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• Contract revision adds Islamabad to the list of buyers
• ISPR chief says Chinese weapon systems performed ‘exceptionally well’ during May conflict with India
ISLAMABAD: American defence firm Raytheon will supply Pakistan with advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM) following a contract modification that added the country to the list of buyers, Dawn.com reported.
The US-made missiles are equipped on F-16 Falcons operated by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF).
A September 30 press release on contracts issued by the US Department of War for the US Air Force stated that Raytheon had been awarded a $41.6 million firm-fixed-price modification to a previously awarded contract for the enhanced C8 and D3 AMRAAM variants and their production.
It added that the modification brought the total cumulative face value of the contract to $2.5 billion, up from $2.47bn.
“Work will be performed at Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed by May 30, 2030. This contract involves foreign military sales to the United Kingdom, Poland, Pakistan, Germany, Finland, Australia, Romania, Qatar, Oman, Korea, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, Singapore, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Japan, Slovakia, Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Norway, Spain, Kuwait, Finland, Sweden, Taiwan, Lithuania, Israel, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Turkiye,” the contract said.
The May 7 contract for the AMRAAM deal had not included Pakistan among the list of buyers for the missile.
The same missiles were reportedly used in February 2019, when the PAF conducted Operation Swift Retort and shot down two Indian Air Force (IAF) jets that had intruded into Pakistani airspace over Kashmir.
Pakistan had earlier purchased 700 AMRAAMs in January 2007, in what was the largest international order for the weapon at the time.
The development comes amid improving ties between Pakistan and the US. The positive signals, which began soon after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, seem to be turning into full-blown bonhomie, with Pakistan entering a new phase in its economic and strategic partnership with the US.
Chinese weapon systems
Meanwhile, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry has said that Chinese weapon systems deployed during Pakistan’s four-day military conflict with India in May performed “exceptionally well”.
During the conflict, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar reportedly said that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) used Chinese J-10C jets in its response to India’s May 7 attack.
A report by The Guardian noted that Pakistan’s deployment of J-10Cs would “mark the first time the Chinese planes — and the PL-15 missiles they were carrying — have been used in combat anywhere in the world”.
In an interview with Bloomberg, held last week and published on Monday, the ISPR chief said: “Of course, lately, recent Chinese platforms — they’ve demonstrated exceptionally well. We are open to all sorts of technology.”
Lt Gen Chaudhry was quoted as saying that Pakistan had recently raised its tally of Indian aircraft shot down to seven — up from a previous count of six.
Recently, US President Donald Trump also described how he confronted both nations during an active war that saw “seven aircraft shot down”.
The DG ISPR also refuted Indian claims that Pakistan had lost any planes. “Pakistan has never tried to play with figures and facts,” Lt Gen Chaudhry said.
Pakistan maintains it downed six Indian jets in retaliation in May, including the French-made Rafale. India’s highest-ranking general has acknowledged that its forces suffered losses in the air but denied losing six aircraft.
“The conflict marked the largest battlefield deployment of Chinese weaponry in recent history, with the J-10C as well as the PL-15 air-to-air missile seeing live documented fighting for the first time,” Bloomberg reported.
During the escalation, shares of Chinese defence manufacturing companies rallied as tensions between India and Pakistan boosted the outlook for mainland exporters.
After the Indian political and military leadership made aggressive statements last week, repeating terrorism allegations — which Pakistan has repeatedly refuted — the Pakistani military warned on Saturday that any future conflict with India could lead to “cataclysmic devastation”.
A day later, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that India faced a “decisive defeat with a score of 6-0” in the May escalation, and “if they try again [to go to fight], God willing, the score will be much better than the last time.”
Published in Dawn, October 8th, 2025
