India and Pakistan are fighting with a mixed bag of foreign-made fighter jets. The aircraft kills are being counted.

Nuclear powers India and Pakistan are clashing again, and 1 broadside is already claiming kills successful aerial battles that dependable similar a hodgepodge of foreign-made combatant aircraft.

Pakistani officials said Thursday that the state has changeable down 5 Indian combatant jets and a fig of drones since India launched cross-border strikes earlier this week, kicking disconnected a caller circular of warring betwixt the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Ishaq Dar, Pakistan's overseas minister, said the country's aerial unit "engaged with the Indian combatant jets successful self-defense" and changeable down 5 craft and an undisclosed fig of aerial drones.

Dar said Wednesday Pakistan utilized Chinese-made J-10C jets successful its effect to India's strikes the nighttime before. He identified immoderate of the Indian craft downed arsenic the French-made Rafale fighters, according to the state-run nationalist quality agency.

The 5 craft that said to person been changeable down consisted of 3 Rafales and 2 Russian-designed combatant aircraft: a MiG-29 and a Su-30, per reports citing Pakistan's military.

Pakistan said its Chinese-made J-10Cs took portion successful the effect to India's strikes. Photo by AAMIR QURESHI/AFP via Getty Images

That is rather the premix of combatant aircraft. Both countries alert pitchy designs from each astir the world, and struggle has the imaginable to bring jets into conflict that mightiness different not engage.

Pakistan, for instance, flies Chinese-made J-10s, the associated Pakistani-Chinese J-17 fighter, American-made F-16s, and French Mirages, portion India operates the French-made Rafales and Mirages, Russian-origin Su-30s, MiG-29s, and MiG-21, UK Jaguars, and a homemade combatant pitchy known arsenic the Tejas.

The J-10C Pakistan touted, arsenic it claimed victories implicit the Indian Air Force, is simply a single-engine, multi-role craft manufactured by the Chinese aerospace conglomerate Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group. Pakistan received its archetypal batch of these combatant jets — upgraded versions of the archetypal J-10 — successful 2022. They tin transportation bombs, air-to-air missiles, and rockets.

The Rafale is simply a twin-engine multi-mission fighter craft manufactured by the French aerospace institution Dassault Aviation. India is 1 of lone a tiny fig of countries that run these combatant jets and fields 36 of them. Recently it signed a woody to acquisition much than 2 twelve much for its navy.

And past the Mikoyan MiG-29 and overmuch larger Sukhoi Su-30 are twin-engine combatant craft developed successful the Soviet Union by Russian aerospace firms. These 2 jets are operated by dozens of countries astir the satellite and tin transportation retired assorted missions.

The MiG-29, introduced successful the aboriginal 1980s, was built to antagonistic the American-made F-15 and F-16. Meanwhile, the Su-30 entered work successful the pursuing decade. These craft correspond a large constituent of India's aerial power. The state fields hundreds of them.

India fields the MiG-29, which was introduced by the Soviet Union successful the 1980s. REUTERS/Amit Dave

Business Insider could not independently verify Pakistan's claims that it changeable down the 5 aircraft. India's defence ministry and its embassy successful the US did not respond to queries astir the aerial engagements.

Information from these clashes tin beryllium unreliable. During the 2019 clashes, India claimed that 1 of its MiG-21 pilots defeated a Pakistani aviator flying an F-16. The US aboriginal called that into question.

Reuters reported that US officials confirmed that successful the latest clashes, Chinese-made J-10s were utilized to down astatine slightest 2 Indian aircraft.

Not conscionable planes, but drones too

Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, a spokesperson for the Pakistani Army, said Thursday that Islamabad had destroyed a twelve of India's Harop drones — loitering munitions, oregon one-way onslaught drones, packed with explosives. The weapons, which tin linger implicit a people country earlier striking, are made by Israel Aerospace Industries.

Chaudhry, during a property conference, displayed images purporting to amusement debris from the downed Indian drones. "The equipped forces are connected a precocious grade of alert, and neutralizing them arsenic we speak," helium said.

India connected Tuesday nighttime said that it launched strikes against 9 "terrorist infrastructure sites" successful Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, signaling the commencement of a caller subject cognition — Operation Sindoor — that Islamabad has labeled an enactment of war.

The Soviet-era Su-30 is newer and overmuch larger than the MiG-29. Photo by IDREES MOHAMMED/AFP via Getty Images

The latest circular of fighting, which has sent tensions soaring betwixt the 2 rivals, follows a massacre past period successful Indian-administered Kashmir, which near 26 radical dead. India has historically accused its neighbour of supporting cross-border terror, though Pakistan has denied engagement successful the attack.

India's defence ministry initially said that nary Pakistani subject facilities were hit, "reflecting India's calibrated and non-escalatory approach." But connected Thursday, New Delhi said that it had targeted aerial defence systems and radars crossed the border.

Pakistani enactment vowed to respond to the Indian strikes, and the state has already deed backmost astatine India with mortars, artillery shells, drones, and missiles, New Delhi said. Several radical person been killed successful some countries implicit the past 2 days.