India’s military on Saturday confirmed for the first time that it lost fighter jets in its conflict with Pakistan earlier this month in May, but stopped short of specifying the number of aircraft downed.
“What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,” Anil Chauhan, chief of defense staff of the Indian Armed Forces, told Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
Maintaining that Pakistan’s claims of downing six Indian warplanes were “absolutely incorrect,” he did not offer any counter number to negate Islamabad’s assertions. “Why they were down, what mistakes were made—that are important,” he said. “Numbers are not important,” he added.
“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 flew all our jets again, targeting at long range,” he said, referring to the May 7 and May 9 exchanges.
This marks the first time any Indian official has confirmed the downing of any jets in its conflict with Pakistan earlier this month. Up until now, Delhi has maintained it lost no jets, despite Pakistan claiming it downed six Indian fighter jets, including several French-made Rafale.
The Pak-Indo conflict brought the two nuclear-armed countries to the brink of war before they agreed to a ceasefire brokered by the United States. The conflict stemmed from a terrorist attack in India-administered Kashmir on April 22 that saw gunmen kill 26 civilians. India swiftly, and without evidence, blamed Pakistan. Islamabad has denied any involvement.
While refusing to comment on U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that the U.S. helped to avert a nuclear war, Chauhan denied either country was preparing to utilize nuclear weapons. “I personally feel that there is a lot of space between conduct of conventional operations and the nuclear threshold,” he said, adding that channels of communication between the two states had remained open.
The Indian army chief said there were several “sub-ladders” that could be exploited by either state before the situation would escalate to a nuclear conflict. He further claimed to Bloomberg TV that India had successfully targeted “heavily air-defended airfields” in Pakistan.
Chauhan said the ceasefire was holding, but claimed its future viability depended on Pakistan’s actions. “We have laid clear red lines,” he said, in a seeming reference to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s repeated assertions that any future terrorist strike in India would trigger a response against Pakistan.