- 1 year ago
In a stunning revelation, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh confirmed that India’s S-400 air defence system shot down five Pakistani fighter jets and one AW&C aircraft during Operation Sindoor. The strikes, carried out at 300 km range, also damaged key Pak air bases and radar sites with minimal collateral.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We have at least five fighters confirmed kills and one large aircraft, which could be either
00:06an Lint aircraft or an AWNC aircraft, which was ahead of time.
00:11Then I will cover something else.
00:12I have not really prepared for that part.
00:16Now, of course, another point I just now wrote down.
00:21Imarsha Rajarajam said that, you know, this hall is full because you are here.
00:26They want to all want to hear you.
00:28But, sir, I can see 50 percent are blues, and out of that, I think I am 80 percent are
00:35detailed to be here today.
00:37Having gone through their times, I understand everything.
00:41But all those who have been detailed, please listen.
00:44Okay, don't sleep.
00:47So this, we all know what happened, that unfortunate incident of Pahlgaam where so many people were
00:55killed in, you know, the nation had to respond.
01:00And all that is in open media, you know, how we were trying to achieve some things diplomatically.
01:06At the same time, we had to give them a befitting reply.
01:10We had also said, it was made very clear that this time it need, it should be an emphatic thing
01:17that we do, we must send the message across loud and clear to them.
01:21It should not be something just limited to launch pads and training areas.
01:26It should be, if their leadership, the terrorist leadership should be challenged.
01:31So we were all called in, and we discussed a few options, then all the other agencies also
01:40joined in, and then we decided on those nine targets.
01:48I don't know how clear it is here.
01:50From my angle, it's not looking very clear, the text part of it.
01:53So, like you see, I can make it easier for you by the red dots that you see on the map
02:01were the seven targets that were very close to the border and LC, and they were to be taken
02:07on by army with their integral weapons.
02:10And those two blue dots, we've drawn them a little bigger.
02:15They were the two main headquarter buildings, that is Bahawalpur and Muritke, headquarter complexes,
02:22not buildings, that were to be taken on by Indian Air Force.
02:26So this was decided.
02:28Also, when I say taken on by Indian Air Force, that doesn't mean that only Indian Air Force
02:32was to work towards that.
02:33All of us were working together, including naval assets were involved in, you know, their weapons
02:39were used in these areas, their INT agencies were involved, and in the planning, we were
02:47all, the three services together, along with other agencies.
02:50So this plan was made, discussed, even the escalation metrics were made and discussed as to where
03:00can it lead to, what can happen, and if this happens, what is going to be our response.
03:05So it was a nicely planned out effort, and the date was decided.
03:10It was the sixth and seventh night, date and time.
03:14And it was decided based on weather, based on what pattern we were seeing across the border
03:20of their, you know, movements and their actions, and we decided that time, and we decided that
03:27it will be, in one go we will address all nine targets, and like I said, Air Force was targeting
03:33these, the border, so it was not that we could do something with small drones or weapons of
03:43small caliber.
03:43They were all nicely hardened structures.
03:46So we decided to go with long-range weapons to keep ourselves safe from their defenses,
03:51but at the same time, accurate weapons to get the targets while not causing any, any other
04:02damage to the areas around.
04:05And special emphasis throughout has been that there should be minimum civilian casualties who
04:10are not involved with this, so as far as Bhawalpur is concerned, this is how that complex looks
04:24on map, and if you look at it, there were some, well, DMPI is basically our point of impact
04:31that we decide where we are going to hit.
04:33So there were some buildings where we had intelligence of their senior leadership staying, some buildings
04:39where their other people stay, and of course the main Marcas building where the congregations
04:50used to take place and all the training used to take place.
04:54So these points were decided, and I show you some of the pictures of what we achieved.
05:03Now, before and after the attack, of course these are satellite pictures, and after the attack
05:08pictures are immediate pictures that we got, before the attack pictures which have been
05:13built over a period of time, so you will find there is a clarity issue, and there is a different
05:17kind of satellite which is giving you.
