially dismissed the claim as an exaggeration, but United States media outlets, relying on satellite images, substantiated the damage reported by New Delhi.
Satellite images indicated widespread attacks with damage that “appeared mostly inflicted by India on Pakistani facilities,” although photos were limited and the extent of the damage unclear, The New York Times newspaper reported.
“Our integrated air defense system is at par with that of the United States, Russia, or Israel. It has even proven to be superior to the Chinese systems,” retired Indian Maj. Gen. GD Bakshi, told the online publication EurAsian Times. China has not deployed its frontline equipment alongside Pakistan, Bakshi noted, but the systems it did export, the HQ-9 and HQ-16, “have performed poorly. We have successfully neutralized them.”
India neutralized at least one SAAB-2000 airborne early warning system, a kill termed “historic,” because the plane was shot down deep inside Pakistan by a surface-to-air missile launched 314 kilometers away, Brahma Chellaney, an author and geostrategist, wrote in The Japan Times newspaper.
Indian airstrikes crippled major Pakistani air bases — including Nur Khan and Bholari — without sustaining confirmed retaliatory damage. Nur Khan, near Pakistan’s nuclear command and army headquarters, was particularly symbolic, Chellaney wrote. Its targeting by Indian cruise missiles signaled a calibrated message: Even high-value, well-defended assets are not beyond reach.
Meanwhile, Pakistan relied heavily on Chinese military hardware, deploying J-10C fighter jets armed with PL-15E air-to-air missiles and HQ-9 long-range surface-to-air missile systems. Chinese satellite reconnaissance reportedly supported Pakistani targeting, with Beijing using satellites to enhance coverage over Indian military zones.
It proved futile. The fighter jets launched multiple missiles at Indian targets, but there was no independent verification of successful hits.
Pakistan also reportedly fired a China-made CM-401 missile, a hypersonic anti-ship missile, against land targets in India. Yet there was no visible or confirmed impact, Chellaney wrote, “raising questions about the missile’s versatility outside its intended maritime role.”
Pakistan also launched as many as 400 drones in a single night, but there is little evidence of damage to Indian targets.
Pakistan initially boasted its Chinese-supplied jets shot down six Indian aircraft including three French-made Rafale fighters, but it offered no evidence. India downplayed the claim as propaganda, saying all its pilots returned safely.
