New Delhi: Speaking as a keynote speaker at an event in Bengaluru, Indian Air Force Chief Air Marshal A.P.Singh sought to iron out the controversy created earlier by the Indian Defence Attache to Indonesia who had remarked that the Indian Air Force lost fighter jets in the initial phase of Operation Sindoor because of political constraints. 

However, Air Marshal Singh, while listing out “takeaways” from the success of Operation Sindoor, said on Saturday, “There was political will…I am saying that because I hear all sorts of versions. There was a very clear political will, very clear directions, there were no kind of restrictions that were put on us.” 

Singh did not speak of Indian air losses but claimed in his speech that the IAF had downed at least five fighter jets of Pakistan, apart from disabling many of its military hubs. 

“We have at least five fighters confirmed killed and one large aircraft, which could be an ELINT aircraft or an AEW&C aircraft, which was taken out from a distance of about 300 km, which is the largest-ever recorded surface-to-air kill that we can talk about,” he said. 

The Press Information Bureau release on the IAF chief's remarks however makes no mention of the Pakistani air asset losses.

“If there were any constraints, they were self-made. The forces decided what will be the escalation ladder that we want to ride on; we decided how we want to control the escalation. There were no restrictions on us, full freedom was given to plan and execute,” Singh said at the 16th Air Chief Marshal L.M. Katre Memorial Lecture in Bengaluru.

Air Marshal Singh’s remarks came after the Indian Defence Attache to Indonesia Captain Shiv Kumar's remarks in June, 2025  had become the centre of a controversy. Responding to a previous presenter at a seminar who backed Pakistan’s claim of having downed six aircrafts, including three Rafales, Indian Navy’s Captain Kumar had said, “I may not agree with him that India lost so many aircraft. But, I do agree that we did lose some aircraft and that happened only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishments and their air defences.” 

Also read: 'IAF Lost Fighter Jets to Pak Because of Political Leadership’s Constraints’: Indian Defence Attache

He was speaking at a seminar, hosted on June 10 by Universitas Dirgantara Marsekal Suryadarma in Indonesia, themed ‘Analysis of the Pakistan-India Air Battle and Indonesia’s Anticipatory Strategies’.

The IAF chief’s presentation on Operation Sindoor, however, refuted the claim of any political pressure on the armed forces. He even went on to give an explanation on why the operation was suddenly called off – questions on which were also faced by the Narendra Modi government, outside and inside the parliament. 

“Conflict termination is a very important part of war. We can’t afford to be continuously at war. We are meant to deter. If we can deter, there is nothing better than it. ….we should be very clear that we have to reach a stage where we can terminate that (the war) so that we can get on with the routine, get on with the progress of the nation. Conflict termination has been forgotten. …I  think we have set an example,” he said, recalling how at a recent conference experts were only talking about Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Iran, or Israel-Hamas wars but none discussed the recent India-Pakistan conflict.  

“Our objective was very clear. Our objective was to teach the terrorists a lesson that they will think twice before doing something ..(so that) they know what kind of price they will have to pay. Once we have achieved those objectives, we should look for all windows of opportunities to stop that rather than just continue. We were actually on a song that night (May 10) (but we stopped). But still some people very close to me say 'aur maarna tha' (we should have killed more),” Singh said. 

Singh added, “The nation has taken a very good decision. We were a part of that decision but it cannot be taken at our level. It has been taken at a much higher level but it was a good decision.” 

Singh said that Operation Sindoor was planned around calibrated attacks on terrorist hubs and that only when Pakistan attacked some of India’s military installations, the Indian forces retaliated by hitting some of its significant military hubs. 

“Our attacks have been calibrated because we want to be mature about that. There was synchronisation between forces – all four of us – CDS and the three chiefs (IAF, Army, and Navy). I must say here that the post of CDS has made a difference. He was there always to get us together, discuss things out, iron things out,” he said.  

“NSA played an even big role. So many meetings were conducted whenever there was any doubt about what will be the next step,” he said, and went on to repeat that he had “full freedom (sic)”.  

He said that the recently-purchased S-400 air defence system proved to be a “gamechanger” in fighting the incoming Paksitani weaponised drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). He said that India has recovered a substantial amount of wreckage which the IAF, along with the DRDO, is studying to get a full understanding of Pakistan’s air defence’s strength. If required, Singh said, it will also take help from other industries to study the wreckage better. 

Much of the brunt of Pakistani attacks was suffered by Indian military installations in Adampur, Avantipur and Srinagar, he said, but added that the IAF successfully combated the strikes with no substantial damage to the bases. 

“We were able to neutralise most of them. Various classes of drones including weaponised…using countermeasures. None of their aircraft could even come near us,” he said, adding that Operation Sindoor saw “80-90 hours of a hi-tech war”. 

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