In a first official confirmation, India’s top military official on Saturday acknowledged losing an unspecified number of fighter jets during the intense four-day conflict with Pakistan earlier this month, Anil Chauhan, chief of defence staff of the Indian Armed Forces, told Bloomberg TV.
However, he firmly dismissed suggestions that the hostilities brought the nuclear-armed neighbours close to atomic confrontation
Speaking to Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan said, “What is important is not the number of jets being downed, but why they were downed.”
Chauhan rejected Pakistan’s claim of having shot down six Indian aircraft, calling it “absolutely incorrect,” but declined to reveal how many jets India did lose. “Numbers are not important,” he added, emphasising that tactical lessons were drawn from the losses and quickly applied.
“The good part is we were able to understand the tactical mistake, remedy it, and then fly all our jets again after two days, carrying out long-range precision targeting,” he said.
The May 7–10 flare-up marked the most serious military confrontation between India and Pakistan in over five decades, involving air, drone, and missile exchanges, as well as cross-border artillery fire. The violence was triggered by the April 22 massacre of 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-backed militants—an allegation Islamabad denied.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier claimed his forces had downed six Indian jets—an assertion yet to be independently verified. India had remained silent until now on whether it had suffered aircraft losses.
Addressing concerns about the possibility of nuclear escalation, General Chauhan called such claims “far-fetched.” He added, “There is a lot of space between conventional operations and the nuclear threshold,” and confirmed that communication channels with Pakistan remained functional throughout the conflict.
“There are many sub-ladders on the escalation scale that can be explored to manage tensions without crossing into nuclear territory,” he said.
Chauhan also dismissed Pakistan’s claims of effective use of Chinese-supplied weaponry during the conflict. “They didn’t work,” he said, asserting that India carried out “precision strikes on heavily air-defended Pakistani airfields 300 kilometers deep with meter-level accuracy.”
A Defence Ministry research group recently reported that China had provided Pakistan with satellite and air defence support during the clashes. However, India appeared undeterred.
With hostilities now halted, both countries have launched diplomatic outreach to shape the global narrative. Chauhan said the ceasefire remains intact but cautioned that its sustainability depends on Pakistan’s actions.
“We have laid clear red lines,” he said.
