Bengaluru: Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has officially confirmed that the Indian Air Force (IAF) brought down five Pakistani fighter aircraft during Operation Sindoor, a mission launched in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack.
Speaking at an event in Bengaluru on Saturday, the IAF chief revealed that the successful strikes were carried out using the S-400 air defence system. Alongside the fighter jets, Indian forces also destroyed a large airborne early warning aircraft, believed to be either an AEW&C or ELINT platform, at a range of approximately 300 kilometres. Singh described it as the largest-ever recorded surface-to-air kill.
“In addition to the confirmed fighter kills, one AEW&C-type aircraft was neutralised. Half of the F-16 hangar at Pakistan’s Shahbaz Jacobabad airbase was gone, with possible damage to aircraft inside,” he said while detailing the planning and execution of the operation.
Launched on May 7, Operation Sindoor had already been acknowledged by India as having inflicted heavy losses on high-value Pakistani Air Force assets, though exact figures were not shared until now. At the time, senior IAF officials had noted that wreckage was unavailable as the Pakistani aircraft were prevented from crossing into Indian airspace.
According to Singh, the swift and precise strikes left Pakistan’s air defence capabilities severely degraded. “It was a high-tech conflict. Within 80 to 90 hours, we inflicted significant damage to their air systems. They realised that continuing would only result in greater losses,” he said.
The IAF chief also disclosed that Indian forces gained control over at least two Pakistani command-and-control hubs, Murid and Chaklala, and took out six radars of varying sizes. Intelligence indicated that the AEW&C hangar and several F-16s under maintenance were also hit.
The confirmation follows recent remarks by former US President Donald Trump, who claimed that five Pakistani jets were lost during the clashes and reiterated his assertion of mediating between the two nations, something India has consistently denied, maintaining that there was no third-party involvement in the ceasefire.
