Although New Delhi has declined to reveal the precise number of fighter aircraft destroyed, India has finally admitted for the first time that it lost fighter aircraft in its recent high-intensity combat with Pakistan. This is a rare and extremely significant admission.
Indian Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan acknowledged the casualties in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg TV at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, but he also downplayed their numerical significance and emphasised the importance of determining the reason for the losses. The reason the jet was down, not the fact that it was down, is what matters. General Chauhan gently shifted the focus from operational damage to lessons learnt by saying, “Numbers are not important.”
India Confirms Losing Fighter Jet
Even though he called Pakistan’s assertion that it shot down six Indian Air Force (IAF) planes “completely inaccurate,” he notably refused to provide an alternative number, leaving a void that was rife with conjecture and foreign intelligence leaks. The remarks about what happened to India’s fighter jets during the battle with Pakistan that broke out on May 7 are the most straightforward yet from a government or military official.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan claimed earlier this month that his nation shot down six Indian fighter jets, however, this claim has not been officially confirmed. The Indian government had previously remained silent when asked if it had lost any aircraft in the conflict.
“The good thing is that we were able to recognise our tactical error, fix it, and then use it again after two days, flying all of our jets again and aiming at long range,” Chauhan stated.
Chief of Defence Staff On Ceasefire
The Chief of Defence Staff further emphasised that “channels of communication” with Pakistan were always available to manage the situation and that the confrontation never approached a nuclear exchange.
This contradicts US President Donald Trump’s frequent claims that he mediated the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, averting a possible nuclear catastrophe.
Chief of Defence Staff On Chinese Weapons
India’s precision strikes on “heavily air-defended” Pakistani airfields. According to the top military official, contradicting Islamabad’s assertion that Chinese-supplied weapons are effective. “They (Chinese weapons) didn’t work,” he claimed.
“We were able to do precision strikes on heavily air-defended airfields of Pakistan deep 300 kilometres inside, with the precision of a metre,” stated General Chauhan. Chinese-supplied air defence systems were circumvented by Indian missiles and jets during the conflict in order to target Pakistani military installations.
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