India downed five “high-tech” Pakistani fighter jets — US-made F-16s and Chinese JF-17s — from the air during Operation Sindoor besides destroying “four to five fighter aircraft, most likely F-16s” parked on the ground, Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh said on Friday.
He, however, dismissed as “manohar kahaniyan (fanciful tales)” Pakistan’s claims of downing six Indian fighter jets, including an unspecified number of the French-made Rafale, during the May 7-10 military conflict.
Singh said India had “clear evidence” of one long-range strike, “more than 300 kilometres”, by its forces.
Senior Indian military leaders had earlier acknowledged the loss of some Indian combat jets on May 7, the opening day of the operation, without saying how many. The Narendra Modi government has neither confirmed nor denied aircraft losses.
Singh had in August confirmed India’s downing of “at least five (Pakistani) fighters and one large aircraft” during Sindoor, but not identified the makes of the planes.
On Friday, addressing the 93rd Air Force Day celebrations in Delhi, Singh said: “As far as Pakistan’s losses are concerned… we have struck a large number of their airfields and we struck a large number of installations… on (the) ground; because of strikes, radars (were hit in) at least four places, command and control centres at two places, runways, of course, damaged at two places, then three of their hangars in three different stations have been damaged.
“In that hangar, as well as on tarmac, we have signs of one C-130 class of aircraft, one AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) aircraft and at least four to five fighter aircraft, most likely F-16s, because that place happened to be F-16 with whatever was under maintenance at that time.”
He added: “Along with that, one SAM (surface-to-air missile) system has been destroyed…. We have clear evidence of one long-range strike, which I talked about — more than 300 kilometres — which happened to be either an AEW&C or a significant aircraft, along with that five high-tech fighters between F-16 and JF-17 class; this is what our system tells us.”
On Pakistan’s claims of downing Indian jets, he said: “If they think they shot down 15 of my jets, let them think so. I hope they’re convinced about it, and they will cater for 15 less aircraft in my inventory when they come to fight again.
“So, why should I talk about it? Even today, I won’t say anything about what happened, how much damage was done, how it happened, because… let them find out.”
He added: “Have you seen a single picture where something fell on any of our airbases, something hit us, a hangar was destroyed, or anything like that? We showed so many pictures of their places. However, they couldn’t show us even a single picture.
“So, their narrative is manohar kahaniyan. Let them be happy; after all, they also have to show something to their public to save face. That doesn’t matter to me.”
India’s defence attaché in Indonesia, Captain Shiv Kumar, had on June 28 said that India had lost “some” combat jets on May 7 because of the “constraint given by the political leadership” against striking Pakistani military establishments and air defences.
Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan had earlier, on May 31, said India had lost fighter jets on Sindoor’s opening day before swiftly rectifying its tactical mistakes and launching further attacks to “hit deep inside Pakistan”.
Singh said India had entered the military conflict with a clear goal and ended it quickly after achieving its objectives.
“A clear directive, clear mandate was given to the Indian armed forces…. It stands as a lesson which will go down in history that this is one war that was started with a very clear objective and it was terminated in a quick time without just prolonging it,” he said.
“We are seeing what is happening in the world, the two wars that are going on, there’s no talk about termination. But we could make them reach a stage where they ask for a ceasefire, ask for termination of hostilities.
“And also, we took a call as a nation to terminate those hostilities because our own objectives are met. I think this is something that the world needs to learn from us.”
US President Donald Trump has claimed more than two dozen times that it was he who got India and Pakistan to stop hostilities. India says no third country was involved in that decision.