By Admin 
The reality of the Chinese missiles with which Pakistan had threatened India during Operation Sindoor came to light when the debris of the PL-15E missiles fired from Lahore towards Punjab was found. What China calls its most dangerous air-to-air missiles did not even explode after being fired. After finding their debris, Dragon is worried that it might impact the defense market and its missiles might not get any other customers. In view of this, it has quietly started investigating PL-15E missiles.
China has started a technical investigation into the manufacturing sector of PL-15E missiles. During Operation Vermillion in May 2025, Indian security forces had recovered several Chinese-made PL-15E air-to-air missiles. These were recovered from the fields in perfect condition. Intelligence assessment revealed that these were advanced weapons fired by Pakistan Air Force (PAF). It has also come to light that due to a malfunction in the proximity fuse and self-destruct mechanism, these missiles could not even reach their target.
PL-15 missiles increased China’s tension!
The recovery of these intact missiles has increased the concerns of the China Airborne Missile Academy. All these weapons are P-15 series weapons. According to the defence.in website, technical teams of CAMA were sent to Pakistan immediately after the war. In this, stock audit of 240 remaining PL-15E missiles was done. China had sent these weapons to Pakistan after a big defense deal in 2021.
In this case, the entire focus of the investigation was kept on the terminal phase explosive of the missiles. Why couldn’t the missiles explode? The serial number of one missile revealed that it was manufactured around 2015. It contained weapons from some old production batches.
How dangerous are China’s PL-15E missiles?
This is a Chinese missile. Which is the export version of long-range air-to-air missile PL-15. Its range is considered to be around 145 km. The fault that has come to light includes the missile’s guidance system and fusing system. The recovered missiles were found in the fields of Hoshiarpur.
To hide its shortcomings in Operation Sindoor, Pakistan had claimed that PL-15E missiles had shot down Indian Air Force jets including Rafale and Sukhoi. This claim was declared completely false by Indian defense officials. At the same time, the receipt of these missiles will help India’s intelligence in obtaining a lot of data.