India's Air Chief Marshal AP Singh on Friday confirmed that Indian forces had shot down five Pakistani fighter jets — US-produced F-16s and China's JF-17s — during "Operation Sindoor." His statement elaborated on comments he made last week in August.
The IAF chief mentioned that six Pakistani aircraft — five fighters and one "big bird", an AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) platform believed to be — were destroyed in Indian attacks.
India has tangible proof of at least a single long-range hit on an AEW&C and four to five successful strikes on fighter aircraft, according to him.
Apart from those shot down in mid-air, Singh had previously confirmed that bases of the Pakistan Air Force, particularly Jacobabad and Bholari, were destroyed, where additional F-16s as well as another AEW&C aircraft were also lost. Precise strikes also disabled radar facilities, command-and-control centres, runways, hangars, and other critical military installations.
“We have signs of one C-130 class of aircraft...and at least 4 to 5 fighter aircraft, most likely F-16, because that place happened to be F-16 with whatever was under maintenance at that time,” he explained.
He added, “We have clear evidence of one long-range strike, which I talked about more than 300 km, which happened to be either an AEW&C or a SIGINT aircraft, along with that five high-tech fighters between F-16 and JF-17 class this is what our system tells us.”
Confirming his previous claim, the Air Chief stated that the S-400 air defence systems were instrumental in neutralizing the Pakistani aircraft.
Singh also ridiculed Islamabad's claims of downing Indian planes with a skeptical dismissal as "manohar kahaniyan (fascinating tales)."
“If they think they downed our 15 jets, I hope they are convinced about it and they will cater for 15 less aircraft in my inventory when they come to fight again,” he quipped, adding that Pakistan had failed to produce any proof.
“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 audience to save their reputation. That doesn't matter to me,” Singh remarked.
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