At a time when India exposed Pakistani lies on not using F-16 fighters for attacking Indian positions in Nowshera sector by producing evidence in form of remains of the AIM-20 air to air missile fired by the Pakistani planes, experts said it is not possible that the missile could have fired from a Chinese JF-17 plane that is in the Pakistan Air Force inventory.
"The Americans had provided them with the missiles under a Foreign Military Sales deal to the Pakistanis for the F-16 planes. There is no way that the Pakistanis could have integrated the missile with a Chinese-origin plane such as the JF-17," Air Marshal (retd) SBP Sinha said.
The former senior IAF officer said the missiles had been given to the Pakistanis for their fight against terrorists during the war on terror after the US had attacked Afghanistan to hunt Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban.
"The integration of missiles with aircraft is a very complex system and there is no way the Americans would allow the Chinese to get into their missiles' software," he said.
IAF officials said the AIM-20 was fired at the Indian MiG-21 flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman and one of them missed its target and fell down in the Indian side in the Rajouri sector.
The AIM-20 is an air-to-air missile manufactured by Raytheon corporation of the United States and is available for sale to foreign countries only through government to government deals.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)