"Primacy of air power has come to forefront"
Air Chief Marshal AP Singh says, "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...".
The Air Chief of the Indian Air Force confirms the following targets were struck:
Two Command and Control Centers
Six Radar Sites
Three Hangars
Two SAG-W Systems
Two Runways
"We have at least five fighters confirmed kills and one large aircraft, which could be either an ELINT aircraft or an AEW&C (Airborne Warning and Control System) 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," said Air Force chief.
This is the first public revelation by the armed forces of the extent of damage caused to the Pakistani air fleet during the operation, which was launched as a response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
This is the first time that any official of the armed forces has publicly revealed the number of Pakistani fighter jets shot down by India during Operation Sindoor in May.
Apart from fighter jets, surveillance aircraft was also downed
Some parked US-made F-16 jets were damaged on May 10
IAF chief says armed forces faced no political hurdles
Indian Air Force (IAF) chief AP Singh, in a massive disclosure, said the surface-to-air missile systems of the armed forces destroyed five Pakistani fighter jets and another aircraft designed for airborne surveillance during Operation Sindoor.
Speaking at the Air Chief Marshal LM Katre lecture in Bengaluru, the IAF chief further revealed that some parked US-made F-16 jets suffered damage at the Jacobabad airbase when India targeted Pakistan's military sites on May 10. Two command and control centres were also damaged.
The Air Chief Marshal also confirmed severe damage to air bases in Pakistan, including the Jacobabad airfield that housed F-16 jets.
"At Jacobabad airfield, there's an F-16 hangar. One half of the hangar is gone. I am sure there were some aircraft inside which got damaged. We were able to get at least two command and control centres, like Murid and Chaklala. At least six radars...
We have an indication of at least one AEW&C and a few F-16s, which were under maintenance, suffered damage," he further said.
The IAF chief credited the Russian-made S-400 Triumf air defence system for engaging targets far inside enemy airspace, calling it a "game changer".
"The S-400 system, which we 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," he further said.
Singh also shared "before and after" satellite images of the nine terror targets that were battered by the armed forces on May 7. He said the images reveal no collateral damage, rebutting Pakistan's charge of civilian casualties.
Around 100 terrorists were killed in the strikes on terror launchpads.
'NO POLITICAL HURDLES'
Pertinently, the Air Chief also rejected the opposition's charge that there were operational restrictions on the military, asserting that they had full freedom to plan and execute the attacks.
He says the big missive from Operation Sindoor is that
"....the primacy of air-power has come to the forefront one again.
"People have come to realise that air-power is the first responder that any country has .. and the air-power is the once that can actually react in a quick time".
Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh of the Indian Air Force disclosed key outcomes from Operation Sindoor, emphasising the destruction of a high-value surveillance aircraft, potentially an AEW&C or ELINT platform, at around 300 kilometers.
(Airborne Early Warning & Control System (AEW&C), is a force multiplier system of systems for detecting and tracking of enemy/hostile aircrafts/ UAVs etc.
It also enables operators onboard and on ground to identify, assess the threat and take actions to guide our interceptors to those for neutralising those threats. According to DRDO, the system is fully net centric,
with complete command and control functions not only providing the available information to ground through its multiple data links but also can receive information from ground, integrate and fuse them onboard to provide the operators onboard a composite picture of environment.
As a command centre, it enables onboard operators to select, command and guide specific interceptor aircrafts towards enemy threat efficiently and neutralise them.)
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