China has supplied half-a-dozen new fourth generation fighter jets to Pakistan this week, a move seen as Beijing’s assistance to Islamabad in countering India’s recently-acquired French-built Rafale warplanes

China has supplied half-a-dozen new fourth generation fighter jets to Pakistan this week, a move seen as Beijing’s assistance to Islamabad in countering India’s recently-acquired French-built Rafale warplanes.

The export of the jets was described by the state-owned maker of the aircraft as a major milestone in the export of Chinese advanced aviation equipment.

The six J-10CE fighter jets were inducted into the Pakistani air force on Friday at an event attended by Prime Minister, Imran Khan, reports in Chinese state and Pakistani media said.

The J-10CE is an all-weather, single-engine, single-seat, multirole, fourth-plus generation fighter jet.

China has equipped the aircraft with the country’s latest missiles, “the most powerful short-range combat missile, the PL-10, and China’s most powerful beyond-visual-range-missile, the PL-15”, according to state media.

Pakistan hasn’t said how many aircraft were bought in the deal, though authorities had earlier spoken of up to 25 jets.

“With the delivery of the J-10CEs, China and Pakistan opened a new chapter in aviation defence cooperation, and it will significantly contribute to the further deepening of the China-Pakistan All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership,” Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) said in a statement, Global Times reported.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) from 2016 to 2020, 38% of China’s total arms exports went to Pakistan, and military aviation was an important part of it.

According to AVIC, over the years, Pakistan has commissioned the J-6 fighter, the J-7 fighter and the Q-5 attacker besides joining China’s development of the K-8 basic trainer.

“In the 21st century, facing a new combat environment and the international market, China and Pakistan jointly developed the FC-1, an all-weather, single-engine, lightweight, multirole fourth generation fighter jet also known as the JF-17,” the AVIC said in the statement.

“The J-10CE is not only more powerful than the lightweight JF-17 because of its bigger size, it is also more powerful than Pakistan’s old US-made F-16 fighter, Shi Hong, executive chief editor of Chinese magazine Shipborne Weapons, had earlier told the tabloid.