‘Brought Pak to its knees’: IAF chief on Operation Sindoor’s decisive impact; says will go down in history

Speaking on the 93rd Air Force Day celebrations, the Air Chief Marshal also credited the unity of the Indian Armed Forces for the success of Operation Sindoor

Air Chief Marshal AP Singh on Friday said that Operation Sindoor would go down in history as a lesson -- a war begun with a clear aim and ended promptly, without unnecessary prolongation.

“It stands as a lesson which will go down in history that this is one war that was started with a very clear objective and it was terminated in a quick time without just prolonging it. We are seeing what is happening in the world, the two wars that are going on, there's no talk about termination," Singh said.

"But we could make them (Pakistan) reach a stage where they ask for a ceasefire and termination of hostilities. And also, we took a call as a nation 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.

Operation Sindoor was a military operation launched against terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan on May 7. It was a response to the terror attack in J&K's Pahalgam on April 22, when 26 civilians, mostly tourists, were gunned down by armed terrorists.

Speaking on the 93rd Air Force Day celebrations, the Air Chief Marshal also credited the unity of the Indian Armed Forces for the success of Operation Sindoor, saying it played a crucial role in bringing the enemy to their knees.

As far as offensive action was concerned, the IAF chief said India used indigenously developed and integrated weapon systems with long-range missiles.

“Our long-range SAMs that we had procured recently and operationalised. We could look deep inside their territory. We could make sure that they were not able to operate even within their territory up to a certain distance. It will go down in history as the longest kill that we achieved, of more than 300 km. And it seriously curtailed their activities," he said.

Singh confirmed that that Indian airstrikes on Pakistani airbases during Operation Sindoor in May destroyed four to five PAF F-16 fighter jets.

"We struck a large number of installations... and what we have gathered from whatever reports we got, that on ground we destroyed radars at four places, command and control centres at two places... runway was damaged at two places... three of their hangars were damaged," he said.

The IAF chief further stated that the missiles that struck the hangars and tarmac led to the destruction of C-130 aircraft, one AEW&C class of aircraft and four to five fighter aircraft, most likely F-16s.

He said that during Operation Sindoor, the IAF's advanced long-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) prevented Pakistan from operating even within its own territory up to a certain range.

Singh also said the operation marked a historic achievement with the longest successful missile strike of over 300 kilometres, which significantly limited Pakistan's actions.