When Missiles Miss—and Narratives Explode Modern wars are not decided only by bombs and runways. They are decided by perception, credibility, and evidence. The India–Pakistan aerial engagements during Operation Sindoor proved this decisively. The Chinese-made PL-15E beyond-visual-range (BVR) missile, fired by the Pakistan Air Force, was meant to challenge India’s Rafale–Meteor combination and project China’s arrival as a top-tier missile exporter. Instead, it became a case study in propaganda versus reality. Multiple PL-15E missiles failed to score kills. Some didn’t even self-destruct. A few landed inside India—largely intact. That single event triggered a chain reaction that damaged Pakistan’s deterrence narrative,…