05:20So here, sorry.
05:24So here you can see the damage, which is of course not coming out very clear in this,
05:29but other pictures, here these two buildings, you can see the damage much clearly.
05:41Again, another big set of buildings, and you see the damage that is coming out.
05:46What I can show you here is there is hardly any collateral that you see.
05:53Of course from that distance it is not very easy to make out, but still all the adjacent
05:58buildings are fairly intact.
06:00The buildings that were targeted were based on intelligence.
06:05And this is the main building of theirs, where the weapons have gone in, and it's badly damaged.
06:14Now, one thing which was good this time was that, not only did we have the satellite pictures,
06:19we also had a lot of input from the locals' media, which was giving us the inside pictures.
06:25Because these were areas which were open to public kind of areas also.
06:30So there were a lot of people who were going in and out, so on the net, we could get pictures
06:36like this and videos like this.
06:38This is the same building that I just showed you.
06:40So look at the damage that has been caused inside.
06:42It's all on the open net available, so I have also picked up from there.
06:47So this target was about 100 kilometers away from the border.
07:11We did not have a way to send a BDA mission that far away.
07:16So the damage assessment has been done based on only the, or accuracy assessment has been
07:23done based on damage that we see on the pictures from the satellites and also what we got from
07:29the media.
07:30As far as Murithki is concerned, this is what it was, the L.E.T. headquarters.
07:35This is shifted.
07:36This is shifted.
07:37I think something is on that.
07:48These are the two main buildings.
07:49These circles should be here on this building and this building.
07:54And these two things, circles are in this area.
07:59This again is their, if I can say, the senior leadership's residential area where they were
08:06staying.
08:07And these were their office building and their building where they used to get together to
08:11conduct their meetings.
08:13This is one of the videos that we have because this was within our range.
08:20So we could get this video from the weapon itself.
08:24If you notice here, somewhere here was the first impact of the previous weapon.
08:32And if you see the next one now, the video continues, you can see the smoke of the previous weapon
08:39somewhere here.
08:40And this weapon is for the main building, that big building that we see.
09:02That was the point of impact.
09:11And this is the damage that you see on the, they have sorted me out here, my team.
09:22So before attack, these were the MPI 3 and 4.
09:29And after the impact, it's not very clear, the display is not very clear.
09:34But I think the brightness of this big display is always an issue.
09:37So these are the, this is the DMPI, this is the bomb that you saw in that video before.
09:46And here this whole picture has shifted.
09:50And this is the impact that we see on the main and one on the office building.
09:56You can see it's already decimated quite badly.
09:59Here you see just a pinprick.
10:02Let it be.
10:04It's just a pinprick here.
10:06But I want to bring out something here.
10:08You know, when we did Balakot, we had something similar.
10:15I have a slide on that.
10:17You see here, in Balakot also, we had similar, you know, this pinpricks being seen from the
10:24satellite pictures.
10:26And here in this building also, we see a similar kind of impact point.
10:30And in Balakot, we could not get anything from inside.
10:34And it became a big issue, trying to tell our own people, unfortunately, our own people,
10:40as to what we have been able to achieve.
10:42We had intelligence of what has gone on inside.
10:44We had intelligence of, you know, human kind of intelligence, where we had very clear picture
10:51of inside in terms of, there has been huge damage.
10:56There have been so many terrorists which have been utilized.
10:59But we could not convince our own people that, look, we have achieved that.
11:05The same, again, a thing like this would have given us the same, same problem.
11:12But we were lucky.
11:13And we got these videos on the open.
11:16This is the same building from inside.
11:18You see the amount of damage that it has created.
11:21Because all these penetration weapons, the sound is from that video.
11:28So they, they cause this kind of damage.
11:30And from outside, you get a feeling as if it's just a small hole.
11:37So I am very happy that this time we were able to, you know, take care of that ghost of
11:42Balakot, that we were able to tell the world what we have achieved.
