Faaz Missile: Pakistan Tests Its First Indigenous AAM

Pakistan has conducted the first flight test of the Fa’az, which its armed forces describe as the country’s first indigenously developed air-to-air missile, with released footage showing the weapon being fired from a Pakistan Air Force JF-17 fighter. The military’s Inter-Services Public Relations directorate announced the test on November 3, stating that the missile carries a state-of-the-art terminal guidance system and was designed to engage aerial targets at longer ranges. Neither the range, the test site nor the exact date of the launch was disclosed. The test is significant as the first demonstration of a Pakistani missile in a field where the air force has depended on imported weapons, with the military stating that the Fa’az “will significantly enhance operational flexibility of the Pakistan Air Force.”

The name matches a missile family that the state-owned group Global Industrial Defence Solutions displayed as mockups at the IDEF exhibition in Istanbul in July 2023. The company then presented an active radar homing variant and an imaging infrared variant, both credited with a range of over 100 kilometres and a speed of Mach 3.5, alongside a planned Fa’az-2 with a range of 180 kilometres. The military has not stated which configuration was fired in the test it announced on November 3. The launch follows two other tests in under a month, with the army having fired an extended range Fatah-4 cruise missile on October 6 and an extended range Fatah-2 on October 13. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi congratulated the development team, stating: “Our scientists and engineers have once again achieved a remarkable feat that makes the nation proud.”

The air force’s beyond visual range arsenal today consists of the Chinese PL-15E on the JF-17 Block III and the J-10CE, the older Chinese SD-10 on earlier JF-17s, and the American AIM-120C-5 on its F-16 fleet, which remains subject to U.S. end use monitoring. Pakistan claimed in May 2025 that its J-10C fighters had shot down several Indian aircraft, and the remains of a PL-15 recovered in India’s Punjab drew wide attention to the Chinese missile across South Asia. A domestic alternative would reduce the air force’s exposure to any future restriction on foreign supplies. Reports in early 2024 that Pakistan and Türkiye were exploring a merger of the Fa’az with the Turkish Gökdoğan program predate the signing by the two countries and Saudi Arabia of a mutual defence treaty on August 7, 2026.

India already fields its own Astra Mk1 beyond visual range missile on the Su-30MKI, and the country reported a direct hit on a target drone at over 100 kilometres from a Tejas fighter in March 2025. A further firing from a Su-30MKI in July 2025 used an indigenous radio frequency seeker. Pakistan thus enters the field after India, although the PL-15E is widely estimated to outrange the Astra Mk1 considerably. A longer ranged Astra Mk2 remains in development, with its integration on the Indian Air Force’s Tejas Mk1A fighters expected to follow the completion of trials.