During Operation Sindoor, IAF fighters, S-400 system and missiles downed six Pakistani aircrafts and destroyed four radars.
Even as national security planners and military chiefs celebrated one month of Operation Sindoor on Saturday evening, HT has learned that the Defence Ministry has given the green signal to the three services to replenish their inventory with longer-range loitering ammunition, artillery shells, kamikaze drones, and beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles that out-range the Chinese missiles used by Pakistan during the four-day high-intensity skirmish.
According to people familiar with the matter – and based on action taken reports and damage assessments undertaken by the three services – there is digital evidence to conclude that the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters, surface-to-air missile batteries, and S-400 air defence system downed four Pakistani Chinese-made fighter jets and two large aircraft (possibly one C-130J and one SAAB 2000 airborne early warning system) during Operation Sindoor.
There are also indications, the sources added, that two F-16 fighter aircraft may have been partly damaged during the IAF’s missile assault on 11 airbases, including those at Sargodha, Rafiqui, Jacobabad, and Nur Khan (Chaklala, Rawalpindi). The reports indicate that India’s Rafale fighters, S-400 missile systems, and M777 howitzers acquitted themselves well during the four-day conflict, with the Russian air defence system taking down three enemy aircraft.
They also show that India destroyed one Chinese LY-80 fire radar, two AN/TPQ-43 US-made automatic tracking radars, and one fire unit of the Chinese HQ-9 radar at Chaklala during the retaliatory strike on May 10. Intelligence inputs now suggest that Pakistan has four HQ-9 (the Chinese equivalent of the Russian S-300 air defence radar systems), instead of the two originally estimated by national security planners.
The Pakistanis used the Chinese version of the PL-15 air-to-air missile, which has a range of 180 km. There are also inputs that the Pakistanis, by mixing two fire units of the 250 km-range HQ-9 air defence system with two other 150 km-range systems at Chaklala and Malir Cantonment near Karachi, respectively, may have tried to catch the Indian Air Force by surprise.
The action taken reports also show that the IAF fired 19 BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles at Pakistani airbases, along with nearly an equal number of French SCALP subsonic cruise missiles. In turn, the Pakistanis fired CM-400 AKG air-launched supersonic missiles at Indian airbases using Chinese JF-17 fighters, but these failed to cause any damage.
The Turkish-built YIHA loitering ammunition, which Pakistan fired in large numbers, was either jammed by the Indian electronic warfare suite, missed its targets, or was taken down by India’s robust air defence system. Even the FATAH-1 rockets fired by Pakistan were either off the mark or intercepted by Indian air defence systems.
HT has learned that there is now adequate evidence that India’s first counter-terror strike on May 7 was a success. Markaz-e-Taiba (the LeT headquarters at Muridke) was hit by four to five Crystal Maze missiles, which leave a small entry point but inflict heavy internal damage. The Jaish-e-Mohammed facility at Markaz-e-Subhan Allah was hit by six SCALP missiles launched from Rafale fighters and was totally destroyed through a pinpoint strike using bunker-busting techniques.
