The US government has refused to comment on the disappearance of Pakistan Air Force F-16 fighter aircraft during Op Sindoor, the fierce 88-hour India-Pak confrontation between May 7 and May 10. In response to a query put to them by a TV channel, the US State Department stated, "We refer you to the Government of Pakistan to discuss its F-16s."
The US has constant monitoring of Pakistan-owned F-16s by Technical Support Teams (TSTs), US contractors who are permanently based in Pakistan. The teams observe the operation of Pakistan's American-made F-16s under detailed end-use arrangements between Islamabad and Washington. The arrangements specify the limits of combat deployment and are the foundation of US support for keeping Pakistan's F-16 fleet maintained. Therefore, TSTs are under contractual obligation to be fully aware of the operational status of all Pakistan F-16s at any time.
The State Department's reply is in sharp contrast to what US officials had told Foreign Policy Magazine in 2019, just days after India had carried out airstrikes on the Balakot terror camp, about F-16s operated by Pakistan.
Responding to queries at the time, Foreign Policy Magazine reported, "Two senior US defence officials with direct knowledge of the situation told Foreign Policy that US personnel recently counted Islamabad's F-16s and found none missing." The clarification came after India claimed that at least one Pakistan Air Force F-16 had been shot down at the time.
New Delhi maintains that Pakistan Air Force lost multiple F-16 fighter aircraft in Operation Sindoor, which was a battle of May 7 to May 10, either destroyed on the ground by Indian Air Force bombings or downed in air-to-air combat.
On Saturday, in a significant statement three months after the end of hostilities in May, the Indian Air Force chief said, ''Shahbaz Jacobabad airfield (was) one of the major airfields that was attacked. Here, there's an F-16 hangar.'' He added, "One half of the hangar is gone. And I'm sure there were some aircraft inside which have got damaged there.''
Spelling out the IAF ground strikes, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said, "Three hangars that we attacked: Sukkur - UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] hangar, the Bholari hangar of the AEW&C [Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft] and Jacobabad - the F-16 hangar. We have an indication of at least one AEW&C in that AEW&C hangar and a few F-16s, which were under maintenance."
The IAF also claims to have shot down six Pakistani aircraft during Op Sindoor. ''We have at least five fighters as confirmed kills and one large aircraft, which could be either an ELINT [Electronic Intelligence] aircraft or an AEW&C [Airborne Early Warning and Control] aircraft.'' The Air Chief did not spell out the types of fighter jets the IAF believes it has shot down.
Islamabad, which has made its own claims on IAF jets being shot down during Op Sindoor hostilities, has rejected those made by the IAF Chief. ''If the truth is in question, let both sides open their aircraft inventories to independent verification - though we suspect this would lay bare the reality India seeks to obscure," said Pakistan's Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif. India has not responded to the Pakistan Defence Minister's dare.
In response to an earlier Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the channel with the identical set of questions posed now to the US State Department, the US Department of Defence had said, "The FOIA does not require agencies to compile information, conduct research, answer questions, or create new documents in response to FOIA requests." Subsequent queries to the Pentagon and to the office of the US Secretary of Defence for Public Affairs Community Engagement met with no response.
Read also| PM Modi tells Zelenskyy India supports peaceful resolution of Russia-Ukraine conflict
