PL-15

And they stood it up in a day.

Second, the J-16 carries the PL-15 Beyond Visual Range missile.

Analysts have noted that the PL-15's no-escape zone, the area from which a targeted pilot statistically cannot outmaneuver the missile, is larger than anything currently in the Western arsenal.

And this missile has no American software lock on it.

No remote disabled capability buried in the firmware.

No political strings.

No software locks controlled from a server abroad.

The J16 with the PL-15 is a complete weapon system with complete sovereign control.

And what's even more incredible than its record-setting reach is the fact that this weapon can be carried internally by American F-35s, allowing them to engage enemy aircraft from extreme range without compromising their stealth.

Now, this new weapon promises to give America the beyond visual range advantage over near peer adversaries like China, who boast a number of extremely long-range air-to-air missiles like the PL-15 that first prompted the Air Force to begin development on an AMRAAM successor, and the massive PL-17 that was, until the unveiling of Malice this weekend, considered to be the longest ranged air-to-air missile in the world.

So let's run down what we know about America's newest and scariest air-to-air missile, the AIM-424 Mali-

So this video is from Sandbox.

On May 7, 2025, Chinese air combat technology gave Pakistan a historic, beyond-visual-range victory when, during a record aerial engagement between 72 Indian Air Force and 42 Pakistan Air Force combat jets that did not enter the other's territory, Pakistan claimed to have shot down five Indian combat aircraft at ranges approaching a record 125 miles including three French-made 4.5-generation Dassault Rafale fighters.

Pakistan's victory was enabled by its acquisition of 20 Chengdu Aircraft Corporation 4.5-generation J-10C fighters, equipped with an estimated 105. to 125-mile range active electronically scanned array radar and armed with 125-plus-mile range Luozhong PL-15E long-range AAMs.

When long-range AAM engagements exceed the range of the fighter's radar, off-board cueing or guidance is necessary, such as from Pakistan's Chinese-made Shaanxi KJ.

500 airborne warning and control system with an estimated 300 mile range asa radar but these reportedly were undergoing modifications and were not in the battle but chinese source rumors at the time credited china with helping pakistan fight this air battle by providing satellite and perhaps electronic intelligence that helped enable maximum range interceptions by pakistan's pl 15 AAMs.

Steve, what do you make of it? And especially with the 174 as well in the picture.

yeah so i mean i think it's important to you know as brian points out uh to understand is the third new air to air intercept missile revealed uh over the past 10 years and um they each keep getting longer in range and that's not necessarily surprising because uh these are really responses to what uh adversaries potential adversaries have been doing When the PL-15 came out from China boasting greater range than the AIM-120D, we responded with AIM-260.

Most of that in the classified domain, which we weren't aware of until 2019.

By that point, it was well along into development.

I got my PL-10 and J-10s mixed up.

The Chinese missile is the PL-15, which is the big long-range one launched by the J-10, among other Chinese aircraft.

Apologies for that.

Not at all.

And I think the reason is not necessarily because the Chinese technology is so much better.

I think certain technologies they have are good, like the PL-15.

But I think what really made the difference was the training and the skill of the Pakistani pilots that the Indians went up against.

Yeah.

exports.

And they're really focusing on things like their fourth generation warplanes, which performed very well in the Indo-Pakistani war last year, their air-to-air cruise missiles, the PL-15.

These systems perform well, the HQ-9 air defense system, That's a little less – there's a lot of debate as to whether that system is really as good as the Chinese are saying.

But the point is all of these exercises are aimed at not just creating military-to-military ties, not just sort of swinging the diplomatic scene away from America and toward China in the region.