Jet losses in Operation Sindoor raise questions
This question is foremost in the minds of some opposition leaders and maybe some ordinary citizens as well.
I’ll give the exact answer in a while.
But before we discuss that number, there is something even more important and interesting we must know:
Why are the government and the military trying to avoid answering this question firmly and squarely?
Is there a strategic/ tactical reason?
As per some of the theories, India used decoy drones disguised as fighter jets. These relatively low value drones were made to appear to have taken off (or were ready for takeoff) mimicking real high value fighter jets.
Pakistan’s air defence systems, unaware, took out the decoy drones.
In doing so, they exposed the exact coordinates of their air defence systems and/ or their surface-to-air missile systems.
India, having mapped those coordinates, launched precise strikes to take out Pakistan’s air defenses and/ or missile launch pads.
A major tactical gain was achieved through deception.
Since the Pakistanis were not exactly aware of what they had shot down (as the decoy drones fell within Indian territory), they genuinely believed and started celebrating that they had indeed shot down Indian fighter planes. To this day, they are most likely unaware of what exactly they shot down.
This kind of deception aligns with reports that Operation Sindoor was largely non-contact, technology-driven engagement, designed to achieve strategic gains through innovative unconventional means.
Why does this matter more than the number
Now imagine: if the military/ government were to reveal exactly which jets were lost (if any at all) and how many, wouldn’t that risk giving away important clues about the tactics we used and potential future tactics we could still use?
Clues that Pakistani or Chinese engineers could piece together to understand what really happened, and more importantly, how to counter such a tactic the next time?
Is that a price worth paying to quench public curiosity?
So, should the military/ government reveal this information?
As a reader, ask yourself this: Should the government or military reveal the exact number of fighter jets we lost, and if so, which ones?
I’m not even saying the drone decoy theory is the real reason. Frankly, I don’t know.
But here’s something I do know: I don’t need to know the answer to this question, arising simply out of curiosity.
Because let’s be honest: What are we going to do if we know?
Will it change our lives? Help our security forces? Influence national policy?
It’s not a cricket match. There’s no scoreboard we need to track.
If the Government or the Armed Forces want us to know someday, they’ll tell us on that day.
Let’s have trust in them.
What to say when someone asks this question?
It’s not customary for militaries the world over to reveal such operational details publicly.
China had claimed it lost 4 soldiers in the skirmishes in Galwan valley in 2020, but several sources, including some independent ones, suggested a number between 40 and 60.
Pakistan has still not revealed how many terrorists it lost in Operation Sindoor. Our own estimates put the number at over 100. We may never know the exact number.
In a mission like Operation Sindoor, the need for confidentiality is very strong, for reasons like the one you just read.
How many fighter jets did we lose?
Go ahead, assume any number you want, and any fighter jets you want.
The CDS (Chief of Defence Staff) recently said that India did lose an unspecified number of assets in the initial stages, but we corrected our tactics and kept our losses small. Even this statement could be to mislead the enemies, not to give away our tactics. How do we know?
It is quite possible that we may not have lost any fighter jets, given the perfection of the operation, or a very small number, if at all, though we surely lost some large drones consciously, like a pawn sacrifice in Chess. In an operation like this, our Armed Forces would have had to take some risks and would have been ready to bear some losses.
I know for a fact that we won the overall encounter (it was not a war), decisively, inflicting a very heavy penalty on Pakistan and indirectly, even on China and Turkey, whose high-value assets were lost.
The next time someone asks this question, you know exactly what to say.
During some of the YouTube Podcasts, on PGurus and Gunner Shots, Lt Gen P R Shankar (Retd.), Maj Gen Rajiv Narayanan (Retd.), and Lt Gen Dushyant Singh (Retd.) have alluded to an answer somewhat along these lines. There have been similar answers I have heard from other sources.
The purpose of this article is to bring this answer to the notice of those who may have missed these podcasts or any similar sources.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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