NEW DELHI: International military aviation experts have backed Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh’s statement that during Operation Sindoor, the Indian Air Force shot down at least five Pakistani fighter jets and a Saab 2000 airborne early warning aircraft.
Austria-based aerial warfare analyst Tom Cooper told ANI the claim was “confirmation of something more or less known since May,” adding that evidence suggested even more Pakistani aircraft were destroyed in the air and on the ground. He also endorsed Singh’s remark that an IAF S-400 missile achieved a 300 km kill — the longest confirmed shoot-down by a surface-to-air missile, surpassing the 200 km record in the Ukraine war.
Cooper noted the strike’s historic significance and operational risk, as the S-400 unit was deployed close enough to the Pakistan border to be within enemy artillery range.
Cooper and strategist John Spencer have previously described Operation Sindoor, fought between May 7 and 10, as a decisive Indian victory.
