Pakistan likely used NATO-Style aerial tactics taught by China during Operation Sindoor
New Delhi: During India’s Operation Sindoor, particularly on 7 May, Pakistan is believed to have deployed NATO-style aerial combat tactics taught by China, tactics originally developed by Western air forces. This revelation, reported by ThePrint, has raised serious concerns among Indian defence planners and Western security establishments.
According to ThePrint, one of the key tactics observed was the "launch-and-leave" strategy, commonly used in NATO air forces. In this method, one aircraft fires a missile and disengages immediately to avoid enemy detection, while a second aircraft with superior radar capability guides the missile to its target. This coordinated tactic allows forces to strike at long range even in environments dense with air defence systems.
Defence sources told ThePrint that these tactics were likely executed using Chinese-supplied J-10CE fighter jets and the Saab 2000-based Erieye Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) systems currently in Pakistan Air Force service. The sources added that China has trained Pakistani pilots in these advanced techniques.
What’s more alarming, ThePrint reported, is how China acquired these capabilities. Over the past decade, Beijing has clandestinely recruited former military pilots and air operations experts from NATO countries, particularly from the Five Eyes alliance (the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), to train the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF).
In 2022, the UK Ministry of Defence confirmed that nearly 30 ex-British military pilots were being lured with lucrative contracts to pass on their expertise to China. A 2023 Der Spiegel report further revealed that former Luftwaffe pilots had also been training PLAAF personnel, with some possibly simulating combat scenarios involving Taiwan.
In 2024, a joint intelligence bulletin by the United States and its Five Eyes partners warned that the PLA was using private intermediaries in South Africa and China to hire former Western military personnel. These recruits include fighter pilots, flight engineers, and command center staff, all targeted for their deep knowledge of Western air combat doctrine and planning methods.
“The PLA wants the skills and expertise of these individuals to make its own military air operations more capable while gaining insight into Western air tactics,” the bulletin said. “This knowledge directly threatens the security of the US, its allies, and their armed forces.”
ThePrint notes that the resurgent threat lies not only in China's ability to modernize its own military but in its successful export of sophisticated air combat strategies to Pakistan. This transfer of tactical knowledge could significantly shift the aerial balance in South Asia and complicate India’s operational preparedness on its western front.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
