If Pakistan moves forward with acquiring China’s J-35 stealth fighter, it will represent the most significant upgrade to its airpower since the F-16s entered service back in 1983. For the Pakistan Air Force (PAF), this would mark several milestones: entry into fifth-generation aerial combat and the introduction of its first twin-engine fighter jet, after two and a half decades. Stealth warfare prioritises detection and first-strike capability over sheer numbers, and twin engines would give Pakistan deep strike capability.
Pakistan also has a second option of investing in the Turkish fifth-generation fighter programme KAAN. But this programme depends heavily on Western inputs, especially the aircrafts engine, which can in future cause problems such as sanctions.
On day one of Operation Sindhoor, PAF’s use of airborne early warning, electronic warfare support, and coordinated strike packages gave it a clear operational leg up. They exercised their multidomain capabilities and forced Indians to ground their entire air fleet for the next 48 hours.
If history has taught us anything, it is that domestic deception is never sustainable.
By the time India develops means to counter Pakistan’s newest approach, enter J-35, a stealth aircraft, which even in limited numbers, changes the operational framework. The J-35 would complicate Indian air planning for years to come. It would force India to assume that key assets, airbases, airborne early warning aircraft, and high-value radars are always vulnerable, especially in the opening hours of a conflict. Stealth is not about being totally invisible. But it is just a way to get close enough to fire long-range missiles before the enemy’s radar even knows you are there. That alone enhances deterrence from Pakistan’s perspective.
If Pakistan’s acquisition of the J-35 goads India into pursuing procurement of the American F-35 Lightning II, this development would impose extraordinary fiscal pressure even on an economy as large as India’s. These costs tend to compound over the years, making the F-35 way more expensive than what it originally cost. On top of that, the mission readiness of the aircraft is 50%. The F-35 costs roughly thirty-six thousand dollars per flight hour to fly and relies on a complicated global supply chain because it is built by a group of eight partner countries, including the U.S., the UK, and Italy.
Jawaharlal Nehru saw India’s tryst with global destiny as something inevitable, which is why the country quietly pursued nuclear ambitions from the very beginning. Like its blue water naval ambitions, and its military spending seemingly expresses global ambitions, but in reality its forces are prepared only to submit to Pakistan.
Another option for India is the Russian SU-57, and despite Russia’s offer of “unprecedented control” to India, it has refused the plane. IAF’s reasons for rejecting the plane are design flaws and inferior electronics as compared to its western counterparts.
Indian media often touts the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) as a future counter to new fifth-generation fighters in the region. But the programme is still many years from production and faces the same institutional problems that have slowed past “indigenous” projects. The Tejas, originally conceived in the 1980s, took decades to reach service in any meaningful numbers, and deliveries still fall desperately short of the Air Force’s needs. Against that history, hopes that AMCA will quickly become an operational fifth-generation fighter look unrealistic. Sharing satellite pictures does not prove the aircraft real; it’s more of a public relations exercise that feeds the narrative of the government, which is winning one battle after another against Pakistan on paper and achieving self-reliance, and that too on paper. If history has taught us anything, it is that domestic deception is never sustainable.
China’s success in developing and fielding stealth fighters shows fifth-generation airpower is no longer just a Western monopoly. The J 35 signals how rapidly China’s aerospace industry has advanced, able to produce complex aircraft with low observable shapes, modern avionics and sensors, and networked multidomain warfare capabilities. For Pakistan, which has deepened defence ties with China over the years, the J 35 offers a realistic route to a fifth-generation fighter without the political limits and export restrictions that often come with Western systems. Along with this, Pakistan’s armed forces need to closely watch evolving technologies emerging around the world.
The J 35 would even the odds in the skies and blunt India’s numerical advantage till India fields its own stealth fighter; until that happens, it would serve as credible deterrence.
The writer can be reached at pasha118118 @gmail.com