11:49Coming back to Sindur, again, after this, what we did, we were able to…
11:57So this was, we were able to very clearly understand that we have achieved our objectives.
12:03Some similar damage was done on all the other seven targets of the army.
12:07We had the pictures very clear.
12:08We had the videos from here and there.
12:10We had all intelligence reports.
12:14So when we were confident that we have been able to address what we wanted to address, a
12:18message was sent to their DGMO, to our DGMO, Director General of Military Operations, that
12:25we don't mean to have any, anything to do with the military.
12:31In the sense, our objective was only to strike the terrorist targets, to take the revenge
12:38of this, what they have done to us.
12:41And we have no military aspirations, no intent to attack any military targets.
12:47So we can call it off here.
12:49But they, unfortunately, did not agree.
12:52They said, no, we will take a call.
12:55Aapne hume maara hai, ab hum maareenge, phir dekhenge, phir baat kareenge.
12:59These are kind of words they spoke.
13:01So we continued to be cautious.
13:04We knew they will do something.
13:05So that seventh night, seventh eighth night, if I can call it, eighth night night, those
13:11two nights, we had a lot of loiter munitions, drones, small scale weapons, some drones which
13:18were basically to, you know, to saturate our systems, at many of our airfields and many
13:25of the army installations that were spotted.
13:28Of course, that created a little bit of panic in the public around.
13:32The public around started spotting even low earth orbit satellites and reporting them as
13:36drones.
13:37So the number of drones multiplied.
13:39Just imagine if there is a LEO satellite, let's say four or five of them, which are being
13:45spotted in one part of the city.
13:48For them, it will appear it is towards the east and that chap reports, I see four towards
13:53my east or very close to me towards this direction or right over me or something like that.
13:59And same thing is reported by five more people in the same city from different corners because
14:03they all, it's like everybody reporting, I've got one sun in my area and we keep adding
14:08and say, oh, there are so many suns over there today.
14:11So that is what happened that night, those two nights.
14:15So a lot of reports that we got were even these reports and it was becoming very difficult
14:20to filter out.
14:22But our local commanders did exceptionally well.
14:25They were able to take charge of the situation and many of the actual ones were neutralized
14:31using our own anti-drone systems, using our own even anti-aircraft guns were used to neutralize
14:39some of those drones which came over us.
14:41And what happened was none of them, many of them were not weaponized because when we realized
14:51that they were actually either they were doing some kind of survey or they wanted to saturate
14:58our system so that we can open our air defenses, open up our radars and they can get some ailment
15:03from us.
15:05There were few of them which were weaponized and our anti-drone systems really worked very
15:11well.
15:13And we were able to survive those attacks without a single damage to any of the installations.
15:22And in response, we also sent our loiter munitions to some of their radar targets or SAGW targets
15:28which were close to our border.
15:32And we did achieve some success in that.
15:35Some of them, of course, were sending videos back to us so we could get that, I mean, to
15:42the result immediately.
15:44Some of them, of course, we had to wait for our satellite imagery to come in.
15:48So we did achieve some success in that and we kept ourselves very calibrated.
15:54We did not want to escalate unnecessarily because for us the immediate, the Operation
16:02Sindhur, the objectives were to take care of terrorist camps and terrorist infrastructure
16:06and that was taken care of.
16:09So here is one of the videos that we have of a radar being attacked by one of our loiter
16:14munitions.
16:15This is the control cabin which has been attacked.
16:21I have cut it short a bit because after this it goes into where the system can be seen, which
16:26system we are operating, which I want to not give out and open.
16:31Some of the pictures of other radars, Arifwala, here after the radar attack you can see there
16:39are suit marks here.
16:41Again, not very clear to a layman but the specialists when they analyze these pictures they tell us
16:47what exactly the damage has been and it can be blown up in our own system.
16:51Similarly, Chunya radar, there is another radar head which has been burnt.
17:00So once this was over, we got intelligence report on the 9th evening I will say that they are
17:11planning something big and next 48 hours are very critical.
