Outcome matters more than losses in war: Chief of Defence Staff on Operation Sindoor

New Indian Express

03-06-2025

PUNE: Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan on Tuesday said that in military operations, it is the outcome that matters more than the losses suffered. His comments come days after India admitted to losing a few fighter jets during Operation Sindoor, carried out in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.
Speaking at a special lecture on 'Future Wars and Warfare' at Savitribai Phule University in Pune, General Chauhan said, 'Professional military forces are not affected by setbacks and losses.' Addressing questions on the losses, he added, 'When I was asked about losses on our side... I said these are not important. The results are important. It would not be very correct to talk about losses. Suppose you go to a cricket match and you win, by any means, then there's no question about how many wickets, balls, players.'
Stressing the importance of adaptability in the armed forces, he said, 'You should be able to understand what went wrong, need to rectify your mistake and go again. You cannot sit down in fear.'
As TNIE earlier reported, when asked whether Pakistani forces shot down an Indian jet or more during Operation Sindoor, General Chauhan told Bloomberg TV on Saturday at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, 'What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down, what mistakes were made, that are important.' He added, '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.'
While stressing 'numbers are not important,' he also denied Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's claim that the Pakistan Air Force had downed six Indian jets, including four Rafale fighters, during the brief military confrontation.
His comments mark the first clear public admission from the Indian military that some aircraft were lost during the four-day conflict under Operation Sindoor. The operation was launched by India on May 7 in response to the brutal killing of 26 Indian tourists in Pahalgam.
Explaining the objective behind the operation, General Chauhan said, 'The thinking behind Op Sindoor was (also) that Pakistan should not be able to hold India hostage to terrorism. India is not going to live under the shadow of terror and nuclear blackmail.' He also said, 'What happened in Pahalgam was profound cruelty towards the victims... because all were killed with headshots in front of their families and their children, and they were shot in the name of religion... India has been the victim of a maximum terror acts... almost 20,000 people have been killed.'