Key Points

He said that the Indian military has proof of at least one long-range strike on an AEW&C aircraft and four to five strikes on fighter jets during Operation Sindoor.

Speaking at the 93rd Air Force Day celebrations in the capital, the IAF chief also trashed reports that Indian jets were downed in Pakistan's reciprocal attacks and termed them as vicious propaganda by the Pakistani establishment to mislead its own citizens.

Shedding light on the suspense over the ceasefire in light of Operation Sindoor, he said that it was Pakistan, pummeled by Indian military strikes, which begged for a ceasefire.

"In Operation Sindoor, you saw the terrorists paying the price for killing innocent people. The world saw that we achieved our goal with precision strikes. We struck targets across 300 km, then they (Pakistan) asked for the ceasefire," he said, while praising the country's air defence systems for neutralising all Pakistani projectiles and drones during the intense military confrontation.

Notably, India's precise airstrikes under Operation Sindoor saw the Indian Air Force destroying the terror infrastructure inside Pakistan as well as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on May 7, as a strong reprisal for the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Indian forces destroyed nine terror camps and eliminated over 100 terrorists in the attack.

The IAF chief also informed that a clear directive and mandate were given to the Indian Armed Forces, and it achieved those objectives in a clear time frame without prolonging it.

"We took a call to terminate those hostilities because our own objectives were met. I think this is something that the world needs to learn from us," he said.

He also said that there was a need to make the Armed Forces future-ready as the next war will be far different from the present face-off and informed that a renovation roadmap till 2047 was already under consideration.

- IANS