5 Pakistani jets were shot down by S-400 during Operation Sindoor: IAF chief

August 9, 2025

New Delhi: Indian Air Force Chief AP Singh said on Saturday that Pakistan suffered heavy losses in Operation Sindoor. We shot down five of their fighter planes. AP Singh confirmed this at an event in Bengaluru.

Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said, our air defence system has done a great job. The S-400 system which we bought recently has been a game-changer. Pakistan had long-range glide bombs but they could not use any of them because they could not penetrate the air defence.

AP Singh further said that the pictures before and after the attack in Bahawalpur, Pakistan are in front of everyone. Nothing was left there. These pictures were not only taken from satellite. But the local media also showed the inside pictures of the destroyed building.

AP Singh was addressing the 16th season of Air Chief Marshal LM Katre Memorial Lecture at the HAL Management Academy Auditorium in Bengaluru.

Highlights of AP Singh’s speech

The army was given a free hand: A major reason for the success was the political will. We were given very clear instructions. We had a free hand. If there were any constraints, they were our own. We decided how far to go. We had complete freedom to plan and execute. There was coordination between the three services. The post of CDS really made a difference. He was there to bring us together. The NSA also played a big role in bringing all the agencies together.
PAK retreated after 90 hours of war: It was a high-tech war. In 80 to 90 hours of war, we were able to cause so much damage that they clearly realized that if they continued this, they would have to pay a much higher price for it, so they came forward and sent a message to our DGMO that they wanted to talk. It was accepted from our side.
Got rid of the ghost of Balakot: When we carried out air strikes in Balakot in 2019, we could not gather evidence of it. People raised questions about what we did or did not do. So I am very happy that this time we were able to deal with that ghost of Balakot and we were able to tell the world what we have achieved.
Close ones said- should have killed more: In this war people got carried away by their ego. Once we achieved our goal, we should have explored all opportunities to stop it. Some of my close ones said, ‘should have killed more’. But would it have been right to continue the war… the country took a good decision.

About Operation Sindoor

On May 7, at 1.30 am, India carried out air strikes on 9 terrorist hideouts in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The army had said that more than 100 terrorists were killed in this strike. According to Pakistan’s state media, India had attacked Kotli, Bahawalpur, Muridke, Bagh and Muzaffarabad. This included the headquarters of the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba and the hideout of Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar.