India’s defense chief General Anil Chauhan admitted that an unspecified number of fighter jets were shot down during a conflict with Pakistan last month.
The approval of air losses by the country’s highest ranking general comes weeks after two South Asian neighbours engaged in the heaviest fighting in decades, involving fighter jets and cruise missiles.
Indian officials had previously refused to confirm or deny Pakistan’s claim to defeat Indian jets. The conflict was caused after the murder of 26 tourists in the Indian-controlled town of Pahargam, Kashmir on April 22.
India’s first official entry on the loss of fighter jets took place in an interview with Chauhan, a bystander at the Shangri-La Dialogue Security Forum in Singapore.
What was the conflict between India and Pakistan?
India took a strike on what is called “terror infrastructure” in Kashmir, which was managed by Pakistan and Pakistan in retaliation for the Pahargam attack on May 7. India has condemned the armed groups backed by Pakistan for the attack on April 22nd.
An armed group called The Resistance Front (TRF) has argued for the responsibility of Pahalgam Killings. India accused the TRF of being a derivative of the Pakistan-based armed group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let). Pakistan denied involvement, condemned the attack on Pahargam and called for a neutral investigation.
India claimed it targeted at least six Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir cities on the first day of the conflict. Pakistan initially claimed that it had defeated six Indian fighter jets in retaliation. However, a senior Pakistani official said Al Jazeera lost five Indian aircraft in the air combat.
India did not confirm or deny Pakistan’s claims. “Losses are part of the battle,” former Ak Bhartis, director of Aviation Operations, said at a press conference on May 11.
The Indian Embassy in China called for a report of Jet’s “disinformation” defeat.
The harsh cross-border attacks, beyond Control (LOC), the de facto border between India and Pakistan, rattled the area and renewed the fear of nuclear war.
On May 10, President Donald Trump announced that both countries could avoid a “nuclear disaster.” India and Pakistan have made competing claims about casualties in the battle, but more than 70 people have been killed on both sides.
Both India and Pakistan have fully advocated Kashmir, but they only control a portion of the Himalayan territory of the majority of Muslims.
Here’s what Chauhan said in a recent interview with Reuters and Bloomberg Television:
About the downing of Indian fighter jets
Chauhan admitted that India suffered air losses on the first day of the fight without giving details.
In an interview with Reuters, he said:
The Indian general said after the loss, the Indian army “fixed its tactics” and returned to 7 May, 8 and 10, hitting deep airspace deep in Pakistan, infiltrating all air defenses with immunity and carrying out a precise strike.” He added that the Indian Air Force “flyed all kinds of aircraft with all kinds of aircraft” on May 10.
Islamabad admitted that the airspace suffered minimal losses, but denied losing the plane.
When a Bloomberg reporter asked Chauhan about Pakistan’s claim that Pakistan’s Indian jet had collapsed, Chauhan replied that the information was incorrect.
He went on to say: “What’s important is… not the Jets are down, but why they were defeated.” Some media speculated that his statement appears to imply that many jets have been lost in the air combat.
The general did not provide details on the number of fallen jets or what these modified tactics were.
Pakistani military said India did not fly fighters in the conflict again after suffering from the conflict.
About the risks of nuclear war
Media reports suggested that while some attacks are close to Pakistan’s nuclear sites, the nuclear infrastructure itself is not a target.
“Most strikes were delivered with pinpoint accuracy. [3.3ft] Anything that was our average impact point of choice,” Chauhan said in an interview with Reuters.
Chauhan previously provided assurances that India was not considering using nuclear weapons during the conflict. The chairman of Pakistan’s co-chief of staff, General Saheer Shamshad Mirza, did the same in his country.
“I think there’s a lot of space before that nuclear threshold crosses, and there’s a lot of signal before that. I don’t think anything like that happened. There’s a lot of space for the traditional operations that were created, and this is the new norm,” says Chauhan.
The Indian general added that, on both sides, the most “rational people are united” during the conflict, as they understand the outcome of “this kind of conflict.”
“I have found that both sides show a lot of rationality in their thoughts and actions. So why should we assume that there is irrationality on the part of other people in the nuclear domain?”
About China’s role
The chief of the Indian Department of Defense said Pakistan enjoys close alliance with China, but there was no indication that Beijing helped Islamabad during the conflict.
China is located on the northern and eastern border of India and controls the Northeastern Zone of Kashmir, known as Kashmir.
“No extraordinary activity was found in operational or tactical depths of the northern border. Things were generally fine,” Chauhan said.
When Chauhan was asked if China had provided information such as satellite images to Pakistan, the Indian general responded by saying that such information was commercially available and that Pakistan could obtain it from China or other sources.
However, Chauhan said that “almost 80% of Pakistan’s equipment” was sourced from China in the past few years.
According to Stockholm Institute for International Peace, between 2020 and 2025, China provided 81% of Pakistan’s arms imports.
The Chinese jet was supported by media reports that Pakistan used a Chinese-made J-10C fighter jet in an air battle. The Chinese government did not officially confirm that the J-10C jet was used to down the Indian jet, but China Central Television, the state broadcaster, posted on social media on May 17 that the jet had achieved the actual combat outcome for the first time.
What’s next?
Chauhan said that hostilities have stopped, but India will “respond to further terrorist attacks originating from Pakistan, accurately and decisively.” He added that this will become a new normal for India.
“It has its own dynamics [as] The military is concerned. You need to prepare 24/7. ”
The president of the main opposition Indian National Assembly Party said Chauhan’s hospitalization would ensure a review of India’s preparations for defence.
“There are some very important questions that need to be asked. These can only be asked if a special session of the Parliament will be called up soon,” wrote Marikaljun Kalge in her X-post on Saturday.
Referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he added:
“We salute [the Indian military’s] “But a comprehensive strategic review is a need for time,” Keage said.
The Congress party called the Pahargam attack a “security and information failure” and called it an accountability, given that India-controlled Kashmir is governed directly from New Delhi.
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