New Delhi [India], October 3 (ANI): In the Operation Sindoor, the Indian Air Force destroyed 12-13 of Pakistan's combat aircraft, including four to five F-16s on ground and five F-16s and JF-17s in the air along with two spy planes, Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said today.

Replying to an ANI query on the Indian estimate of Pakistani losses in the four-day conflict, he said: 'As far as Pakistan's losses are concerned...we have struck a large number of their airfields and we struck a large number of installations...Because of these strikes, radars at least four places, command and control centres at two places, runways of course damaged at two places, then three of their hangars in three different stations have been damaged...we have signs of one C-130 class of aircraft...and at least 4 to 5 fighter aircraft, most likely F-16, because that place happened to be F-16 with whatever was under maintenance at that time.'

'Along with that, one SAM system has been destroyed...We have clear evidence of one long-range strike, which I talked about more than 300 km, which happened to be either an AEW&C or a SIGINT aircraft, along with that five high-tech fighters between F-16 and JF-17 class this is what our system tells us,' he said.

Addressing the press conference on the 93rd Air Force Day celebrations in the national capital, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS) said that five Pakistani fighter jets, which could be F-16s or Pakistan's 'pride', the backbone of its air force, Chinese JF-17s, were shot down using the long-range surface-to-air missile (LRSAM) S-400 Triumf 'Sudarshan Chakra' system.

Another four to five F-16s, which were undergoing maintenance in hangars, were destroyed after the IAF peppered them.

The Air Chief also added that the IAF cratered several Pakistani airbases, damaging radars, command centres, runways, hangars, and a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system.

He added that the IAF's advanced long-range surface-to-air missiles prevented Pakistan from operating even within its own territory up to a certain range. CAS also described the operation as a historic achievement with the longest successful missile strike of over 300 kilometres, which limited Pakistan's actions.

'Our long-range SAMs that we had procured recently and operationalised... We could look deep inside their territory. We could make sure that they were not able to operate even within their territory up to a certain distance. It will go down in history, the longest kill that we achieved of more than 300 kilometres by that. And it seriously curtailed their activities,' the Air Chief said.

The IAF chief added that India entered the conflict with a clear goal and ended it quickly after achieving its objectives. He said this should serve as a lesson for the world, as many other ongoing wars have no end in sight.

'A clear directive, clear mandate was given to the Indian Armed Forces... It stands as a lesson which will go down in history that this is one war that was started with a very clear objective and it was terminated in a quick time without just prolonging it,' he said.

When asked about the S-400 Triumf air defence system, the Air Chief praised the performance of the Russian-made system, calling it a 'good weapon system,' while hinting that more units could be inducted in the future.

'Obviously, that has done good. So, there's a requirement to have more such; there is no limit to numbers that you can buy. Again, I'm keeping quiet on what the plan is... It has proved to be a good weapon system. We have our own system also developing, so we will take a call on that,' he said.

India, back in 2018, signed a multi-billion-dollar deal with Russia for five units of the S-400, out of which three have been delivered, and the rest are likely to be delivered by 2026.

The Indian Air Force Chief also said that Pakistan's claims of shooting down Indian fighter jets lacked any evidence and were made only to save face, dismissing them as 'Manohar Kahaniyan' (fanciful stories).

The ACM added that there was no evidence to support Pakistan's claims, while India had shared images of damage caused to Pakistani targets.

'If they think they shot down 15 of my jets, let them think about it. I hope they're convinced about it, and they will cater for 15 less aircraft in my inventory when they come to fight again. So why should I talk about it? Even today, I won't say anything about what happened, how much damage was done, how it happened, because let them find out...' the CAS said.

'Have you seen a single picture where something fell on any of our airbases, something hit us, a hangar was destroyed, or anything like that? We showed so many pictures of their places. However, they couldn't show us even a single picture. So their narrative is 'Manohar Kahaniyan'. Let them be happy, after all, they also have to show something to their audience to save their reputation. That doesn't matter to me,' he added. (ANI)