Understood mistakes, rectified them: Top General reflects on Op Sindoor losses

India Today

31-05-2025

India's top military general has admitted for the first time that an unspecified number of its fighter jets were downed during the hostilities with Pakistan, but asserted that the armed forces rectified its mistakes quickly to hit Islamabad again.In an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, however, dismissed the Pakistan Prime Minister's claims that it shot down six Indian jets, including four Rafales, as "absolutely incorrect". advertisement"What is important is that, not the jet being down, but why they were being down... Why they were down, what mistakes were made - that are important. Numbers are not important," General Chauhan said.'QUICK TO REMEDY TACTICAL MISTAKES'
However, the Chief of Defence Staff said the armed forces were quick to analyse the "tactical mistakes", remedy them, and again target Pakistan two days later as part of Operation Sindoor."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," General Chauhan said.The remarks are the most direct by the army so far on losses suffered during the hostilities, which came as India destroyed nine terror camps deep inside Pakistan. It was in response to the horrific Pahalgam attack, which left 25 tourists dead.advertisementAs Pakistan retaliated by launching a wave of drone attacks targeting Indian military facilities and border towns, the armed forces struck 11 vital airbases with long-range BrahMos missiles.Previously, the armed forces had deflected questions about Indian jets being shot down by Pakistan. Addressing a press conference, Air Marshal AK Bharti, Director General of Air Operations (DGAO), said "losses are a part of any combat scenario". However, he said all Indian pilots "were back"."We are in a combat scenario and losses are a part of it. Question is have we achieved our objective? Answer is a thumping yes. At this time, I would not like to comment on that (loss of jets) as we are still in combat and give advantage to adversary. All our pilots are back home," he said.ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS, CEASEFIRE WITH PAKThe Chief of Defence Staff also made it clear that the conflict never came close to a nuclear war, while underscoring that "channels of communication" with Pakistan were always open to control the situation.This flies in the face of US President Donald Trump's repeated assertion that he avoided a potential nuclear disaster by mediating the ceasefire between India and Pakistan."I personally feel that there is a lot of space between conduct of conventional operations and the nuclear threshold," General Chauhan told Bloomberg.