A day after the Indian Air Force (IAF) efficiently targeted the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror training camp at Balakot on February 26, 2019, to avenge the Pulwama terror strike, the Pakistanis launched a counter with US F-16 combatants and Chinese JF-17 warring parties south of Pir Panjal in Jammu and Kashmir.
There is documentary evidence that the Pakistan Air Force relied solely on F-16s to target unspecified goals in the Nowshera-Rajouri-Poonch sector across the LoC with JF-17 combatants no longer involved in the action at all.
Stung by means of a couple of disasters of JF-17 aircraft, principally due to the serviceability of RD-93 engines, Pakistan had directly approached Russia for purchasing the RD-93 engines, bypassing China. In the aftermath of more than one negotiations through Islamabad with Moscow, Russian engine business enterprise Kilmov has now indicated its willingness to grant RD-93 engines and its related repair structures and upkeep amenities to JF-17 aircraft.
Russia has been strengthening its defence ties with Pakistan through permitting it to procure the RD-93 engine at once from it as opposed to the use of China as an intermediary as was the case previously. However, worldwide members of the family are in a nation of flux and strategic equations are changing quickly with Russia coming beneath stress from the West and searching for assist from others. It is obvious that Russia is moving shut to China in the evolving geo political matrix which is sought to be exploited with the aid of Pakistan.
