Chief of Defence Staff Gen Anil Chauhan on Saturday acknowledged that there were aircraft losses in recent hostilities with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor, however he rejected Islamabad’s claim of downing six Indian jets and dismissed them as "absolutely incorrect”.
In an interview with Bloomberg TV, Chauhan highlighted that it is more important for India to find out why the country lost the aircraft so that the military could improve their tactics and hit back again.
CDS says focus should be on why were the jets downed
"I think what is important is not the jet being downed but why they were being downed," he said. General Chauhan was responding to a question on whether India lost combat jets during the four-day military clashes with Pakistan earlier in May.
"The good part is that we were able to understand the tactical mistakes which we made; remedied, rectified and then implemented it again after two days. We flew all our jets again targeting at long range," he said.
All our pilots are back home: CDS
The CDS dismissed Pakistan’s claim of shooting down six Indian jets during Operation Sindoor as “absolutely incorrect”. Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan is currently in Singapore attending the Shangri-La Dialogue, a premier Asia-Pacific security summit.
"We are in a combat scenario and losses are a part of it. Question is have we achieved our objective? Answer is a thumping yes. At this time, I would not like to comment on that (loss of jets) as we are still in combat and give advantage to adversary. All our pilots are back home," he said.
During a media briefing on May 11, Indian Air Force's Director General of Air Operations, Air Marshal AK Bharti, addressed queries about aircraft losses during Operation Sindoor, stating that “losses are a part of combat” but confirmed that all IAF pilots returned home safely.
His remarks come amid heightened national attention on the cross-border operation, which the government has described as India’s largest counter-terror action in recent years.
(With PTI inputs)
