Key Points and Summary – During the May 2025 India-Pakistan conflict, India recovered an intact Chinese PL-15E air-to-air missile fired by a Pakistani jet.
-This represents a major intelligence windfall, providing India’s defense researchers a “treasure trove” of information.
J-20 with PL-15 Missile. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-They are now reverse-engineering the missile to develop countermeasures and potentially incorporate its technologies into India’s own Astra missile program.
-The recovered missile was an export variant, less capable than China’s domestic version, and notably lacked a self-destruct mechanism. Initial analysis suggests some advanced features, possibly derived from Russian designs, but the weapon is considered “not mature.”
Inside China’s PL-15 Missile: What India Is Learning Right Now
WARSAW, POLAND – During the May 2025 Operation Sindoor conflict between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF), the latter is reported to have lost several aircraft, suffered a significant number of air defense systems destroyed, and suffered damage to air bases and other facilities. If the question of loss-exchange ratios is raised, the PAF came away with the proverbial short end of the stick.
In a report on the incident published earlier this month by the Carnegie Endowment, the overall assessment revealed is:
“As Pakistan hit back at Indian military and civil targets, the Indian response amplified over subsequent days—air defenses, command and control centers, and key airfields were taken out and at least five Pakistani jets and one early warning aircraft were shot down.
Experts have noted that India’s military victory was shrouded by undue focus on specific platforms and one-sided narratives, partly fueled by undue silence from the Indian side on its losses and delays in sharing information.
But the real losers in the several days—actually 87 hours—of engagements were not either of the air forces, but the missile design firms of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Due to the number of missiles fired by the Pakistanis that landed more or less intact on Indian territory, the entire series of incidents has provided what has been characterized as a treasure trove of information on Chinese weapons.
Among the systems that India was able to retrieve intact is the Luoyang Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) PL-15E. It is now in the hands of India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), which is currently in the process of reverse-engineering its design.
Insights and Design Improvement
Indian media reports are now claiming that DRDO is not only unraveling all the secrets of the missile but also incorporating the PL-15’s advanced capabilities into India’s own indigenous Astra Mark-2 program to improve its design.
At the same time, the opportunity to examine the missile up close and determine how it actually functions has given the Indian research center the ability to develop countermeasures to this and any other similar Chinese weapons.
Reportedly, pieces of different fragmented PL-15s have been recovered from several sites on Indian territory, while one PL-15E was recovered fully intact in a field near Hoshiarpur, Punjab, on May 9. Operation Sindoor was also the first time numerous Chinese weapons, including the PL-15E, had supposedly ever been used in modern warfare. The missile is likely to have been fired from Pakistani fighter jets supplied by the Chengdu Aerospace Corporation, either JF-17 or J-10C models.
J-10CE Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
This particular missile missed its target and soft-landed about 100 kilometers inside Indian territory. A Reuters report on the engagements suggested that any of the IAF aircraft lost might have been due to intelligence failures in assessing the real performance of the PL-15.
According to the same report, Pakistani sources state the IAF pilots had underestimated the range of the Chinese-made PL-15 missiles. India has denied all Pakistani claims of the loss of some of their aircraft, except for one of the Rafales, which New Delhi states was due to a “technical glitch.”
How The PL-15 Missile Was Recovered
Indian media reports are that the missile recovered was an export variant of the Chinese missile, the PL-15E, but they are then stating it has a range of more than 200 kilometers. Thus, the Indian media reports are wrong on two accounts.
One is that the range of the PL-15E, the export version, tops out at about 140 km or less. Its range is far less than that of the standard PLA version.
Another point is that Indian reports state the missile is an analog to the European-made MBDA Meteor missile. However, the PL-15E differs significantly from the Meteor in that the latter is powered by a ramjet rocket motor, whereas the Chinese missile is not. PL-15 uses a solid rocket fuel dual-pulse motor.
India is said to have been able to recover the PL-15 because the Chinese missile does not have a self-destruct mechanism that would keep an advanced weapon from falling into enemy hands.
J-10 Fighter From China. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
J-10. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
No details have been released regarding the results of the investigation into the recovered missile. However, the initial reports that have come back show that many of the PL-15 configuration details appear to have been copied from a Russian design.
Specifically, the antenna array inside the missile’s radome is not a conventional mechanically positioned antenna, but rather a small active electronically scanned array (AESA). It also has improved anti-jamming capabilities.
France, Japan, and possibly the US are also interested in accessing the missile. However, the Indian analysis thus far suggests that the weapon possesses some advanced characteristics, but it still has design flaws that need to be addressed. “It is not a mature weapon,” said one Indian military official.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of the Asia Research Centre at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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