17:16And also, we also decided that if they attack any of our installations, military installations,
17:24we are going to reply with military attacking their military installations which matter to
17:30them.
17:31So since we already had our plans ready, this point was debated and both the CNC's involved,
17:39the air headquartered people and other services, we had taken a call that since they are mostly
17:46attacking us by air force and my air force bases are under threat, we should respond without
17:54waiting in case this continues tonight also.
17:59And sure enough, this time we had their attack on our airfields with not only just lighter
18:04munitions, some of long-range weapons, their aircraft tried to penetrate our defenses.
18:11Our air defense systems have done a wonderful job.
18:15The S-400 system which we had recently bought has been a game changer.
18:21The range of that system has really kept their aircraft away from their weapons like, you know,
18:29those long-range glide bombs that they have.
18:32They have not been able to use any one of those because they have not been able to penetrate
18:36the system.
18:38And during our first night, first sixth-seventh night, also air defense system had ensured
18:46that when they did their reposts, their fighter aircraft was threatened.
18:53That time they had come with some of those long-range weapons which they were able to penetrate
18:59into our defenses in Balakot time, if you remember.
19:02Some of the army, some of the bombs had fallen very close to army area.
19:07But this time, since we were ready to use our long-range weapons of surface-to-air guided
19:15weapons, they were deterred.
19:18I think initially we found the buildup taking place, very massive buildup taking place.
19:25But once the first missile was fired from our side from the ground, we suddenly found that
19:33dissipation of that buildup.
19:35Also, we have some kills that we have got from our SAGW systems because every time you
19:44fire a weapon on a track, you do get a feedback as to whether it is to be treated as a kill
19:49or not because till when is that blip remaining and where is your missile going.
19:54So that I will talk about a little later.
19:56On the 9th-10th night again, a large number of their attacks on most of our airfields.
20:01The airfields like Adampur, Srinagar, Avantipur, they took the brunt of it actually.
20:08And many other airfields.
20:10From night from north to south, they tried to penetrate various classes of drones including
20:17weaponized.
20:18We were able to neutralize most of their weapons by either countermeasures, some of them by using
20:26our air-to-air guns as well as SAGWs.
20:30Systems like Akash and all have taken down many of their loiter munitions which have come
20:35in, the weaponized ones.
20:38None of their aircraft could come anywhere near the boundaries of Akash and even MR SAM.
20:48All their aircraft were taken on by LR SAM because they were trying to stay away but still
20:53they were within our ranges at times and that is the opportunity targets that we got.
20:58As far as our offensive was concerned, so that night we held no hold bar, we didn't have
21:04any hold bar and we decided that we will go attack at pan front, we will stretch his resources
21:11and the idea was once again not to attack one particular A field and decimate that A field.
21:19Idea was to give him that feeling or give him that indication that look, we can attack
21:24you deep inside at will wherever we want to.
21:28So some of the places that were attacked, like this is a command and control center, there
21:34Noor Khan base.
21:39This is the after attack and this is before attack.
21:44Raheem Yarr Khan base.
21:47This is based on specific intelligence, we had taken a call that here we have to attack
21:54the A field.
21:55So the A field was attacked and their building, the main building where their planning goes on,
22:10which is also used as a civil terminal building also at times.
22:15As far as Sukur A phase is concerned, we attacked their UAV hangar and a radar site.
22:23You have the visuals available here.
22:26This is the hangar which has been flattened and this is the radar site which is before and
22:32after.
22:33Bulari again, an AEWC hangar was attacked and here we have very clear hint that there was
22:43an aircraft in sight when this attack took place.
22:47Sir Godha, we have grown up in our Air Force, you know, dreaming about days like this.
22:53Someday we will get a chance to go there.
22:57So it just so happens that I got my chance just before I retired.
23:02So we attacked the A field there because we had very hard hit on F-16s taking off from
23:10there and the ones who were attacking us in Srinagar as well as in Adhampur.
23:15So we took on the A field there, again intentionally not taken on certain other installations in this
23:24A field because of some kind of calculation by us that that may lead to unnecessary escalation.
