Lost jets, fixed mistake, hit back hard at Pak: CDS

India lost fighter jets on the opening day of the recent military confrontation with Pakistan due to tactical mistakes that were swiftly rectified before the Indian Air Force returned in big numbers and carried out precision strikes deep inside the neighbouring country, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan said in media interviews in Singapore on Saturday.

- Rahul Singh

"What is important is not the jet being down, but why they were being downed. What mistakes were made - those are important. Numbers are not important. The good part is that we were able to understand the tactical mistake which we made, remedy it, rectify it, and then implement it again after two days and flew our jets again, targeting at long range," a Bloomberg report quoted the CDS as saying.

He made the comments in response to a question on whether Pakistan downed Indian jets during the May 7-10 military clash in an interview with Bloomberg TV while attending the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. He called Pakistan's claims of shooting down six Indian fighters "absolutely incorrect." Chauhan said India suffered initial losses in the air in an interview with Reuters too.

"What was important was why did these losses occur, and what we would do after that. So, we rectified tactics and then went back on the 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit air bases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, and carried out precision strikes," he told Reuters.

He did not specify how many jets India lost.