Pakistan, June 22 -- The spectacular display of air power by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in the May 2025 conflict with India created awe and shock within the global aviation circles. However, as the headlines for this largest modern-day air combat emerged, it was not the PAF's strategy or its pilots' proficiency that received admiration. Rather, Western media outlets deliberately reduced the PAF's accomplishment to footnotes and reported the whole saga as a victory for Chinese military equipment. This, at best, can be described as epistemic erasure.

As the new Kashmir crisis started unfolding in late April 2025, the Indian Air Force (IAF) placed its confidence in its French-origin Rafael aircraft, equipped with Meteor beyond-visual-rang...