New Delhi, June 19 -- As India's armed forces continue sifting through and analysing the information gathered during last month's clashes with Pakistan, there is growing interest among New Delhi's strategic partners in gaining access to electronic and digital signatures of Chinese-origin weaponry scooped up by Indian air defence systems. The air forces of India and Pakistan were involved in several engagements between May 7, when New Delhi launched Operation Sindoor to target terrorist infrastructure in retaliation for Pahalgam terror attack, and May 10, when the two sides reached an understanding on halting military actions. Experts have characterised these as the most intense air-to-air combat engagements in recent times. People familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity that Indian air defence systems and radars gathered considerable information on Chinese-origin equipment, particularly the J-10C and JF-17 combat jets, PL-15 active radar-guided beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile and HQ-9 long-range surface-to-air missile. This was the first known use in combat for most of this equipment, they said. China, which hasn't fought a war in more than four decades, has emerged as Pakistan's main supplier of military hardware, accounting for 81% of weapons imported by Islamabad, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). According to experts, the clashes were the first test for China's military exports such as the J-10C jets and PL-15 missiles. "All the information gathered by the Indian side would be of great relevance to many countries in the Indo-Pacific, which encounter Chinese aircraft and weaponry in regions such as the South and East China Sea and are preparing for possible hostilities involving such weapon systems," said a diplomat from an Asian nation engaged in a maritime dispute with China. A defence official from a European nation acknowledged that France, in particular, would be keen to get an insight into the electronic and digital signatures of Chinese weaponry gathered by India's air defence systems, especially in the context of reports about the shooting down of a Rafale combat jet. Indian officials declined to comment on the matter. It also could not be ascertained whether any of India's strategic partners have made formal requests for access to information on Chinese equipment. Chris Clary, an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany, State University of New York pointed to the importance of electronic signatures in counter-measures....