Like the Indian Air Force, the Pakistani Air Force has a problem with insufficient ammunition stocks, and it is even more serious.

Why?

Pakistan is poorer.

Historically, the Pakistan Air Force has adopted a low-inventory strategy, which means minimizing the size of the inventory of consumables and saving money.

In fact, in order to maintain the necessary fleet size, Pakistan will not be able to stock too much ammunition.

Why?

The storage period of any ammunition is limited, and often only about 10 years, while the service life of a fighter is more than 30 years.

That is, during the service of the fighter, the ammunition is replaced at least 3 times.

If you store too much ammunition in normal times, it will be a great waste when it is decommissioned, and even if it is taken out and refurbished, it will cost a lot of money.

For the Pakistan Air Force, which is itself underfunded, there is clearly no reason to stock too much ammunition.

When purchasing the JF-17, the Pakistan Air Force controlled the inventory of the supporting SD-10A to about 0.5 bases.

Suffice it to say, this is a very dangerous ratio.

Why?

As long as war breaks out, the JF-17, which has only half of the ammunition in stock, will be dispatched once in an all-plug mode!

Later, when purchasing the JF-20, the Pakistan Air Force increased the number of SD-10Cs in stock to 1 base because the threat of war had increased.

However, the configuration standard for prevention and control patrols is adopted, that is, one JF-20 carries 4 SD-10Cs.

Obviously, this percentage is still too low.

At the outbreak of the war, the Pakistan Air Force had less than 300 SD-10A and only about 600 SD-10Cs in stock.

In fact, this is the main reason why the Pakistan Air Force rarely lets the JF-17 perform air defense missions.

With less than 300 SD-10A, the JF-17 will run out after 70 sorties.

The problem is that the SD-10C is also far from enough.

You know, in the first two days, the JF-20 of the Pakistan Air Force made hundreds of sorties and used more than 400 SD-10Cs in combat.

Despite the impressive record of shooting down dozens of Indian fighters, the SD-10C's inventory is about to bottom out.

According to the intensity of the engagement in the first two days, the remaining SD-10C will only be able to hold out for one day.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the fact that Pakistani Air Force pilots do not know how to save in battle.

Why?

In many cases, JF-20 pilots will use four SD-10Cs to attack a target, especially when encountering enemy aircraft such as the F-16E/F and Su-30MKI.

Such a high-intensity attack has improved the shoot-down ratio, but also caused a huge waste.

You know, theoretically, 2 SD-10Cs have a 96% probability of being shot down, and adding 2 more will increase this probability by 3%.

Obviously, this efficiency is really too low.

Comparatively speaking, the pilots of the Indian Air Force are much more "economical".

Most of the time, 2 missiles are used against one target.

Why are pilots in the Pakistan Air Force so extravagant?

Quite simply, there is nothing to worry about, because Pakistan is backed by China, and if it needs missiles, one train can carry thousands.

Pakistan does not have many missiles in stock, but China has a lot of them, and they are basically not used up.

It is not that the Huaxia Air Force likes to hoard missiles, but the Huaxia Air Force is equipped with thousands of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters, and it always has to stock some missiles.

Even according to the standard of one base, there are thousands of medium-range air-to-air missiles in Huaxia's stockpile.

Of course, as a large country, the inventory base will generally be maintained between 2 and 3, that is, Huaxia's inventory of medium-range air-to-air missiles is close to 20,000.

Among them, the PL-12C, that is, the self-use version of the SD-10C, will definitely not be less than half.

Why?

Before the PL-12, Huaxia actually did not have medium-range air-to-air missiles in the real sense, and the production of PL-12A/B was not very large.

The main thing is that in the era of PL-12A/B, there were not many fourth-generation fighters of the Huaxia Air Force.

At that time, the main force was still the Su-27SK and Su-30MKK imported from Russia, and these fighters could only use missiles imported from Russia.

That is, the PL-12 produced by Huaxia can only be used on fighters of its own production.

By the time the J-10B/C, J-11B, J-16 and J-20 fighters entered service in large quantities, the PL-12C had already been introduced, and there was no need to continue the production of PL-12A/B.

In addition, the PL-12C received a dual-thrust rocket engine, which significantly increased the range.

It was on this basis that Huaxia developed the SD-10C specifically for export, and first received an order from the Pakistan Air Force.

Interestingly, it was not the SD-10C that was first offered to Pakistan, but the PL-12C with this name.

Why?

Because the first batch of JF-20s obtained by Pakistan is actually the J-10C of the Huaxia Air Force.

Since then, although the Pakistan Air Force has purchased a batch of SD-10C, but after using it, the response is not very good, so it went to negotiate with Huaxia, and finally replaced all the purchased SD-10Cs with PL-12C, and all self-produced JF-20s have retained the fire control procedures using PL-12C.

In fact, the Pakistan Air Force just thinks that the PL-12C for Huaxia's own use is better.

Of course, this is not the case.

The SD-10C is nominally a foreign trade missile, but in terms of overall performance it is no worse than the PL-12C, and it is slightly better in terms of maintainability.

After all, the country that buys the SD-10C is unlikely to be rich, and routine maintenance may not be in place.

In any case, Pakistan's JF-20 can directly use Huaxia's PL-12C without any changes, but when the bomb is hung, the pilot needs to reset the fire control program, so that the fighter's fire control system can recognize this missile and automatically complete the matching.

The most important thing is that when purchasing JF-20, Pakistan and Huaxia signed an arms purchase agreement that has come into effect, but has not been started, to be precise, it is an intention to purchase agreement, that is, to directly import 2,000 PL-12C from Huaxia, and after the contract is completed, the Pakistan Air Force can also make a decision on whether to purchase PL-12C according to actual needs, and Huaxia has signed this contract of intent.

This means that as soon as Pakistan signs it, the contract is officially valid.

Obviously, this is a back door to Pakistan.

To put it bluntly, even if a war breaks out between Pakistan and India, as long as China remains neutral, it will not violate international law when it honors the contract it has signed.

If Huaxia had not remained neutral, there would have been nothing to worry about.

It is with this contract in hand that there is simply no need for the Pakistan Air Force to stock too many and extremely expensive air-to-air missiles.

On the day the war broke out, the Prime Minister of Pakistan signed the contract.

Subsequently, Pakistan's Ministry of Defense and Foreign Affairs formally sent a request to Huaxia, hoping that Huaxia would send these missiles over as soon as possible.

Of course, Pakistan is willing to pay an additional transportation fee as stipulated in the contract.

As a result, on the second day of the outbreak of the war, four Y-20s of the Huaxia Air Force sent 500 PL-12Cs in good condition, which solved the urgent need of the Pakistan Air Force.