IAF refutes US report on F-16, says shot down PAF aircraft during dogfight

Refuting the claim of the American Foreign Policy magazine, the Indian Air Force on Friday asserted that it had shot down an F-16 aircraft of the PAF on February 27 during aerial combat.

(Representational Image: PTI)

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force on Friday asserted that it had shot down an F-16 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force on February 27 during aerial combat. "During the aerial engagement, one MiG 21 Bison of the IAF shot down an F-16 in Nowshera sector," the IAF said in a statement. "The Indian Forces have confirmed siting ejections at two places on that day. The two sitings were at places separated by at least 8-10 kms. One was an IAF MIF 21 Bison and the other a PAF aircraft," it said, adding that "electronic signatures" gathered by the IAF indicate that the "PAF aircraft was a F-16". This comes came after the American Foreign Policy magazine reported on Thursday that the US count of the F-16s with Pakistan has found that none of them is missing, contradicting India's claim that one of its fighter jets shot down a Pakistani F-16 during an aerial dogfight on February 27. India has maintained that one of its MiG-21s flown by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman had shot down a F-16 of the PAF in an aerial battle over the Line of Control (LoC) on February 27 before the Indian pilot went down with his jet and got captured.

Its official from @IAF_MCC again: electronic signatures confirms Pakistani #F16 shot down by MiG21 Bison in Feb 27th dog-fight pic.twitter.com/UAdGePRtV5

— Neeraj Rajput (@neeraj_rajput) April 5, 2019

"It is possible that in the heat of combat, Varthaman, flying a vintage MiG-21 Bison, got a lock on the Pakistani F-16, fired and genuinely believed he scored a hit. But the count, conducted by US authorities on the ground in Pakistan, sheds doubt on New Delhi's version of events, suggesting that Indian authorities may have misled the international community about what happened that day," said the report by the Foreign Policy magazine. According to Foreign Policy, one of the senior US defence officials with direct knowledge of the count said that Pakistan invited the US to physically count its F-16 planes after the incident as part of an end-user agreement signed when the foreign military sale was finalized. "Generally in such agreements, the US requires the receiving country to allow US officials to inspect the equipment regularly to ensure it is accounted for and protected," said the report. "Some of the aircraft were not immediately available for inspection due to the conflict, so it took US personnel several weeks to account for all of the jets," an unnamed US defence official was quoted as saying in the report.