A French intelligence service says China has used its embassies to promote claims that Chinese-made Pakistani warplanes outperformed French Rafale jets during India-Pakistan clashes in May.

China deployed its embassies to spread doubts about the performance of French-made Rafale jets after they saw combat in India and Pakistan’s clashes in May, French military and intelligence officials have concluded, implicating Beijing in an effort to hammer the reputation and sales of France’s flagship fighter.

Findings from a French intelligence service seen by The Associated Press say defense attaches in China’s foreign embassies led a charge to undermine Rafale sales, seeking to persuade countries that have already ordered the French-made fighter — notably Indonesia — not to buy more and to encourage other potential buyers to choose Chinese-made planes.

The findings were shared with AP by a French military official on condition that the official and the intelligence service not be named.

  • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    2 days ago

    Yes 4 jets were confirmed shot down with 1 proven to be a Rafale, 1 Mirage, 1 Su-30MKI, and a MiG-29. US confirmed 2 French origin jets were shot down but didn’t specify which ones, Pakistan still claims they shot down 3 Rafales total on top of the other 3.

    There’s several good sources of the entire air battle and the key aspect being the BVR kill chain, meaning the Rafale isn’t necessarily a bad jet.

    But Dassault suffered an immediate loss in stock value and potential sale clout right after the battle ended and both sides had their debrief.

    As much as I’m going to make fun of the other reply in this thread for trying to cover up getting slammed by a PL-15 as “pilot error”, this really has more to do with the modern methodology of air combat which the IAF was not prepared for due to their lack of a dynamic integrated electronic platform.

    Their Rafale purchase was already a knee jerk response to their loss in 2019 when a MiG-21 pilot was shot down by the PAF and captured.

    France sold them a guarantee of quality, but they didn’t buy a full package with AWACS, EW, etc because it was already extremely expensive with each jet and armaments coming in at 300 million USD.

    Now that Russia is no longer selling big weapons due to their war in Ukraine, India is really stuck in a tight spot because foreign tech will always be very expensive, and their homegrown projects under HAL have never really taken off or been battle proven (ex: their Tejas jet).