On 11 March 2022, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) officially inducted the J-10CE “Dragon” ‘omni-role’ fighter. The initial batch comprised of six aircraft and joined the PAF’s No. 15 Squadron. The PAF held the induction ceremony of the fighter aircraft at Minhas Air Base in Kamra.
The PAF revealed that it signed the contract for the J-10CE – alongside training, ground support equipment (GSE), and munitions – with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) in June 2021.
Furthermore, the PAF added that the entire process from finalizing the deal to training to delivery took only eight months. This was a notable feat considering most modern fighter acquisitions take at least two years to materialize.
From the induction ceremony footage, one can confirm several key details about the PAF’s J-10CEs. First, the fighters are capable of deploying the PL-15E long-range air-to-air missile (LRAAM). Second, the J-10CEs can deploy the PL-15E using dual-ejector racks. The fighters are also configured with infrared search and track (IRST), the PL-10E high-off-boresight air-to-air missile (HOBS AAM), and in-flight refueling.
In his speech, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief Marshal (ACM) Zaheer Ahmad Babar, outlined the PAF’s J-10CE configuration. The fighters are equipped with active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, an integrated electronic warfare (EW) suite, and network-centric warfare and sensor-fusion capabilities. The CAS also stated that the J-10CE was capable of deploying stand-off range weapons (SOW).
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