Soon after Indian Air Force displayed the pieces of AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, which are compatible only with the F16 jets used by Pakistan Air Force to violate Indian airspace on March 27, Pakistanis on Twitter started spreading fake news and disowning their own missiles.
Indians today showed the casing of the missile they claim was fired from Pakistan F16…
Jackasses didn’t realize that this missile was sold to Taiwan in 2010 and not to Pakistan….
Complete evidence is here…#PakistanStrikesBack pic.twitter.com/dbRBkjuGAM— Zaid Hamid (@ZaidZamanHamid) February 28, 2019
Zaid Hamid, a Pakistani war veteran of Soviet-Afghan conflict and a radical Islamist, shared an image which said that the AIM-120C5 AMRAAM Air Vehicle with code FA867505C0070 by Raytheon Company was sold to Taiwan and not Pakistan. Hence, he said, India’s claim that the missile wreckage belonged to Pakistan was false.
However, truth is that the missile belonged to contract number FA867505C0070 from the Lot 19 production. As per the official United States Air Force website, the FA867505C0070 belonged to production lot no 19.
The FA867505C0070 is the contract between Raytheon, the manufacturer of the missile and the US Department of Defence. Missiles manufactured under this contract can be sold to multiple countries, like Pakistan and Taiwan (as Zaid Hamid claims).
Defence Analyst and journalist Shiv Aroor too responded to Zaid Hamid informing him that he has got his facts wrong.
Nice try, Zaid Bhai. But that’s @Raytheon’s code for that particular production lot. Missiles from that lot could be supplied to multiple recipients, including Taiwan & Pakistan: https://t.co/LoWFWIFIL0 https://t.co/HzA8SVDdsG
— Shiv Aroor (@ShivAroor) February 28, 2019
Further, As per the contract details of Raytheon company, which supplied the missiles Pakistan Air Force’s F16 used to target Indian Military instalments, the 120C-5 missiles were sold to Pakistan.
As seen above, the missile with contract number FA8675-05-C-0070, the casing of which was found by the Indian Air Force after taking down a Pakistani F16, indeed belonged to Pakistan.
The same contract number, FA8675-05-C-0070, was also mentioned in the casing displayed by the Indian Air Force.
The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM (pronounced amm-RAM), is a modern American beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) capable of all-weather day-and-night operations. Designed with a 7-inch (180mm) diameter form-and-fit factor, and employing active transmit-receive radar guidance instead of semi-active receive-only radar guidance, it has the advantage of being a fire-and-forget weapon when compared to the previous generation Sparrow missiles.
Following the Jaish-e-Mohammad terror attack on CRPF convoy on February 14 which claimed lives of 44 soldiers, Indian Air Force on February 26 carried out airstrikes in Balakot region of Pakistan and destroyed terror camps thriving on Pakistani soil. Pakistan then retaliated by targeting India’s military installations on February 27. Following the aggression by Pakistan, Pakistanis, including the government of Pakistan has proceeded to spread numerous lies about the claims which are being called out by the Indian government and Indian Armed Forces.
