India shot down at least five Pakistani fighter jets during Operation Sindoor, Indian Air Force chief AP Singh said on Saturday.

S-400, the Russian made anti-aircraft missile, downed the Pakistani jets, Singh said as he confirmed Pakistan’s loss.

Speaking at the 16th Air Chief Marshal LM Katre lecture in Bangalore, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said, "...We have at least five fighters confirmed kills and one large aircraft, which could be either an ELINT aircraft or an AEW &C aircraft, which was taken on at a distance of about 300 kilometres. This is actually the largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about."

"Shahbaz Jacobabad airfield, one of the major airfields that was attacked. Here there's an F-16 hangar. One half of the hangar is gone. And I'm sure there were some aircraft inside which have got damaged there. We were able to get at least two command and control centres, like Murid and Chaklala. At least six radars, some of them big, some of them small...We have an indication of at least one AEW&C in that AEW&C hangar and a few F-16s, which were under maintenance there...," said Singh.

Showing before and after images of the attack on Muridke-LeT HQ during Operation Sindoor, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh says, "... This is their senior leadership's residential area. These were their office building where they would get together to conduct meetings. We could get video from the weapons themselves as the location was within range..."

He also said, “These are the before and after images of the damage we caused (at Bahawalpur - JeM HQ)... There's hardly any collateral here... The adjacent buildings are fairly intact... Not only did we have satellite pictures, but also from local media, through which we could get inside pictures.”

Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said, "...Our air defence systems have done a wonderful job. The S-400 system, which we had recently bought, has been a game-changer. The range of that system has really kept their aircraft away from their weapons like, those long-range glide bombs that they have, they have not been able to use any one of those because they have not been able to penetrate the system..."

Singh said, "A key reason for success was the presence of political will. There were very clear directions given to us. No restrictions were put on us... If there were any constraints, they were self-made... We decided how much to escalate... We had full freedom to plan and execute. Our attacks were calibrated because we wanted to be mature about it... There was a synchronisation between the three forces... The post of CDS made a real difference. He was there to get us together... NSA also played a big role in getting all the agencies..."

"It was a high-tech war. In 80 to 90 hours of war, we were able to achieve so much damage that it was clear to them that if they continue, they are going to pay for it more and more. So they came forward and sent a message to our DGMO that they wanted to talk. This was accepted on our side...,"said Singh.

The IAF chief continued, saying, "...In Balakot, we could not get anything from inside, and it became a big issue trying to tell our own people, unfortunately, as to what we have been able to achieve. We had intelligence of what had gone on inside, had human kind of intelligence where we had very clear picture of inside in terms of there's had been a huge damage. There have been so many terrorists who have been neutralised, but we could not convince our own people that, look, we have achieved that...So I'm very happy that this time we were able to take care of that ghost of Balakot that we were able to tell the world what we have achieved."

Air Chief Marshal AP Singh also said, "Sargodha, we've grown up in our Air Force, dreaming about days like this, someday we'll get a chance to go there. So it just so happens that I got my chance just before I retired... So we took on the airfield there..."

"People got down to their egos in this war... Once we achieved our objective, we should have looked for all windows of opportunity to stop... Some people very close to me said, 'Aur maarna tha'. But can we continue to be at war?... The nation has taken a good decision," says Air Chief Marshal AP Singh, backing the decision to pause Operation Sindoor.