23:33And this is the last slide I have on this.
23:36That is Shaba's Jacobabad airfield, one of them again, major A field that was attacked.
23:42And here there is an F-16 hangar which you can see here.
23:48And here this is the photograph again from open source from one of their earlier picture
23:53of the same hangar and here that hangar which is one half of the hangar is gone.
24:00And I am sure there were some aircraft inside which have got damaged there.
24:05So if I can just sum it up what, you know, we were able to get there at least two command
24:12and control centers in like Mureed and Chaklala that I have shown you one of the pictures.
24:16At least six radars.
24:18Some of them big, some of them small.
24:21Two SAGW system that is in Nahor and Okara.
24:25Then of course runway at Sargoda and Rahimiya Khan.
24:29Three hangars that we attacked.
24:31One was of course Sukur, the UAV hangar, the Bholari hangar of AEWNC and Jacobabad, the F-16
24:39hangar.
24:40And we have indication of at least one AEWNC in that AEWC hangar and a few F-16s which
24:50were under maintenance there.
24:54Apart from these, the SAGW systems, mostly from, I am talking about fighter aircraft
25:01are from S-400.
25:02We have at least five fighters confirmed kills and one large aircraft which could be either
25:08an ELINT aircraft or an AEWNC aircraft which was taken on at a distance of about 300 kilometers.
25:14This is the actually largest ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about.
25:23Apart from of course this, there are a large number of UAVs, drones, some of their missiles
25:35which have fallen in our territory.
25:38We have recovered a lot of wreckage from this which now is being studied so that we can make
25:45out what did they do, where were they launched from, what route did they follow, what kind
25:49of system do they have, whether they have, what generation those systems belong to, what
25:57all features do they have.
25:58So that study is going on and it is going on even in coordination with DRDO.
26:05If required, we will also take some other industry's help for that.
26:09So I can say that it was more of a high-tech war which was fought in about 88-90 hours of
26:19war.
26:20We were able to achieve so much of damage to their system that it was very clear in their
26:27mind that in this current situation, if they continue, they are going to continue paying
26:31for it more and more.
26:32So they have come forward and, you know, sent a message again through DGMO ki hum baat karna
26:38chaate hain and which was accepted from our side.
26:42And when I say our side is not just the Air Force, it's the joint decision that was taken
26:46and it was taken even at the highest level.
26:48Why was that accepted?
26:49There have been a lot of debates which are going on.
26:51I will touch about it a little during continuing in my talk.
26:58So that actually brings me to the end of my slides.
27:02Now I want to talk about something like if I can say what were the reasons for success.
27:08One which I can think of is that there was political will.
27:13I am being very, very candid here, very open here because I hear various versions of it.
27:18I think if I tell you something, people will have to believe because I was there listening
27:25to everybody, attending every meeting.
27:28There was very clear political will, very clear directions which were given to us and
27:35there were no kind of restrictions which were put on it.
27:39Many people have spoken somewhere.
27:41Unfortunately, you know, everybody is speaking about it.
27:45I will tell you something about it.
27:48So there have been talks about was there any restriction?
27:51Were you kept constrained?
27:53If there were any constraints, they were self-made.
27:58We, the forces decided what will be our rules of engagement.
28:02We, the forces decided what will be the escalation ladder that we want to ride on.
28:07We decided how we want to control the escalation.
28:10So I want to make it very clear.
28:12There were no, I repeat, no restrictions on us.
28:17Full freedom was given to us to plan and execute.
28:20I must say that, you know, that our attacks have been calibrated because we wanted to be mature about it.
28:30A little bit on that I will come to later.
28:35There was synchronization between forces.
28:39All four of us, CDS, the three chiefs.
28:42I must say here that the post of CDS has made a difference there.
28:47You know, he was there always to get us together, discuss things out, iron things out.
28:54Wherever required, we all used to go to the, you know, senior leadership and discuss things out.
29:01Next things out.