Defence ministry gives nod for weapons that outgun Pak arsenal

Even as national security planners and military chiefs celebrated one month of Operation Sindoor on Saturday evening, HT learns that the defence ministry has given the green signal to the three services to replenish 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.

- Shishir Gupta

NEW DELHI:

According to people familiar with the matter and on the basis of action taken reports and damage assessment 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 big aircraft (possibly one C-130 J and one SAAB 2000 airborne early warning system) during Operation Sindoor. There are also indications, the people 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 three enemy aircraft.