China’s J-10 ‘Dragon’ shows teeth in India-Pakistan combat debut

Even before the fog of war had begun to lift, the Chengdu Aircraft Company’s stock had started to soar. Almost three decades after first taking to the skies, the Chinese plane-maker’s first fighter jet, the J-10 Vigorous Dragon, had finally seen combat — and survived. By 4am on May 7, Chinese diplomats in Islamabad were at the foreign ministry, poring over results from the first face-off between modern Chinese warplanes, replete with missiles and radars untested in battle, and advanced western hardware deployed by India. As evidence mounted, while remaining inconclusive, that a Pakistani pilot in the latest variant of the Vigorous Dragon may have shot down India’s French-made Rafale jet, Chengdu’s share price leapt more than 40 per cent in just two days. “There’s no better advertisement than a real combat situation,” said Yun Sun, a specialist in Chinese military affairs at the Stimson Center in Washington DC. “This came as a pleasant surprise for China . . . the result is quite striki

Even before the fog of war had begun to lift, the Chengdu Aircraft Company’s stock had started to soar. Almost three decades after first taking to the skies, the Chinese plane-maker’s first fighter jet, the J-10 Vigorous Dragon, had finally seen combat — and survived. By 4am on May 7, Chinese diplomats in Islamabad were at the foreign ministry, poring over results from the first face-off between modern Chinese warplanes, replete with missiles and radars untested in battle, and advanced western hardware deployed by India. As evidence mounted, while remaining inconclusive, that a Pakistani pilot