Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh on Saturday addressed the media, explaining that Indian air defence surface-to-air missile systems brought down five Pakistani jets and one Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft during Operation Sindoor.
"We have at least five fighters 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."
The IAF chief’s remark at the Air Chief Marshal LM Katre Memorial Lecture in Bengaluru is New Delhi's first confirmation from a high-ranking official of the number of Pakistani jets India damaged during its cross-border anti-terror operation in May.
Since May, India has said that the precision strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan had been a response to the devastating Pahalgam attack of April 22, which saw 26 people killed.
Here are four other important statements made by Chief Air Marshal Singh:
On air defence systems
"None of their aircraft could come anywhere near the boundaries of Akash and even MRSAM (Medium Range Surface-to-Air Missile). All their aircraft were taken on by LRSAM (Long Range Surface-to-Air Missile) because they were trying to stay away, but still they were within our range at times, and that is the opportunity targets that we got."
"Our air defence systems have done a wonderful job. The S-400 system, which we had recently bought, has been a game-changer."
"The idea was once again not to attack one particular airfield and decimate that airfield. The idea was to give him that feeling or give him that indication that look, we can attack you deep inside, at will, wherever we want to."
On damage dealt to Pakistan
Calling the 88-hours of India-Pakistan hostilities a "high-tech war", Chief Air Marshal pointed out that "in 80 to 90 hours of war, we were able to achieve so much damage that it was clear to them that if they continue, they are going to pay for it more and more. So they came forward and sent a message to our DGMO that they wanted to talk. This was accepted on our side..."
When showing visuals of the targeted terrorist sites before and after the operation, he explained that there was "hardly any collateral".
"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."
On planning and calibration
"If there were any constraints, they were self-made ... We decided how much to escalate," he explained.
"A key reason for success was the presence of political will. There were very clear directions given to us. No restrictions were put on us," he noted.
"Our attacks were calibrated because we wanted to be mature about it... There was a synchronisation between the three forces ... The post of CDS made a real difference. He was there to get us together ... NSA also played a big role in getting all the agencies together. There were so many meetings conducted, whenever there was any doubt about the next step."
On retribution for Balakot
"In Balakot, we could not get anything from inside, and it became a big issue trying to tell our own people, unfortunately, as to what we have been able to achieve. We had intelligence of what had gone on inside, had human kind of intelligence where we had very clear picture of inside in terms of there's had been a huge damage. There have been so many terrorists who have been neutralised, but we could not convince our own people that, look, we have achieved that."
"I'm very happy that this time we were able to take care of that ghost of Balakot that we were able to tell the world what we have achieved."