Enhancing Joint Warfighting

Prasun K. Sengupta

Although the air forces of China and Pakistan have been conducting bilateral air exercises since early 2011, it was only over the last two years that such exercises have acquired criticality, with the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) increasing its reliance on the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) for accessing critical operational inputs on the warfighting capabilities of the Indian Air Force (IAF). Hence, it came as no surprise that within five months of the IAF-PAF clash over Jammu on February 27 (when the PAF launched OP Swift Retort), the eighth in the series of PLAAF-PAF air exercises—codenamed EX Shaheen-VIII—was conducted at Hotan air base in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region over a 15-day period in mid-August that year.

J-10C with TVC nozzle

This was the largest of the bilateral air exercises ever to be conducted over a 15-day period, beginning on 23 August 2019 and