Suffered losses in air, switched tactics to inflict damage on Pak airbases: CDS Gen Chauhan

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Anil Chauhan on Saturday confirmed that India did face "losses" in the air duel with Pakistan during Operation Sindoor. However, he said there was a swift change in tactics that led the Indian Air Force (IAF) to inflict a decisive retaliation on the airbases of the western neighbour.

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General Chauhan, who is in Singapore for the Shangri-La Dialogue, gave separate interviews to news agency Reuters and Bloomberg TV.

On May 11, the IAF's Director General Air Operations, Air Marshal AK Bharti, on being asked about losses to the IAF, had said, "We are in a combat scenario; losses are a part of combat.”

Today Reuters quoted the CDS as saying that India switched tactics after suffering losses in the air on the first day of conflict (May 7) with Pakistan and established a decisive advantage before the neighbours announced a ceasefire on May 10.

"What was important is, why did these losses occur, and what we'll do after that," General Chauhan told Reuters while referring to the Pakistani claim of downing jets.

"So we rectified tactics and then went back on the May 7, 8 and 10 in large numbers to hit airbases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity and carried out precision strikes."

The IAF "flew all types of aircraft with all types of ordinance" on May 10, he said, referring to the massive strike on 11 airbases in Pakistan.

Bloomberg TV posted a video clip of the interview of the CDS on social media platform X. In the clip, the CDS was asked about Pakistan's claims of six Indian jets being downed.

The CDS replied, “absolutely incorrect”, but he declined to specify how many jets India lost.

The CDS was asked another question: “Whether or not Pakistan downed an Indian jet or, in fact, more than that…can you confirm?” To this, the CDS said, “I think more than that, what is important is not the jet being downed but why they went (down).”

The CDS said, “The good part is we were able to understand the tactical mistake, remedy it, rectify it and then implement it after two days. And (we) flew all our jets again, targeting at long range.”

On May 29, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif publicly admitted that the Indian armed forces had pre-empted Islamabad’s planned offensive on the intervening night of May 9-10 when India launched BrahMos missiles to strike its key military bases, including the Rawalpindi base.

Replying to a query whether there was fear of the nuclear threshold being crossed, the CDS said, “It's my personal view that the most rational people are people in uniform when a conflict takes place."

"During the operation, I found both sides displaying a lot of rationality in their thoughts as well as actions. So why should we assume that in the nuclear domain, there will be irrationality on someone else's part?"