Airforces monthly April - Air War over Kashmir
THE INDIAN Air Force (IAF) and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) have been engaged in a series of confrontations over the disputed Kashmir region, during which the loss of at least one Indian MiG-21bisUPG Bison has been confirmed. The IAF launched air raids on February 26 in response to a militant attack in Kashmir that killed 40 Indian troops – the deadliest to take place during a three-decade insurgency against Indian rule in the region. A Pakistanbased group claimed responsibility for the attack. It appears that IAF Mirage 2000s were used to hit a suspected militant training camp at Jaish-e-Muhammad in Balakot in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province at around 0254hrs, reportedly using Israelimade SPICE standoff munitions. According to the official Pakistani account, “six to eight Indian aircraft were effectively intercepted by PAF jets and forced to scuttle back while randomly releasing their ordnance”. A day later, the PAF conducted air strikes over the ceasefire line, reportedly targeting an Indian Army brigade HQ, battalion HQ, forward defences and a logistics installation. The aerial attacks across the Line of Control (LoC) dividing Indian and Pakistani territory are the first since the two countries went to war in 1971. Pakistan claimed to have shot down two IAF aircraft that entered its airspace during the February 27 strikes. Authorities in Islamabad initially said two IAF pilots had been captured. In fact, only one was taken into custody: Wg Cdr Abhinandan Varthaman had been flying MiG-21bisUPG Bison serial CU2328 of No 51 Squadron. As a gesture of goodwill, he was handed back on March 1 at the only legal IndiaPakistan border crossing. Varthaman’s Bison was among those scrambled together with Su-30MKIs and Mirage 2000s to intercept a large package of PAF aircraft. These were detected by IAF radar around 1000hrs heading towards Indian territory in the general area of Jhangar before crossing into Indian airspace west of Rajauri in the Sunderbani area. It’s unclear what PAF type claimed the Bison kill, however, parts of an AIM120C-5 AMRAAM missile, which is only carried by F-16s in PAF service, were recovered from Indian territory east of Rajauri. Islamabad stated that none of its F-16s were involved in the mission. Amid the confusion, it remains possible that two fighters in total were downed – one each from the IAF and PAF. According to a spokesman from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, one PAF aircraft was shot down during attacks on installations on the Indian side of Kashmir, the wreckage falling across the LoC in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian MoD claimed that a two-seat PAF F-16D was downed by a Bison using an R-73 (AA-11 Archer) air-to-air missile. Both crew members were reported as having ejected. However, Pakistan denies losing any aircraft. In a separate incident on the 27th, an IAF Mi-17V-5 crashed in the Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir. The Hip had been flying a routine mission from Srinagar airfield when it came down (see Attrition, p90-93).
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