In the afternoon, the two sides fought their second large-scale air battle in the south over air supremacy between Karachi and Hyderabad.

This time, the advantage is entirely in the hands of the Pakistan Air Force.

Why?

The Pakistan Air Force is operating on the inside line, and in this direction, the Indian Air Force has no AWACS aircraft at its disposal and is able to provide extremely limited support.

In fact, the Indian Air Force is also very aware of this.

The battle began with the Indian Air Force's F-35AI trying to sneak up on the Pakistan Air Force's ZDK-05.

At that time, at least four F-35AIs crossed the border and tried to attack the ZDK-05 patrolling north of Karachi, only to be spotted by the ZDK-05 when they were close to 200 kilometers, and the four JF-20s escorting the ZDK-05 immediately stepped forward to meet them.

For the AIM-35D carried by the F-120AI, 200 kilometers is obviously too far.

After being intercepted by the JF-20, the four F-35AIs hurriedly fired missiles and then turned to retreat, and the JF-20 also attacked with missiles.

After the incident, the Pakistan Air Force claimed to have shot down an F-35AI, but the Indian Air Force refused to admit it.

So, did the Pakistan Air Force shoot down the F-35AI?

In fact, it was not the ZDK-05 that first discovered the F-35AI at that time, but the HQ-9B long-range warning radar deployed in Hyderabad.

This radar has been improved specifically for fifth-generation fighters.

Although it was not the legendary terahertz radar, it was one of the more advanced air defense radars at that time.

At least, much better than the radar of the S400, which India imported from Russia.

Why?

Huaxia also imported the S400 air defense system, tested the radar equipped with it for a long time, and then began mass production and equipment of the HQ-9B.

Although the S400 has a longer range, in terms of radar performance, it is really not very good.

In fact, this is also a common problem of Russian-made weapons, that is, the electronic equipment is very backward and can often only solve the problem with a huge volume.

It's just that the radar of the HQ-9B also only found the F-35AI.

Because Japan has already obtained the F-35A, and India's F-35AI and Japan's F-35A have a high degree of similarity in radar signal characteristics, Huaxia has long mastered the radar signal characteristics of the F-35A, and must have provided relevant information to Pakistan.

It was in this way that the Pakistan Air Force concluded that they were several F-35AIs.

You must know that even if the ZDK-05 is equipped with an active phased array radar, the transmission power of its radar is not very large due to the limitations of the airframe.

To put it simply, the detection capability of the ZDK-05 is at most the same as that of the Huaxia KJ-500, and perhaps a little worse.

According to the experience of the Chinese Air Force in using the KJ-500, its detection range of the F-35A is certainly not 200 kilometers, at the best it is about 180 kilometers, if the weather is a little worse, it is only 150 kilometers, if you are unlucky, it may only be 120 kilometers.

Fortunately, the Pakistan Air Force has a complete combat system.

After the search radar of HQ-9B discovered the F-35AI, it immediately sent the relevant information to ZDK-05, and ZDK-05 also immediately adjusted the working mode of the radar and concentrated on scanning the airspace where the F-35AI is located, thereby greatly increasing the detection range of the radar in this direction.

It can be seen that this is the power of the system.

In normal search mode, the ZDK-05 has absolutely no detection range of 200 km for the F-35AI, but in the centralized scanning mode, it can reach 250 km.

At this time, ZDK-05 discovered the F-35AI and immediately led the fighter to intercept it.

At that time, the Pakistan Air Force used a set of tactics that worked very well.

What tactics?

The ZDK-05 was covered by fighters at close range, waiting for Indian fighters to come to the door, thus taking full advantage of the support provided by AWACS.

In fact, this set of tactics was also summed up during confrontation training with the Huaxia Air Force.

Although the Pakistan Air Force does not have fifth-generation fighters, the Huaxia Air Force has, and has been equipped for several years, and has long formed combat effectiveness.

In addition, the Pakistan Air Force conducts a confrontation training with the Huaxia Air Force once a year.

It was in the past few years that the Huaxia Air Force used the J-20 to participate in confrontation training, which familiarized the Pakistan Air Force with the way to engage with the fifth generation of combat.

The key, in fact, is the internal line of operations, as well as the integrated air defense system.

To deal with fifth-generation aircraft, the key is early warning aircraft, but at the same time, it needs the assistance of other air defense systems, so system construction is crucial.

In fact, it was precisely under this influence that the Pakistan Air Force began to fully adopt Huaxia's weapons and equipment.

Why?

Only with all the weapons and equipment from China can we establish the most effective combat system and hope to defeat the more powerful Indian Air Force.

In addition, the confrontation with the Huaxia Air Force also allowed the Pakistan Air Force to master relevant tactics.

Specifically, it is actually an internal line operation, which compresses the scope of defense, strengthens the connection between combat units, and enhances the flexibility of the various participating forces.

And, of course, there is the indispensable informatization.

With the JF-20's radar, it will definitely not be able to lock on to the F-35AI more than 100 kilometers away, in fact, the detection range of the F-35AI is about 100 kilometers.

Theoretically, the JF-20 locks on to the F-35AI at a maximum of 60 kilometers, perhaps only 40 kilometers.

Fighting the F-35AI alone, the JF-20 has no chance of winning, and will even be shot down by a missile fired by the opposing side before the F-35AI can be spotted.

At that time, the firing range of the JF-20 reached 80 kilometers.

That is, the JF-20 launched the missile before locking on the F-35AI.

This distance can't be closer.

Why?

The AIM-120D has a lore distance of 80 kilometers against the head-on target, and if it continues to close, there is a good chance that the four JF-20s will be shot down before they can open fire.

Why was the JF-20 able to fire at such a distance?

Quite simply, the task of guiding air-to-air missiles was entrusted to ZDK-05, that is, the AWACS aircraft provided relay information to control the SD-10C.

It's just that the Pakistani Air Force has not done it thoroughly enough.

The information detected by the ZDK-05 must first be sent to the JF-20, and then the JF-20 will control the launched missile, rather than directly control the missile.

Of course, against Indian fighters, this is enough.

Why?

With the support of the ZDK-05, those JF-20s were able to immediately turn to evasion, thus avoiding entering the range of the AIM-120D.

It was in this way that all four JF-20s got rid of the AIM-35D fired by the F-120AI.

As for whether the SD-10C shot down the F-35AI, in fact, even the Pakistan Air Force can't say for sure.

Why?

At that time, the JF-20 had already turned to evasion, and there was very little information available, at most it was able to confirm that the SD-10Cs had reached the intended self-guidance area.

The problem is that the F-35AI, after launching the missile, will definitely also turn to evasion.

In addition, after avoiding the AIM-120D, the 4 JF-20s did not re-lock the target with radar, and therefore did not provide the final guidance information for the missile.

Although theoretically, after entering the self-guidance stage, the SD-10C will automatically search for the target and then launch an attack, and does not need the final guidance, but in actual combat, if the last link is missing, then the SD-10C often cannot reach the vicinity of the target smoothly.

Obviously, the SD-20C launched by the JF-10 did not necessarily hit the F-35AI.