New Delhi: The Indian Air Force lost fighter jets to Pakistan on the night of May 7, 2025 during its targeting of Pakistan’s terror-linked sites “only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishment or their air defenses,” India’s defence attache to Indonesia, Captain (Indian Navy) Shiv Kumar, acknowledged at a seminar in Indonesia last month.
The seminar on ‘Analysis of the Pakistan–India Air Battle and Indonesia’s Anticipatory Strategies from the Perspective of Air Power’ was organised on June 10 by Universitas Dirgantara Marsekal Suryadarma in Indonesia. In a 35-minute presentation made at the seminar, Captain (IN) Shiv Kumar conceded that even though he “may not agree (with an earlier Indonesian speaker’s claim) that we lost so many aircraft, but I do agree we did lose some aircraft.”
During the initial phase of aerial combat, IAF suffered losses at the hands of the Pakistan military. While Pakistani officials claimed to have shot down as many as six Indian jets, including Rafales, Indian authorities only confirmed the loss of some aircrafts, declining to specify numbers.
The Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, later emphasised in Singapore that the real issue was not the number of jets lost, but why they were lost: “What is important is that–not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” he stated in an interview to Bloomberg.
“After the loss, we changed our tactics and we went for the military installations. So we first achieved suppression of enemy air defences and then that’s why all our attacks could easily go through using Brahmos missiles,” the Indian defence attache added. He seemed to be referring to the Indian attack at various Pakistani air bases on May 10, 2025.
The Indian defence attaché’s view highlights a critical factor: IAF fighter jets were operating under strict political orders from the Modi government not to target Pakistani military installations or air defence systems. This self-imposed limitation by the government was intended to prevent escalation of conflict in a nuclear environment. It was possibly based on the premise that the Pakistan military will not target Indian fighter aircraft flying in the Indian airspace, when India was not hitting any Pakistani military targets.
Pakistan refused to impose any such limitations and as claimed by its Deputy Chief, the Pakistan Air Force chief changed the orders from deter to destroy once IAF sent its munition to the Pakistani terror sites. This led to the loss of IAF fighter jets because the political directions had meant that IAF had to carry out their missions while deliberately avoiding the most threatening enemy assets, which are typically prioritised in air campaigns to secure air superiority.
Recognising the tactical disadvantage, Indian military leadership quickly adjusted their approach. Within days, the IAF revised its tactics, enabling the missions on May 10, 2025 to use Brahmos and other missiles, which could be fired from a longer distance, to hit Pakistani targets.
Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, released a statement saying Captain Kumar’s remarks were taken “out of context”. Here’s the statement:
“We have seen media reports regarding a presentation made by the Defence Attache at a Seminar.
His remarks have been quoted out of context and the media reports are a mis-representation of the intention and thrust of the presentation made by the speaker.
The presentation conveyed that the Indian Armed Forces serve under civilian political leadership unlike some other countries in our neighbourhood.
It was also explained that the objective of Operation Sindoor was to target terrorist infrastructure and the Indian response was non-escalatory.”
The article appeared in the thewire