India confirms fighter jet losses in clashes with Pakistan
NEW DELHI — India's military has for the first time acknowledged the loss of fighter jets in the recent escalation with Pakistan, but dismissed Islamabad's claim of downing six aircraft as 'absolutely incorrect.'
Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan confirmed the losses in a televised interview with Bloomberg on Saturday, stating the focus should not be on how many jets were lost, but rather on understanding why they were downed and what lessons have been learned.
'What is important is not the jet being down, but why they went down. That is more important,' Chauhan said on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
'The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake, remedy it, and implement it again after two days.'
Pakistan had claimed responsibility for shooting down six Indian fighter jets — including four Rafales, a Su-30MKI, and a MiG-29 — during India's cross-border airstrikes on May 6–7. Chauhan disputed the number but did not provide specific figures.
The high-stakes confrontation was sparked by an April 22 mass shooting in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly Indian tourists. India blamed cross-border involvement, which Pakistan denied, offering an international investigation instead.The attacks led to days of retaliatory air and drone strikes between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. India reportedly struck targets inside Pakistan on May 6–7, followed by Pakistani counterstrikes on May 10.Hostilities were halted after U.S. President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire, which remains in place. — Agencies
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
a day ago
- Al Arabiya
China accuses US's Hegseth of ‘vilifying' remarks at security forum
China has protested to the United States over 'vilifying' remarks made by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations. China has objected to Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, the ministry added, describing his comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday as 'deplorable' and "intended to sow division.' 'Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a 'threat',' the ministry said on its website. 'The United States has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia-Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg,' the ministry added in the statement. Hegseth had called on allies in the Indo-Pacific region, including key security ally Australia, to spend more on defense after warning of the 'real and potentially imminent' threat from China. Asked about the call to boost defense spending, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had pledged an extra A$10 billion to defense. 'What we'll do is we'll determine our defense policy,' he told reporters on Sunday, a transcript of his remarks showed. As part of Washington's longstanding defense ties with the Philippines, the US military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon. China and the Philippines contest sovereignty over some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, with growing maritime run-ins between their coast guards as both vie to patrol the waters. The ministry also warned the United States not to 'play with fire' on the Taiwan question. In his speech at Asia's premier forum for defense leaders, military officials and diplomats, Hegseth said any attempt by China to conquer Taiwan 'would result in devastating consequences.' China has vowed to 'reunify' with the separately governed island, by force if necessary. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.
Saudi Gazette
2 days ago
- Saudi Gazette
India confirms fighter jet losses in clashes with Pakistan
NEW DELHI — India's military has for the first time acknowledged the loss of fighter jets in the recent escalation with Pakistan, but dismissed Islamabad's claim of downing six aircraft as 'absolutely incorrect.' Chief of Defence Staff Anil Chauhan confirmed the losses in a televised interview with Bloomberg on Saturday, stating the focus should not be on how many jets were lost, but rather on understanding why they were downed and what lessons have been learned. 'What is important is not the jet being down, but why they went down. That is more important,' Chauhan said on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. 'The good part is that we are able to understand the tactical mistake, remedy it, and implement it again after two days.' Pakistan had claimed responsibility for shooting down six Indian fighter jets — including four Rafales, a Su-30MKI, and a MiG-29 — during India's cross-border airstrikes on May 6–7. Chauhan disputed the number but did not provide specific figures. The high-stakes confrontation was sparked by an April 22 mass shooting in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly Indian tourists. India blamed cross-border involvement, which Pakistan denied, offering an international investigation attacks led to days of retaliatory air and drone strikes between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. India reportedly struck targets inside Pakistan on May 6–7, followed by Pakistani counterstrikes on May were halted after U.S. President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire, which remains in place. — Agencies
Arab News
2 days ago
- Arab News
India's military chief admits jets downed in recent clashes with Pakistan
NEW DELHI: India's military chief Gen. Anil Chauhan has confirmed for the first time that the Indian Air Force lost jets in clashes with Pakistan in May. Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country shot down six Indian jets, an assertion that Delhi had refrained from commenting on. Chauhan, chief of defense staff of the Indian Armed Forces, is the first Indian official to make the most direct admission over the fate of the country's fighter jets during the conflict that erupted on May 7. 'What is important is that, not the jet being downed, but why they were being downed,' Chauhan told Bloomberg TV in an interview on Saturday, while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. '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 fly all our jets again, targeting at long range.' Pakistan's claims of shooting down six Indian combat aircraft were 'absolutely incorrect,' Chauhan said, without specifying how many jets India lost. India and Pakistan recently saw their worst clashes in half a century, during which both sides traded air, drone and missile strikes, as well as artillery and small arms fire along their shared border. It was triggered by a gruesome attack on tourists near the resort town of Pahalgam in Indian Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 people — 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen — were killed. Bharat Karnad, an emeritus professor for National Security Studies at the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research, said that the Indian Air Force may have underestimated its Pakistani counterpart. 'Initially, Indians were surprised. Maybe they underestimated the capacity of the Pakistani Air Force,' Karnad told Arab News on Saturday. 'I think what was surprising was that India did not use the airborne early warning (and) control system, the NETRA, which Pakistan has used very well,' he said. 'I'm not sure how much the Indian Air Force expected this kind of tactical innovation. So, this is something that the Indian Air Force realized very quickly.' According to Air Vice Marshal Kapil Kak, a retired officer of the Indian Air Force, Pakistan benefited from its Chinese-made weapons during the early May conflict. 'This brings us to the lessons which underscore that India was not fighting Pakistan on one front but two countries: Pakistan and China,' Kak told Arab News. 'Every single superior technology, capability, operationally and tactically, or in strategic terms, are made available to Pakistan. That must concern us: What kind of force structure we must have and what kind of capabilities we must build against the combo.'
