Jagannath Panda was quoted by the South China Morning Post on Pakistan’s newly acquired Chinese-made short-range air defense system
September 18, 2026: Jagannath Panda, head of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs, was quoted by the South China Morning Post on Pakistan’s newly acquired Chinese-made short-range air defense system.
“More importantly, Pakistan appears to be filling a vulnerability at the lower end of its layered air-defence architecture,” Panda said.
“Its acquisition also reflects changes in warfare. Pakistan cannot economically use expensive long-range interceptors against every drone or loitering munition. The HQ-17AE gives it another layer for dealing with increasingly dense, low-altitude aerial threats.”
Panda added that the important question was whether the Pakistani military could network sensors, command systems and engagement procedures into a coherent layered architecture.