Relatively speaking, the battles in other directions were not so intense.

In fact, Islamabad was not bombed that night.

Although the air defense units in Islamabad were immediately thrown into battle after the surprise attack by India, and the anti-aircraft guns rang out almost all night, no Indian fighters bombed Islamabad that night, and no Indian fighters even flew over, and the Pakistani air defense forces were simply wasting ammunition.

Of course, the Indian assault did not end in complete failure either.

The Pakistan Air Force is capable of intercepting Indian fighter jets and attacking aircraft groups, but it is difficult to deal with ballistic missiles thrown overhead, as well as a large number of cruise missiles, not to mention those that are thrown hundreds of kilometers away and have extremely weak target characteristics.

On a strategic level, with the exception of the failure to raid the Karachi military port, the Indian Air Force has basically completed its stated strike mission.

That is, the destruction of several major air bases in Pakistan near the front line.

Affected by this, the Pakistan Air Force had to urgently activate the field airfield in the rear and let the fighters who had completed the mission land in the rear.

In addition, the Pakistan Air Force also fired back that night.

At around 2 a.m., Pakistan used tactical ballistic missiles to attack several Indian air bases southwest of New Delhi.

The effect of the strike is not obvious, at most it can only be regarded as creating some trouble for the Indian Air Force.

Of course, this round of attacks also shows that the Indian Air Force also lacks the ability to intercept ballistic missiles.

South of New Delhi, the Indian Air Force deployed an S400 air defense system imported from Russia, which claims to be capable of intercepting ballistic missiles with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, but the system did not work when the Pakistani missiles arrived.

Afterwards, the Indian Air Force claimed that it did not use the S400 system because it was threatened.

What threat?

The Pakistan Air Force has at least 20 JF-20 fighter jets capable of air defense suppression, and all of these fighters are deployed in the northern region and were launched before the Indian Air Force launched a surprise attack, so the air defense system in the northern part of India is all threatened.

The threat does exist, but certainly not as serious as the IAF claims.

Why?

When these 20 anti-aircraft suppression JF-20s took off, they carried anti-aircraft ammunition and performed the task of covering AWACS aircraft.

That is, in the evening of the same day, the Pakistani Air Force did not arrange the task of air defense suppression.

In fact, in the event of a surprise attack, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) will first consider preserving its strength, and secondly, maintaining air supremacy over its homeland, rather than destroying India's air defenses through counterattacks, which will not be considered until the Pakistan Air Force is determined to launch a large-scale counterattack.

In fact, it was precisely for the purpose of preserving strength that these 20 JF-20s were always operating behind the battle line and did not participate in the front-line battles that night.

It's just that Pakistan's ballistic missiles, especially tactical ballistic missiles, are clearly not advanced.

Although the relationship with China is extraordinary, China has not exported ballistic missiles to Pakistan due to restrictions imposed by international treaties.

In addition, Pakistan has not procured ballistic missiles from China.

Why?

What can be exported are ballistic missiles with a range of less than 300 kilometers, but what Pakistan needs is ballistic missiles with a range of more than 1,500 kilometers.

Besides, instead of spending money on ballistic missiles, it is better to buy some long-range rocket artillery.

It is precisely for this reason that Pakistan has been developing and producing ballistic missiles on its own, and has not imported them from China, nor has it even tried to obtain technical support from China.

However, it is clear that Pakistan has more than just ballistic missiles.

At around 3 a.m., Pakistan launched a second round of counterattacks.

This time, cruise missiles were used.

Yes, cruise missiles are the counterattack weapon in the hands of the Pakistani army.

Why?

In terms of cruise missiles, Pakistan and China can be said to be in the same line, and strictly speaking, Pakistan has played a rather huge role.

This goes back to the early days of the war in Afghanistan.

Soon after the United States launched the war in Afghanistan, several Tomahawk cruise missiles failed and fell into Pakistan.

According to information published by the US authorities, the wreckage of at least 3 Tomahawks was not found.

A few years later, Huaxia announced the first strategic cruise missile with a range of up to 1,500 kilometers, which was almost indistinguishable from the "Tomahawk" in appearance.

Subsequently, Pakistan also announced cruise missiles with a range of up to 800 kilometers.

After that, Pakistan's cruise missiles developed simultaneously with China's cruise missiles, but during the same period, Pakistan's cruise missiles were slightly shorter in range, generally about half of China's similar cruise missiles, but the warhead was much larger.

To put it bluntly, Pakistan does not need cruise missiles with a long range.

Why?

The Indian military targets that Pakistan has to deal with are actually not very far from Pakistan, so a range of 800 to 1000 kilometers is sufficient.

Relatively speaking, Pakistan needs more powerful cruise missiles to strike some high-value strategic targets.

In addition, Pakistan has long acquired the ability to produce cruise missiles, and the rate of localization is close to one hundred percent.

In fact, it is precisely because of the emphasis on the localization rate that Pakistan's cruise missiles are still far inferior to China's cruise missiles in some aspects.

It's not that Huaxia is unwilling to sell related technologies, but the price is too great for Pakistan to afford.

To put it more simply, in order to double the range while maintaining the mass of the warhead, it is necessary to use a small turbofan engine with a lower fuel consumption rate, which is several times more expensive to launch than a turbojet engine, and the cost of large-scale equipment is extremely high.

For example, the use of high-precision guidance devices, it is necessary to use high-performance equipment, and a set of high-precision guidance devices is much more expensive than ordinary guidance devices that only use terrain inertia and terrain matching guidance, and the end plus satellite navigation correction.

In order to reduce the price, it is necessary to lower the tactical indicators.

Of course, the benefit of low prices is also significant, that is, Pakistan is able to procure and equip enough cruise missiles to compensate for the lack of strike capabilities.

In addition, these missiles are also easier to produce in wartime.

At that time, the ex-factory price of the Khataf-9 cruise missile produced in Pakistan was only $400,000, less than one-fifth of that of similar missiles in the United States.

Even compared to Huaxia's CJ-20, that's about $800,000 cheaper.

It's so cheap that it won't hurt to use.