How the AWACS-Guided BVR Narrative Was Built – and What the Evidence Actually Shows Plus Pro

One year after the 7 May 2025 air battle, one of the dominant narratives for Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) shoot-downs of Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters had settled on a specific and now widely recited claim – i.e., PAF J-10C fighters armed with PL-15E beyond-visual-range (BVR) missiles engaged at 160–190 km using AWACS-to-missile guidance via the Erieye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) system.

This account now appears across Wikipedia’s PL-15 entry, multiple defence media aggregators, and YouTube channels on both the Indian and Pakistani sides. 

However, tracing the claim back to its origins raises questions about how much of it is sourced from participants and how much was constructed backwards from outcomes by analysts.

Where the ‘Kill Chain’ Claim Originated

The earliest post-conflict framing of the kill chain came from China Space News (中国航天报), a Chinese defence-industry publication, which described the engagement on 12 May 2025 in abstract doctrinal terms – a weapon “launched by ‘A’, guided by ‘B’, and hitting the target assigned by ‘C’.” The report did not name the XS-3 or any specific data link protocol.

This framing was picked up in English-language reporting through Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and former U.S. Navy intelligence officer. In an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine published on 19 May 2025, Dahm reconstructed a sequence in which a ground radar illuminated the target, a J-10C launched its missile at range, and “an airborne early warning and control aircraft used a midcourse datalink to update and guide the missile to the Indian fighter.”