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The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) recently deployed aircraft to Egypt for the second iteration of the bilateral “Wings of Civilization” air force exercise. PLAAF aircraft first left China via the Karakoram airway and landed at one of several Pakistani airports, namely in Islamabad and Karachi (a notable fact in itself). The aircraft then took off to fly over the Arabian Sea toward Oman, and transited Omani airspace to enter Saudi airspace in the country’s southeast, from which Saudi airspace was used to reach the Red Sea and ultimately Egypt. The PLAAF’s “pit stops” in Pakistan are notable in that PLAAF aircraft did not make use of a single Pakistani facility, such as a single Pakistan Air Force airbase. This draws attention to the absence of a standing PLAAF presence in Pakistan, which can not only be used to support bilateral engagements with third parties such as “Wings of Civilization” or support PLA activities in Djibouti, but also to, for example, deploy crewed and/or uncrewed Chinese intelligence, surveillance, and reconaissance (ISR) aircraft over the Arabian Sea and along India’s coastline.
China and Pakistan may have exceptionally close military relations, but the PLA has a minimal presence in Pakistan, and the PLAAF does not operate beyond China’s borders in the manner of not only the U.S. Air Force but also leading European air forces, which regularly deploy, among other things, ISR aircraft in locations far from their home territory. Unless the PLA begins to transit the airspace above Myanmar to reach the Indian Ocean, the Karakoram airway and Pakistani airspace will remain key to expanding China’s “overseas” military footprint.