IAF Rubbishes Claims That Pakistan Did Not Lose F-16 On February 27’s Dog Fight

April 5, 2019

An official statement issued earlier on Friday by the IAF explained the sequence of events. It says that “after an attack on the terrorist camp at Balakot on February 26, PAF attempted a riposte next day. A large force of PAF F-16s, JF 17s and Mirage III/V aircraft was picked up by the IAF radars.”

The IAF has clearly said that during an aerial engagement that followed, one MiG-21 Bison of IAF shot down one F-16 in Nowshera Sector.

Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday dismissed reports that Pakistan did not lose a fighter jet on February 27 air battle in the Nowshera sector. IAF officials officially confirmed sighting ejections at two different places on that day (Feb 27) at places separated by at least 8-10 Kms – one was an IAF MiG-21 Bison and the other was PAF aircraft.

“Based on the electronic signatures gathered by the IAF radars and the AWACS, it is clear that the PAF aircraft that was shot down was F-16,” a senior IAF officer said. The IAF has clearly said that during an aerial engagement that followed, one MiG-21 Bison of IAF shot down one F-16 in Nowshera Sector.

An official statement issued earlier on Friday by the IAF explained the sequence of events. It says that “after an attack on the terrorist camp at Balakot on February 26, PAF attempted a riposte next day. A large force of PAF F-16s, JF 17s and Mirage III/V aircraft was picked up by the IAF radars.”

These PAF aircraft were intercepted by the IAF’s SU-30 MKI, Mirage 2000 and MiG-21 Bison fighter guided by the ground radars and AWACs and the attempts by the enemy air force were thwarted.

The IAF had to issue an official statement denying reports which were published in an American magazine, expressing doubts over the shooting down of F-16 fighter aircraft belonging to the US based Lockheed Martin aerospace company.

The US published Foreign Policy magazine indicated that a US count of Pakistan Air Force’s aircraft indicated that none of the flying machines were “missing”, and all are “present and accounted for”.

The report directly contradicted the claims made by the IAF that an F-16 was shot down in a dog fight over J&K by a MiG-21 Bison.

According to an officer who wished to remain anonymous, “The news of a F-16 being shot down by a old Russian MiG-21 Bison was never going to be accepted. The report published is on expected lines.”

It should be mentioned here that as has been reported by the Financial Express Online, the F-16s are one of the aircraft in contention for the 114 fighter aircraft order for the IAF.

On the first day, Pakistan had claimed that two aircraft were shot down, and went on to announce that they had one pilot in custody, one in hospital and that it was looking for a third pilot.

It may be recalled that at that time India had accepted that one MiG-21 Bison was shot down and its pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman was in the custody of Pakistan. However at that time also India had raised questions on Pakistan’s claims that it had shot down two Indian aircraft and that there were three pilots.

At a joint tri-service press conference in New Delhi on Feb 28, the IAF had displayed pieces of the AMRAAM missile fired by a Pakistani F-16 as an evidence to prove that not only did Pakistan deploy the F-16 but had also tried to target military installations by firing the missile.

Air Vice Marshal RGK Kapoor had then told the media persons that there was enough evidence to prove that Pakistan Air Force had deployed US –F-16s in the mission to hit India. And, Kapoor had said that the parts of the AMRAAM air-to-air missile, is carried only on the F-16s, which was recovered east of Rajouri.

Courtesy: FE Online