The Print article by Shekhar Gupta on air battle after Balakot airstrikes peddles faulty analysis, half truths and whole lies

A robust discussion about the military capabilities of a nation and, the conduct of its armed forces in peace and wartime, in public space is important on many levels. For this article, I’m sticking to the following numbers: Pakistan Air Force – 20 F-16 – 08 JF-17 – 04 Mirage-V – 04 Mirage-III – 04 Indian Air Force – 12 Su-30 MKI – 04 Mirage-2000 – 02 Mig-21 Bison – 06 Another important parameter to understand is the placement of these fighters and progress of the air-battle. An article by Shiv Aroor gives a description of air-battle between Su-30 MKIs and F-16: “As the stand-off strikes took place, an air-to-air battle commenced with the two Indian Su-30s reporting repeated radar locks from what they say were Pakistani F-16s beyond visual range and manoeuvring in the air to turn ‘cold’ on the weapon locks. On all three occasions, the Su-30s used countermeasures to dodge the incoming weapons.” In short, what happened was that in their desperate bid to shoot-down a Su-30 MKI while at the same time trying to keep Su-30 MKIs as far away as possible from 3-4 F-16s which entered Indian airspace to bomb targets, PAF F-16’s fired AMRAAMs from maximum possible range. While Mirage-2000 confronted a large mix force of PAF’s Mirage-III, Mirage-V and JF-17 in the southern part of Kashmir, Su-30 MKIs were duelling with 08 x F-16s up-north in general area of Poonch.