The Pakistan Army Aviation Corps has deployed newly procured Chinese language Z-10ME-II assault helicopters to take part within the Raad ul Fatah mixed arms firepower workouts, marking the plane’s debut and permitting them to reveal their appreciable shut air assist capabilities. Staged on the Tilla Firing Ranges in Jhelum, the plane flew alongside the Army’s Chilly Struggle period U.S.-supplied AH-1F Cobra assault helicopters in coordinated live-fire profiles, in what was described as a full-spectrum firepower show. The Z-10 was procured as a direct alternative for the AH-1F, with the supply of the plane first confirmed in July. The Z-10ME-II is a considerably enhanced variant of a helicopter design that first entered service in 2009, and integrates a brand new WZ-16 engine which improves its flight efficiency and its endurance. The variant can carry as much as 16 HJ-10 anti-tank missiles, with this expanded weapons carrying capability the hole in firepower with heavier American and Russian designs such because the AH-64 Apache and Mi-28.
Chinese language armaments have gained rising status in Pakistan, with their most excessive profile current success being J-10C fighters’reported shootdowns of between one and 4 Indian Air Drive Rafale fighters throughout clashes in early Might 2025, inflicting a serious a public relations catastrophe for the Rafale program. A lighter and less expensive counterpart to the J-10C, the JF-17 Block III, is at present being procured in important numbers. Pakistani aerial warfare capabilities have additional been strengthened by current procurements of HQ-9 and HQ-16 lengthy and medium vary air defence techniques, which give the nation with a succesful surface-to-air missile functionality for the primary time. Additional new procurements of Chinese language plane and surface-to-air missile techniques are at present reported to be into consideration, together with KJ-600 airborne early warning and management techniques, HQ-19 anti-ballistic missile techniques, and J-35 fifth technology fighters.
