Air chief marshal Amar Preet Singh on Saturday reflected on the lessons from the 2019 Balakot airstrike while speaking about India's recent Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.
“...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 a human kind of intelligence where we had a very clear picture of the inside in terms of there had been 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,” he said.
"So I am 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," AP Singh said while addressing 16th edition of the Air Chief Marshal LM Katre Memorial Lecture at the HAL Management Academy Auditorium in Bengaluru.
The Chief of the Air Staff also confirmed that the Indian armed forces had destroyed at least five Pakistani fighter aircraft and one large 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," AP Singh added.
Listing other damages on Pakistan's defence capabilities, the air chief said, “We were able to get at least two command and control centres, like Murid and Chaklala. At least six radars, some of them big, some of them small. Two SAGW systems that is in Lahore and Okara. We attacked three hangars. One was the Sukkur UAV hangar, the Bholari hangar and the Jacobabad F-16 hangar. We have an indication of at least one AEW&C in that AEW&C hangar and a few F-16s, which were under maintenance there.”
Operation Sindoor
{{/usCountry}}Listing other damages on Pakistan's defence capabilities, the air chief said, “We were able to get at least two command and control centres, like Murid and Chaklala. At least six radars, some of them big, some of them small. Two SAGW systems that is in Lahore and Okara. We attacked three hangars. One was the Sukkur UAV hangar, the Bholari hangar and the Jacobabad F-16 hangar. We have an indication of at least one AEW&C in that AEW&C hangar and a few F-16s, which were under maintenance there.”
Operation Sindoor
{{/usCountry}}India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 as a decisive military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed.
Indian armed forces targeted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, leading to the death of more than 100 terrorists affiliated with terror outfits like the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
After the attack, Pakistan retaliated with cross-border shelling across the Line of Control and Jammu and Kashmir as well as attempted drone attacks along the border regions, following which India launched a coordinated attack and damaged radar infrastructure, communication centres and airfields across 11 airbases, including Nur Khan air base in Pakistan.
According to the ministry of external affairs, 16 people were killed due to Pakistani shelling, and 59 others were injured.