Advertisement
India
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Pakistan-China stealth fighter deal puts India under pressure to modernise air force

  • China-Pakistan FC-31 Gyrfalcon jets deal reflects their ‘joint strategy and synergy to neutralise the threat emanating from India’, analysts say
  • It’s likely to add pressure on India to acquire US F-35 aircraft, to avoid losing tactical air superiority along its borders

Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
51
A Chinese J-31 stealth fighter. China has actively marketed the J-31 to foreign governments that do not have access to advanced Western military technology for political reasons. Photo: AFP
Tom Hussain
Pakistan’s bid to buy stealth warplanes from China may force India to speed up the modernisation of its air force by acquiring American F-35 aircraft to avoid losing tactical air superiority along its borders, analysts said.

Pakistan Air Force (PAF) chief of staff Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber on January 2 said “the foundation” had been laid for its acquisition of the Chinese fifth-generation FC-31 Gyrfalcon stealth fighter aircraft in “the near future”.

He did not specify how many Chinese jets PAF was buying and when, but some observers have speculated that up to 36 aircraft could be delivered by the end of the decade.

An F-35 fighter jet performs a demonstration flight during the Paris Air Show in France last year. Photo: AP
An F-35 fighter jet performs a demonstration flight during the Paris Air Show in France last year. Photo: AP

Mustafa Hyder, executive director of the Pakistan-China Institute in Islamabad, said Pakistan’s planned acquisition of the FC-31 Gyrfalcon showed its “increasing military and defence cooperation” with China in South Asia against “common adversary India”. It is also reflective of their “joint strategy and synergy to neutralise the threat emanating from India”, he added.

The deal would further put pressure on India to move towards the acquisition of the F-35s, even as it accelerates its Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft programme to develop and deploy a stealth combat aircraft by 2032, said Harsh V. Pant, a professor of international relations at the India Institute of King’s College London.

The FC-31 Gyrfalcon is also referred to as J-31 or J-35, because it has not yet been given an official designation by Beijing, reflecting the lack of official orders for the warplane.

Prototypes of the Gyrfalcon are still being developed by the Shenyang Aircraft Corporation, but it is widely expected to be inducted by the Chinese navy within the next five years under the J-35 moniker, for deployment on its growing fleet of aircraft carriers.

Advertisement