India’s Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan has acknowledged that the country did lose aircraft in the recent conflict with Pakistan.
During an interview with Bloomberg’s Haslinda Amin at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, General Anil Chauhan rejected Pakistan’s claims of having downed six Indian fighter jets, calling the assertion “absolutely incorrect.” He also said , “What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down,”
However, acknowledging aircraft losses, he emphasized “numbers are not important.”
Chauhan said that “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”.
In another interview with news agency Reuters, Chauhan said India switched tactics after suffering losses in the air on the first day of conflict with Pakistan earlier this month.
In Reuters interview, too, General Anil Chauhan said that India suffered initial losses in the air, but declined to give details.
“What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we’ll do after that,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore, referring to the Pakistani claim of downing jets.
The admission comes in the aftermath of heightened tensions triggered by a deadly terrorist attack on April 22 in Indian-administered Kashmir, which claimed the lives of 26 civilians. India attributed the attack to Pakistan-based militant groups and responded with cross-border airstrikes on May 7, targeting what it described as terrorist launch pads.
In response, Pakistan launched retaliatory strikes and claimed it had downed multiple Indian jets, including advanced Rafale fighters. Pakistani military sources stated that Chinese-built J-10C aircraft, armed with long-range PL-15 missiles, were instrumental in achieving air superiority during the skirmishes.
The hostilities culminated in a ceasefire agreement on May 10, brokered with diplomatic assistance from the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the United Kingdom.
While both countries have since declared victory and scaled back active operations, tensions remain high along the Line of Control, and intermittent exchanges of fire have continued.
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The conflict has drawn sharp international scrutiny, not just for the regional instability it threatens to ignite, but also for the potential implications on global military procurement, given the involvement of high-end fighter jets like the Rafale and J-10C.
