PARIS: A dogfight between Pakistan`s China-made jets and Indian Rafale fighters will be closely scrutinised by militaries seekinginsights that could offer an edge in future conflicts.

Chinese-made Pakistani fighter planes had shot down at least two Indian military aircraft on Wednesday, marking a potential major milestone for Beijing`s advanced fighter jet.

The aerial clash is a rare opportunity for militaries to study the performance of pilots, fighter jets and air-to-air missiles in active combat, and use that knowledge to prepare their own air forces for battle.

One US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters there was high confidence that Pakistan had used the Chinese-made J-10 aircraft to launch air-toair missiles against Indian fighter jets.

Social media posts focused on the performance of China`s PL-15 air-toair missile against the Meteor, a radar-guided air-to-air missile produced by European group MBDA.

However, in a social media post, Sindh minister Sharjeel Inam Memon said Pakistan`s defence system shot down three Rafale jets on May 6 and 7. The pilots survived due to the British company MartinBaker`s ejection system.

Martin-Baker updates record Writing on the social media platform X, the senior minister noted that Indian Rafale aircraft are equipped with the Martin-Baker Mk 16 ejection seat. He added that Martin-Baker maintains a record of every pilot whose life is saved by its technology and regularly shares this information on its official X account. The company recently updated its tally of lives saved, increasing the number from 7,784 to 7,788, Mr Memon said.He said that one of the four newly recorded survivors was involved in the crash of a US Navy Super Hornet in the Red Sea. The remaining three, he said, were Indian Rafale pilots, who were evidently shot down by Pakistan on May 6 and 7.

Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said, `Air warfare communities in China, the US and a number of European countries will be extremely interested to try and get as much ground truth as they can on tactics, techniques, procedures, what kit was used, what worked and what didn`t.

`You have arguably China`s most capable weapon against the West`s most capable weapon, if indeed it was being carried; we don`t know that.

The French and Americans would likely be hoping for similar intelligence from India, Barrie said.

`The PL-15 is a big problem. It is something that the US military pays a lot of attention to,` a defence industry executive said.-Agencies