NEW DELHI: IAF destroyed 9-10 Pakistani fighters like US-origin F-16s and Chinese JF- 17s, as well as at least two special aircraft, if the ‘kills’ in the air and ground are both taken into account during Operation Sindoor, Air Chief Marshal A P Singh said on Friday, while rejecting Islamabad’s counter-claims as “manohar kahaniyan (fanciful stories)”.While elaborating on his earlier remarks on the losses suffered by Pakistan during the cross-border hostilities from May 7 to 10, ACM Singh also said the move by terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammed to relocate their larger camps and hideouts deep inside Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was “expected” after their headquarters at Muridke and Bahawalpur were struck by IAF.“Now they (LeT, JeM) will probably build smaller structures instead of big structures. But if intelligence is available, then we have the capability to strike deep inside any of their hideouts with absolutely accurate targeting. We can destroy them and their hideouts,” the IAF chief said at a press conference in the run-up to IAF Day on Oct 8.He, however, refused to be drawn into the number of IAF fighters downed during the strikes on the nine terror hubs in Pakistan and POK on May 7 as well as Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan’s remarks that India rectified its “tactical mistakes” after suffering the initial losses.IAF conducted the May 7 strikes without the requisite suppression or destruction of enemy air defences because the aim was to target only terrorist infrastructure on that day. Moreover, it was not anticipated that Pakistani jets of Chinese-origin would be armed with PL-15 beyond visual range air-to-air missiles with ranges over 200km.ACM Singh, on his part, said, “If they (Pakistan) think they shot down 15 of my jets, let them think it. I hope they’re convinced about it, and they will cater for 15 less aircraft in my inventory when they come to fight again. Why should I talk about it?”In the subsequent strikes on Pakistan airbases and other military infrastructure, ACM Singh there was clear evidence through satellite imagery of the destruction of at least four radar sites, two command and control centres and a surface-to-air missile system as well as runways being damaged at the Rahim Yar Khan and Sargodha airbases.Then, the UAV hangar at Sukkur, the AEW&C (airborne early warning and control) aircraft hangar at Bholari, and the F-16 hangar at Jacobabad in Pakistan were also damaged in the strikes. “We have signs of one C-130 class of aircraft and possibly an AEW&C… and at least four to five fighter aircraft, most likely F-16s (being destroyed),” the IAF chief said.Separately, IAF’s surface-to-air missile systems like the S-400 shot down a large special mission aircraft, either an ELINT (electronic intelligence) or an AEW&C, at a distance of over 300km in the “longest such kill ever achieved”, as well as “at least five high-tech Pakistani fighters in the F-16 and JF-17-class” in the air.“We made Pakistan reach a stage where they had to ask for a ceasefire on May 10. We took a call as a nation to terminate those hostilities because our own objectives were met. I think this is something that the world needs to learn from us,” ACM Singh said. “Have you seen a single picture where something fell on any of our airbases, something hit us, a hangar was destroyed, or anything like that? We showed so many pictures of their places. So, their narrative is ‘manohar kahaniyan’. Let them be happy, after all, they also have to show something to their audience to save their reputation,” he said.Op Sindoor demonstrated IAF’s capability to “deliver catastrophic firepower with precision” in one of the most decisive uses of air power in India’s history, he added.
