Four to five Pakistan fighter jets – US-made F-16s and Chinese J-17s – were shot down by India during Operation Sindoor, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said Friday, elaborating on comments from early August.
The Air Force said then that six aircraft – five fighters and a ‘big bird’, likely an AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) plane – had been destroyed in mid-air strikes by India.
The Air Force chief said today the Indian military has evidence of at least one long-range strike on an AEW&C aircraft and four to five strikes on fighter jets during Operation Sindoor.
Precision strikes by Indian missiles also disabled radar systems, Command & Control centres, and runways, hangars and other military infrastructure, he said. A C-130-class plane – i.e., an American-made, military transport aircraft dubbed ‘Hercules’ – may have also been hit, he said.
“As far as Pakistan’s losses are concerned… we struck a large number of their airfields and a large number of installations. Because of these strikes, radars at four places, Command & Control centres at two places, and runways at two places were damaged. Then, three of their hangers, in three different air bases, were damaged…” he said at a press conference in Delhi.
“… one SAM (i.e., surface-to-air missile) system was destroyed. We have evidence of one long-range strike, which I talked about earlier, at more than 300 km… an AEW&C or other significant aircraft, and five fighters, (possibly) F-16 or JF-17… this is what our system tells us,” he said.
In August the Air Force – in its first big statement since the Op Sindoor ceasefire – confirmed the extensive damage to Pakistani military assets. Besides the six planes hit mid-air, Indian missile strikes also hit Pak Air Force bases, specifically in Jacobabad and Bholari, the Air Force said.
An unspecified number of F-16s and at least one other AEW&C aircraft – all grounded because of operational reasons – were destroyed in those strikes, the Air Force had said.
“We have five confirmed kills and one large aircraft, either ELINT (i.e., an Electronic Intelligence airborne platform) or AEW&C, which was taken out at a distance of 300 km. This is the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill we can talk about…” the Air Chief said at a Bengaluru event.
Air Chief Marshal also praised India’s air defence system, which stood strong against a barrage of Pakistani missiles and drones that targeted both Indian military and civilian centres.
India’s offensive capabilities, coupled with protection offered by advanced missile defence systems, like the Russian-made S-400, “caused so much damage Pakistan realised they would suffer more losses if the conflict continued”, the Air Force chief said.
On Pak claiming it shot down Indian planes, including at least one of the newly-purchased Rafales, the Air Chief Marshal was emphatic, dismissing them as propaganda circulated to fool Pak citizens.
Pakistan claimed, and continues to do so, it shot down six Indian military aircraft, including the Rafale. However, the Pak government has not yet, so far, provided proof of that claim.
The Air Force chief also said it was Pak that asked India for a ceasefire, underlining the government’s repeated assertion on this subject, that cessation of hostilities on May 10 was the result of Islamabad suing for peace rather than United States President Donald Trump intervening to stop the conflict.
The Air Force chief also said the world witnessed the power and precision of the Indian military as it targeted and neutralised nine terror camps and bases in Pakistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the terror attack on civilians in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
“In Operation Sindoor, you saw the terrorists paid the price for killing innocent people… and the world saw we achieved our goal. We struck targets across 300 km, then they (Pakistan) asked for the ceasefire,” he said, also praising the country’s air defence systems for successfully repelling or shooting down Pakistani missiles or drones during the nearly 100-hour conflict.
The Air Force chief’s comments on this topic today underline the government’s position.
Operation Sindoor was India’s armed response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the worst such strike in decades. India flagged Islamabad’s involvement in the attack carried out by an offshoot of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The Indian government also called out Pak’s continued support of cross-border terrorism.
The government then presented evidence of its claims to the global community before acting on verified intel to strike known terrorist camps and bases in Pakistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir.
Nine such camps were neutralised, including the HQs of the Lashkar and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, which was responsible for the attack in J&K’s Pulwama in 2019.
