The US intelligence had information that the key technology used by China to extend the range of its air-to-air missiles - PL-15 and PL-17 - was given to it by the UAE. The US spy agencies received this information during Joe Biden’s tenure in 2022, according to a report. Interestingly, it was the PL-15 missile that Pakistan claimed it used to down an Indian warplane during Operation Sindoor in May.
The UAE’s flagship AI group, G42, gave Chinese company Huawei the technology, which was used to upgrade long-range missiles fired from fighter jets. This helped Chinese fighter jets acquire a clear edge over American warplanes, according to a Financial Times report.
Interestingly, Pakistan is one of the prominent buyers of the PL-15 missiles, which it used against India in Operation Sindoor. India had also recovered an intact Chinese PL-15E air-to-air missile fired by a Pakistani jet. The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) has reportedly studied the captured missile and is now incorporating aspects of its unique design and makeup into its own indigenously produced Astra missile.
The report, quoting unnamed intelligence sources in the US, added that G42 rejected the claims, calling them “false and defamatory allegations” from sources “with questionable motive and intent”.
While there were debates among US officials on whether the UAE AI firm was aware that the technology would aid the Chinese military, the information came at a time when US spy agencies were getting hints that the UAE was drifting closer to China. “Intel was flashing red,” one former US official told Financial Times. “G42 and the UAE were drifting into China’s orbit.”
The information also prompted a fierce debate on whether the US should co-operate more with the UAE on condition that it agreed to stop working with China.
That said, there is no clear idea about the technology shared by G42 to China. The firm has expanded into geospatial, aeronautics, and satellite technology, and the technology involved software that would optimise the flight of the missiles. “China’s defence industry spent the 2010s building and delivering air-to-air missiles — including the PL-15 and PL-17 — that leapfrogged their US equivalents in range and in advanced seeker technologies,” said a former senior CIA expert on the Chinese military.
The report said the White House sent top officials to the UAE to tell UAE national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan, who chairs the firm, that his country must choose between the US and China for its AI industry. The then commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, reportedly told senior UAE officials that it was a case of “one strike and you’re out”.
Abu Dhabi ultimately addressed the concerns raised by the Biden administration, although some believe the UAE was being completely up front with Washington.
