An Indian defence attache has admitted that Indian fighter jets were shot down by Pakistan in a major aerial combat in May this year. The Indian Defence Attaché blamed the losses of failure not on military but on political constraints imposed by India’s political leadership.
“I do agree we did lose some aircraft,” Kumar confessed during the presentation, according to The Wire.
Speaking at the seminar in Jakarta, Indonesia, Captain Shiv Kumar of the Indian Navy confirmed that the Pakistan Air Force shot down Indian jets during the four-day military escalation on May 7, 2025, which has been dubbed as the largest dogfight since World War II. Indian Defence Attaché claimed that the military was strictly told not to target Pakistan’s military installations and air defence systems.
Shiv Kumar said that India’s civilian leadership had instructed its Indian Air Force not to target Pakistan’s military installations, which he argued gave Pakistan an operational advantage. However, he disagreed that India lost so many aircraft as claimed.
Kumar, however, stated he “may not agree [with the claim of an Indonesian speaker] that we lost so many aircraft”.
“After the loss, we changed our tactics, and we went for the military installations.
“So, we first achieved suppression of enemy air defences, and then that’s why all our attacks could easily go through using Brahmos missiles,” the Indian defence attaché claimed.
Pakistan and India had engaged in a serious aerial dogfight when India launched an attack on several sites in Pakistan on the night of May 6th and 7th. The clash followed an Indian missile strike targeting six locations across Pakistan, including areas in Sialkot, Bahawalpur, and Azad Kashmir. The PAF, following the conflict, had claimed of downed six Indian fighter jets. The confrontation came in the wake of a deadly attack in the Indian illegally occupied J&K’s Pahalgam region, where 26 Indian tourists lost their lives.
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India had blamed Pakistan for orchestrating the terror attack in IIOJK. Pakistan had strongly denied the involvement; however, a few weeks after the incident, India launched an attack on Pakistan. Pakistan has claimed to have downed three French-made Rafale fighter jets that were hailed as a major upgrade to India’s air power.