New Delhi: General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), has become the first Indian official to confirm that the Indian Air Force lost some fighter jets in clashes with Pakistan on May 7. In an interview to Bloomberg TV in Singapore, he however declined to specify the exact number of fighter jets India lost that night.
“What is important is that–not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” General Chauhan is quoted as having said in the interview on Saturday (May 30), while he was attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
“Why they were down, what mistakes were made – that are important. Numbers are not important,” he said, when asked about the fighter jets.
He also called Pakistan’s claims that it shot down six Indian warplanes that night as “absolutely incorrect”.
General Chauhan in an interview to Reuters also acknowledged that the Indian Air Force suffered losses during the conflict – again without specifying a number of platforms lost – and said: “What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we’ll do after that,” referring to the Pakistani claim of downing six Indian fighter jets on May 7.
In its official media briefings during and after the four-day conflict, foreign secretary Vikram Misri and Air Marshal A.K. Bharti, director-general of air operations, had not denied the losses.
Bharti had said that “we are in a combat situation and losses are a part of combat”, but declined to divulge any details. General Chauhan becomes the first official to confirm the losses.
The CDS in his interview to Bloomberg Television underscored that India had learnt the lessons from those losses and implemented them during the conflict.
“The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it and then implement it again after two days and flew all our jets again, targeting at long range,” he is quoted as having told Bloomberg TV.
He made similar statements to Reuters, saying: “So we rectified tactics and then went back on the 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit air bases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes.”
The air force, he added, “flew all types of aircraft with all types of ordinances on the 10th”.
Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had claimed that his country had shot down six Indian fighter jets, including three French Rafales, on the first night of the conflict.
Many foreign publications, including the CNN, BBC, Le Monde and France 24, have reported on the loss of Rafale fighter jets, but the total number of fighters lost by the Indian Air Force that night has not been confirmed yet.
The article appeared in the thewire