Kuala Lampur, May 8 -- South Asia has once again become the epicenter of global attention. In what experts are calling the most intense air-to-air combat between two nuclear powers in the modern era, India and Pakistan have engaged in a high-stakes military exchange that not only tests national resolve but also showcases a global arms race playing out in real time.

According to Dr. Rabia Akhtar, Visiting Scholar at the Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School, the encounter saw 27 Pakistani fighters-including the Chinese-made JF-17 Thunders, US-made F-16s, and Chinese J-10Cs-squaring off against 70 Indian aircraft, including France's Rafales, Russia's MiG-29s and Su-30MKIs.

Both sides employed airborne early warning systems (AWACS) to prov...