- A strike force of 24 PAF jets headed towards Indian airspace, of which at least 10 violated Indian airspace. Of those, 3 F-16s, one of them known to be an F-16D Block 52, were designated to head towards ground bombing on the Nanga Tekri forward base. The other 7 were a support package, with extra air support across the border.
2. IAF scrambles 2 Bisons, 3 Mirages and 3 Su-30 MKIs to counter the threat. The PAF strike package drops their laser guided bombs in anticipation of a dogfight which hit the military compound on the Indian side without any casualties or damage to infra, and these F-16s turn around and start "going cold" so that they can lure IAF jets into an ambush where the IAF can be outnumbered.
3. The more "nimble" but "not strategic" IAF assets (in other words, more expendable jets, the MIG and the Mirage) are asked to chase the PAF out but NOT engage. Seeing the IAF on their tails, F-16s perform evasive positioning to start the dogfight - this is where the helmet mounted sights of the PAF come in handy. The MIGs continue to chase and one of the wingmen asks Abhi to turn cold as well. Abhi refuses and locks on a PAF F-16 :
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...ocked-on-to-pak-f-16/articleshow/68238027.cms
4. Abhi shoots the R-73, it is a clean kill - 2 parachutes come out of the downed PAF jet : unlike other jets which would have exploded like a fireball, the F-16 is known to be a vertical dart (shoots straight for the ground, as it did in the video post the hit).
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/nation/86-seconds-of-dogfight-at-900-kmph/736286.html
5. Before Abhi had shot the R-73, an AMRAAM was launched by the helmet mounted sight of the PAF jet, before it started the countermeasures to avoid the R-73 - this was not sufficient, and hit the engine (the R-73 is heat seaking). This AMRAAM hit Abhi's jet at 15,000 ft in India : he ejected after realising that the plane cannot be controlled. The winds took him 7km into Azad Kashmir. The PAF jet was shot 3 km in Azad Kashmir. The winds carried the PAF pilots further inside Azad Kashmir.
6. In another part of the same conflict theatre, a Su-30 MKI was locked on by another PAF jet in a BVR space : the Sukhoi deployed very effective countermeasures and positioned itself offensively (but this positioning takes time) - by this time, the PAF jets turned back as bombs had already been dropped. The AMRAAM does not self-explode, rather, is triggered by a proximity fuse, so it either hits a target, or does not, loses it's fuel, glides to the ground and detonates. This is the same missile that was presented as evidence. Link :
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...aam-missile-remnants/articleshow/68225187.cms
7. Now, coming to what I have mentioned the "PAF jet" all throughout - I think it was most definitely a F-16D. There are 2 things that nail this : one is most definitely the AMRAAM evidence that IAF had. Watch from 10:00 mark on this video.
- the JF-17 has the avionics to fit only PL-5 or the SD-10 Chinese A2A missiles. The second most pressing evidence here is the fact that IAF gathered the electronic signature of the F-16 - this may be classified information (as it would be against a friendly country to disclose what an F-16 looks like on radar), but that is what ELINT operations are for : the IAF has taken part in enough Air Exercises with Israel, UK, Australia, Singapore and Japan to know what radar, infrared and satellite signatures look like. Also, just because our jets cannot fly within 10km of the LoC does not mean that our radars do not capture their signatures and PAF does not capture our signatures. PAF too would be aware of exactly what we are carrying. These electronic signatures are very hard to decoy (there are these things called MALDs which have matured in testing in the last two decades and can spoof enemy radar with anything ranging from bombers to fighter jets, but I do not think that PAF has procured them). Link -
8. Now, my last point : the supposed "second Indian downed jet " : Pakistan has a habit of one-upping India in the international media, even if untrue. If two IAF jets were indeed shot down and one jet flew back to India, news of it would have spread here too. I suspect the claim that PAF made that 2 IAF jets were downed was part PsyOps and part fog of war (probably ISPR did not know that the "3 parachutes in total" did not mean 3 jets, 2 IAF, 1 PAF, but rather, 1 PAF (2 pilots) + 1 IAF). If the 2nd IAF jet was at all gliding into Azad Kashmir, then Pakistan would have definitely paraded the second pilot as well in the international media. Nor would IAF come to a secret agreement with Pakistan on hiding the identity of the second pilot. It is not in their nature to keep things quiet between each other. Another video highlighting all of JF-17's inventory :
I hope this was more informative for you, because I was on this for 2 hours. Jai Hind.
EDIT 1 : For all those asking "how Pakistan can counter the fact that their F-16 was shot down / AMRAAM was used" : they cannot. Also, US / West cannot counter and accept the fact that they got beaten by a third gen 60s fighter, so please do not believe the misinformation spread by them too.
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