New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Monday said all its military bases and systems continue to remain fully operational, and ready to undertake any further missions if the need arises.
Director General of Air Operations Air Marshal AK Bharti said the Indian military’s fight was with terrorists and their support infrastructure, but it was a “pity” that the Pakistani military chose to bat for the terrorists.
“We have also iterated that our fight was with terrorists and their support infrastructure,” he said.
“However, it is a pity that the Pakistan military chose to intervene and bat for the terrorists, which compelled us to respond in kind.”
Air Marshal Bharti, Director General of Military Operations Lt Gen Rajiv Ghai and Director General of Naval Operations Vice Admiral A N Pramod were addressing a media briefing on ‘Operation Sindoor.’
He said India’s robust air defence system effectively foiled Pakistan’s attempts to attack Indian military installations.
On Pakistan military’s claim of success in hitting Indian installations, Air Marshal Bharti said, “I would like to emphatically state that, in spite of some minor damage incurred, all our military bases and systems continue to remain fully operational, and ready to undertake any further missions, should the need so arise.”
India launched ‘Operation Sindoor’ early May 7 to destroy seven terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir(PoK) in a strong retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed.
All subsequent retaliations to Pakistani offensives were carried out under ‘Operation Sindoor’.
India and Pakistan on Saturday announced reaching an understanding to stop all firings and military actions on land, air and sea, with effect from 5 pm that day.
The Director General of Air Operations said India’s robust air defence (AD) system comprises a large variety of AD sensors, and weapon systems’ from point defence weapons like the LLAD guns, shoulder-fired MANPADS and short-range SAMS (Surface-to-Air Missile Systems) and longer range SAMs held in our inventory.
“Additionally, the numerous waves of drones and UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles) employed by Pakistan were also thwarted by the indigenously developed soft and hard-kill counter-UAS systems and the well-trained Indian AD personnel,” he said.
“All this was brought together as an efficient and effective AD environment, by the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) of the lAF, which accords us Net-Centric Op capability,” he said.
“I would like to place on record the performance and efficacy demonstrated by even the older and battle-proven AD weapons like the Pechora, OSA-AK and the LLAD guns, in countering the Pakistani threat vectors in the current operations.”
Air Marshal Bharti said another highlight of ‘Operation Sindoor’ has been the stellar performance of indigenous AD weapons like the Akash system. The IAF also showed some images of damages inflicted by the Indian military on Pakistan.
Vice Admiral Pramod said the Indian Navy maintains a credible capability to detect, identify and neutralise any aerial platforms that threaten the naval units at sea. Indian Navy’s carrier battle group, submarines and aviation assets were immediately deployed at sea with full combat readiness in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack
“In the current standoff, the presence of our aircraft carrier with large number of Mig 29 K fighters and airborne early warning helicopters prevented any suspicious or hostile aircraft to close the carrier battle group within several hundred km,” Vice Admiral Pramod said.
“Over the past few years, and most importantly immediately after the cowardly incident by the Pakistani sponsored terrorist attack at Pahalgam, we had validated our anti-missile and anti-aircraft defence capability in a complex threat environment using a cross platform cooperative mechanism,” he added.
Lt Gen Ghai said there has been total synergy between the three services during the Operation Sindoor.
