Five Pakistani Fighter Jets, One Large Aircraft Downed in Operation Sindoor News24 –

Indian Air Force Chief Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh on Saturday revealed that five Pakistani fighter jets, as well as another large aircraft, were downed during Operation Sindoor. 

Speaking at the HAL Management Auditorium, Air Chief Marshal reported that Shahbaz Jacobabad Airfield, one of the major airfields, was attacked. 

An F-16 hangar was hit, and half of its structure was destroyed, Singh stated, adding that some of the aircraft inside would have been damaged as well, he said. 

During the address in Bengaluru, the Air Chief Marshal said that the jets were shot down by the S-400 air defence systems.

“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,” Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said.

 “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. Two SAGW systems that is in Lahore and Okara. We attacked three hangars. One was the Sukkur UAV hangar, the Bholari hangar, and the Jacobabad F-16 hangar. 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.”

Beyond expressing his notions, he also detailed the challenges that the army has faced in proving the devastation of the terrorist organisations. He said, “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 (human kind of intelligence) on what had gone on inside, where we had a very clear picture of the inside in terms of there having been 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,” Air Chief Marshal Sing said while addressing the gathering at the Hal Management Academy.

He stated that a lack of video evidence would have raised similar issues following Operation Sindoor, but now, the videos on the recently concluded military operation are “out in the open”.

 “There have been so many terrorists who have been neutralised, but we could not convince our own people that, look, we have achieved that,” Air Chief Marshal Singh said while addressing the gathering.

“Things like this would have given us the same problem (regarding Operation Sindoor). However, we were lucky that we got these videos in the open. So, I’m very happy that this time we were able to take care of that ghost of Balakot, and we were able to tell the world what we have achieved,” the Air Chief Marshal said. Praising India’s decision to “stop the war,” he said that the only aim of Operation Sindoor was to “teach terrorists a lesson” and once the objectives were achieving India looked for opportunities to “stop” the conflict.

“People got down to their egos in the war, and that is what is continuously driving the ongoing conflicts. We set a very good example. Our objective was very clear: to teach terrorists a lesson. Once we achieved our objective, we should have looked for all windows of opportunity to stop that. 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,” Air Chief Marshal Singh added.

He said so in awareness of the fact that earlier opposition parties and leaders had raised questions regarding the 2019 Balakot air strikes, which were carried out in response to the Pulwama terror attack that claimed the lives of around 40 CRPF soldiers.