‘Destroyed 4-5 Pak fighter jets, most likely F-16s’: IAF on Op Sindoor success

In his first press conference since Operation Sindoor, Indian Air Force chief Amar Preet Singh said that India destroyed at least four to five Pakistani fighter planes, including most likely US-made F-16s. He rejected Pakistan's claim of downing six Indian fighters as “fanciful stories”.

Singh suggested that F-16s were likely destroyed when India struck a hangar at a Pakistani airbase.

Singh said that the IAF has gathered evidence that in strikes at an airbase, in a hangar as well as on the tarmac, “at least four to five fighter aircraft, most likely F-16s”, were destroyed. He said the assessment is based on the fact that the hangar struck belonged to F-16s that would have been under maintenance that time.

“We have signs of one C-130 class of aircraft and at least four to five fighter aircraft, most likely F-16s, because that place happened to be F-16 hangar with whatever was under maintenance at that time,” said Singh, as per ANI, going into details.

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Singh further said, “We have clear evidence of one long-range strike, which I talked about, of more than 300 kilometres which happened to be either an AEW&C [airborne early warning and control] or a SIGINT [signal intelligence] aircraft, along with that five high-tech fighters between F-16 and JF-17 class. This is what our system tells us.”

Singh added that India also destroyed Pakistan’s surface to air missile systems air defence systems.

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As for Pakistan’s claim of shooting down six Indian fighters, Singh dismissed such claims as “fanciful stories” that the Pakistani military tells its public to save face.

“If they think that they have took down my 15 aircraft, let them think. I won’t speak anything. Have you seen any picture which can establish their narrative? These are their fanciful stories. Let them tell these stories to their public to save their face,” said Singh.

After the Pahalgam attack on April 22 in which terrorists killed 26 people, India on the night of May 6 launched Operation Sindoor and struck nine terrorist sites in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK). As Pakistan responded with attacks on Indian military and civilian sites, India retaliated and two sides fought for next four days. As India struck a host of Pakistani military sites, such as airbases, radar sites, and air defences, and Pakistan requested a ceasefire on May 10 that India granted.

In the four-day conflict, Pakistan claimed to have shot down as many as six Indian fighters. While India has acknowledged the loss of fighters, India has maintained that the number claimed by Pakistan —six— is far-fetched. India has not given the number of aircraft lost but has said multiple aircraft were lost, including possibly one France-made Rafale — Defence Secretary RK Singh said in July that the claim of India losing multiple Rafales was false.