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

India’s leading military general has acknowledged for the first time that an unidentified number of its fighter jets were shot down during the conflict with Pakistan, but claimed that the armed forces promptly corrected their errors to strike Islamabad once more.

In an interview during the Shangri-La Dialogue, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan rejected the Pakistan Prime Minister’s assertion that six Indian jets, including four Rafales, were shot down, calling it “absolutely incorrect.”

“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.

However, the Chief of Defence Staff said the armed forces were quick to analyse the “tactical mistakes”, remedy them, and again target Pakistan on May 8 and May 10.

“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 comments represent the army’s clearest statements yet on the casualties endured during the conflict, coinciding with India’s destruction of nine terrorist camps deep within Pakistan. It was a reaction to the devastating Pahalgam assault, resulting in 25 tourists losing their lives. In response to Pakistan’s wave of drone strikes aimed at Indian military installations and border areas, the armed forces targeted 11 key airbases using long-range BrahMos missiles.

In the past, the military had avoided inquiries regarding Indian aircraft being downed by Pakistan. Speaking at a press conference, Air Marshal AK Bharti, Director General of Air Operations (DGAO), stated, “losses are inherent in any combat situation.” Nonetheless, he stated that all Indian pilots “had returned.”

“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.

The 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.

The top military officer also said the fact that India conducted precision strikes on “heavily air-defended” Pakistani airfields belies Islamabad’s claim of the effectiveness of weaponry supplied by China. “They (Chinese weapons) didn’t work,” he said.

“We were able to do precision strikes on heavily air-defended airfields of Pakistan deep 300 kilometres inside, with the precision of a meter,” General Chauhan said.

During the hostilities, Indian missiles and jets were able to bypass Chinese-supplied air defence systems to target Pakistani military sites.