Indian Air Force Chief Amar Preet Singh on Saturday confirmed that the IAF shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and one large airborne surveillance aircraft during Operation Sindoor. Speaking at the Air Chief Marshal L.M. Katre Memorial Lecture in Bengaluru, he described it as the largest recorded surface-to-air kill on record.
Speaking in Bengaluru, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh recalled a moment long imagined by many in uniform. “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…”
This was Operation Sindoor, India’s cross-border mission that Singh has now detailed for the first time.
Confirmed kills and record strike Singh said the IAF brought down five Pakistani fighter aircraft and one large airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) or electronic intelligence (ELINT) plane.
“We have five 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,” he told the audience at the Air Chief Marshal L.M. Katre Memorial Lecture.
The strikes targeted critical military infrastructure. At Shahbaz Jacobabad airfield, an F-16 hangar was half destroyed and aircraft inside were damaged. Two command and control centres — Murid and Chaklala — were hit, along with at least six radar sites. Singh said there were indications an AEW&C aircraft and several F-16s under maintenance were present in one of the damaged hangars.
Terror hubs and precision targeting Operation Sindoor also struck the headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed at Bahawalpur. Singh displayed satellite imagery showing the aftermath.
“There’s hardly any collateral here… The adjacent buildings are fairly intact… Not only did we have satellite pictures, but also from local media, through which we could get inside pictures.”
Long-range precision weapons were used, and Singh emphasised the priority given to avoiding civilian harm.
Technology that shifted the balance Praisi
Read More