Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down six Indian fighter jets, including four Rafale fighters, during the brief India-Pak clash.
Addressing a ceremony commemorating Azerbaijani Independence Day in Lachin city, PM Sharif claimed that PAF shot down the Indian jets on the first day of confrontations, which began on the intervening night of May 6 and 7, Anadolu Agency reported.
India has not officially responded to Pakistan’s statement, though it said that losses were part of the combat.
Earlier, during India’s Operation Sindoor to target terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, PAF claimed shooting down five Indian jets, including three Rafales.
Very interestingly, PM Sharif now claims the destruction of four French-origin Rafale jets.
Pakistani experts claim that Indian jets were shot down by a Chinese air-to-air missile, the PL-15E, using newly acquired J-10C fighters.
Most of the Western media appear to agree with combat losses for IAF jets, but so far, no conclusive evidence has surfaced that could verify their claims.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the French Ministry addressed inquiries from Phoenix TV during a regular press briefing, stating that if the information is confirmed, it would be the first loss of Rafale in combat.
He reportedly said that the specifics of the incident remain shrouded in uncertainty, with many details still unverified. He said that regarding the performance of the Rafale, France is closely monitoring the situation and maintaining active communication with India to obtain firsthand information. Should the reports of the Rafale’s crash be confirmed, it would indeed be the first operational loss in its two-decade-long service history, he said, according to Phoenix TV.
India has not officially confirmed that any of its aircraft were lost. However, a senior security source told AFP three jets had crashed on home soil without giving any further details.
However, IAF experts have asked why PAF has not been able to provide any evidence despite being so confident.
What’s striking is the complete disregard for the lack of corroborating evidence. Pakistani officials have not released cockpit footage, radar logs, or geolocated imagery to substantiate these shootdown claims.
Moreover, much of the imagery circulated by Pakistan-affiliated social media accounts—and picked up by foreign media outlets—has been publicly debunked by Indian officials with detailed counter-evidence.
India Bets On Stealth Fighters
India has approved a program to develop an advanced fighter jet prototype, the latest push to boost local arms production, nearly three weeks after a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan.
India, one of the world’s largest arms importers, has made the modernisation of its forces a top priority in the face of tensions with nuclear-armed Pakistan and China.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the prototype of a 5th generation Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), the ministry said in a statement, calling it a “significant push towards enhancing India’s indigenous defence capabilities”.
India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) — a government agency under the Ministry of Defence responsible for aircraft design — is “set to execute the programme through industry partnership,” it added.
“This is an important step…which will be a major milestone towards aatmanirbharta (“self-reliance”) in the aerospace sector”.
India’s arms purchases have steadily risen to account for nearly 10 percent of all imports globally in 2019-23, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said last year.
The world’s most populous nation has deepened defence cooperation with Western countries in recent years, including the Quad alliance with the United States, Japan, and Australia, as it slowly shifts away from its longstanding reliance on Russian military hardware.
India signed a multi-billion-dollar deal in April to purchase 36 Rafale fighter jets from France’s Dassault Aviation, adding to the 36 already acquired, and replacing Russian MiG-29K jets.
However, Singh has also promised to secure at least $100 billion in new domestic military hardware contracts by 2033 to stimulate local arms production.
This decade, India has opened an expansive new helicopter factory, launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier, warships, and submarines, and conducted a successful test of its long-range hypersonic missile.
With inputs from AFP
