An interview with a military expert was published in Pakistan, Air Force General, retired Kizer Tufar, who is considered one of the best military pilots in the country in recent years. Retired general, with extensive experience in piloting F-16 fighters, comments on the situation, which concerns the border aviation confrontation between Pakistan and India.
In particular, retired general spoke about the border air combat between the air forces of the two countries, which happened in February 2019 years - after India struck Pakistani territory. This is the same fight, as a result of which the Indian pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was shot down and captured.
Kizer Tufar:
India in Jammu and Kashmir used Su-30MKI aircraft and very old aircraft, our air force - F-16. Since the Su-30MKI did not have a data transmission channel for the safe exchange of information with the MiG-21, his radar could not help in the confrontation with Pakistani Air Force fighters. Pakistani F-16 fighter fired AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile during conflict and shot down MiG-21 in one fell swoop.
Pakistani general:
Su-30MKI and MiG-29 fighters, which are in service with the Indian Air Force, certainly, have high maneuverability. But this helps them only in battle in line of sight..
As the Pakistani military expert notes, when it comes to combat in the air "out of line of sight", then the named fighters show disadvantages. He considers the main disadvantage to be difficulties with the exchange of information., maintaining the network-centric system during the operation.
Tufar:
I cannot make an unambiguous conclusion about all the shortcomings of the Su-30MKI fighter's weapons control, but one thing is clear to me: these aircraft cannot be compared to a combination, used by the Pakistani Air Force: F-16 and AIM-120 missiles. The Indian Air Force is aware of these restrictions, so they decided to place an order to buy Rafale from the French.
At the same time, the Pakistani retired general, who in Pakistan itself and in the Chinese media is called an ace pilot, He added, that I would not talk about the high skill of Indian pilots Rafale today.
Recall, that the first five fighters from France arrived in India at the end of July, and just the other day they officially became part of the Indian Air Force.
