ON 09 August 2025, 95 days after the four-day war between India and Pakistan, the Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief, Air Chief Marshal (ACM) AP Singh, while delivering his keynote address at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Management Academy, came up with a rather belated and unthoughtful claim that ‘IAF had downed five Pakistani fighter jets and one support aircraft, during Operation Sindoor’.
The contents, timings, intentions and probable objectives of the foolhardy declaration contains multifaceted implications that deserve critical analysis, dispassionate incision and geostrategic debunking.
First and foremost, as the universal norm, before launching any military campaign, accurate environmental scan-based on realistic assumptions and giving best options to the enemy is the prerequisite. To say the least, Indian leadership in general and the IAF in particular, failed to correctly read the environment. No sane mind could have assumed that India could walk away unhurt after attacking a nuclear neighbour. Secondly, India completely failed to achieve its political and military objectives of breaking Pakistan’s will to fight back and destroying its military potential. Thirdly, IAF overestimated its own potential and underestimated PAF’s real potential which resulted in grossly miscalculating the cost of war. Fourthly, IAF did not carry out introspection and drawn valid lessons out of PAF’s Operation Swift Retort in February 2019. Fifthly, IAF yet again tried to disturb the strategic stability of the region and undermine Pakistan’s deterrence mechanism which were successfully restored and re-established through Pakistan’s Quid Pro Quo Plus strategy.
Interestingly, within hours of termination of hostilities between Pakistan and India, Pakistan came up with a comprehensive tri-services briefing to the national and international media which was amply supported by irrefutable digital and geographic details and audio/video evidences. Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (operations) of PAF gave a detailed account of shooting down of the six IAF fighter aircraft, including Rafale, Mirage-2000 and Su-30MKI. His briefing included geographical location with precise coordinates; range, bearing and distance from the shooters; flight parameters; date and time of shooting, digital footprints in terms of real-time radar picture; type of aircraft and even the actual radio transmissions of the fateful IAF pilots. The later details even included tail numbers with pilots’ names of the targeted IAF aircraft. PAF’s claims were also corroborated by the global and social media outlets showing videos of the falling/fallen IAF aircraft and collection of their wreckage by the Indian authorities.
Almost entire leading electronic and print media houses of the world did telecast and publish details of the four days of war mainly focusing on the Indian loses in the aerial combat against PAF. Global leaders including President of the USA Mr Donald Trump echoed shooting down of the ‘Indian jets’ multiple times. International military observers, aircraft manufactures and think tanks also confirmed shooting down of leading Indian fighter aircraft with no losses from the PAF. So much so, even the Indian Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chohan, IAF’s Air Vice Marshal Bharti and India’s Defence Attaché to Indonesia Captain (Indian Navy) Shiv Kumar, all confirmed aircraft losses of the Indian Air Force by the PAF.
For the Chief of the Air Staff of any country, unfolding of the news regarding shooting down of six enemy aircraft would be the biggest achievement and told upfront with enthusiasm. However, strangely, IAF’s ACM AP Singh chose to unfold such a ‘big news’ at the end of his talk that too in a casual manner. Unlike presentation of solid and undeniable evidences by the PAF, ACM Singh did not present even a hint of evidence (type of aircraft, coordinates, digital footprint, missile lock/launch/track ques, range, bearing and distance, date and time of destruction, presentation of wreckage, media coverage etc) to support his claims. International electronic and print media as well as global strategic community did not consider his claims worthy of offering their insight while Indian voices like Mr Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mr Karan Thapar, Mr Pravin Sawhney and others have raised serious questions regarding veracity of such claims. Ironically, the transcript of ACM Singh issued by the Press Information Bureau of India, did not mention such claims which implies that either the claims were added at the last minute or they were intentionally omitted from the transcript to avoid follow on questions. Likewise, during the last week of July 2025, Indian Lok Sabha held a debate on various aspects of Operation Sindhoor and interestingly, none of the treasury or opposition members mentioned such claims.
IAF was already under immense pressure for laying false claims of shooting down PAF’s F-16, killing 300 ‘so called’ terrorists and shooting down own helicopter (fratricide) during February 2019 Balakot crisis. In the same regards, the incumbent ACM Singh was also under tremendous political and military pressure. Politically, BJP government had huge geopolitical setbacks on internal and external fronts and badly needed bailout and distraction. Militarily, IAF faced intriguing questions for destruction of its frontline jets, S-400 SAM sites and Main Operating Bases for which it could not present any plausible answers.
Additionally, on 23 January 2025, ACM Singh had already expressed his anguish and frustration against HAL/DRDO and the Indian government for not meeting the timelines and redtapism, which according to him, were the main reasons responsible for qualitative and quantitative deficiencies of IAF. It appears that the IAF Chief succumbed to these pressures and ended up making unverifiable claims. Nevertheless, by making such ridiculous claims, the IAF Chief has not only joined India’s fake news bandwagon, added insult to injury to the IAF but also made him the laughing stock for the world.
—The writer is a retired Air Officer from the PAF and currently serving at the DHA Suffa University (DSU), Karachi.
