Indian military with three DGMOs (Army, Air Force & Navy) held a media briefing today in Delhi on May 12 at 2.30 pm. It can be summed up as hugely disappointing.
Worse, it betrayed a sense of its war appreciation gone wrong. Consider the following:
1. DG Air AM A.K. Bharti repeatedly said that our fight (Operation Sindoor) was against terrorists & their infrastructure. Not against the Pakistan Military. Now, commonsense is that when IAF hits anything inside Pakistan & AJK, retaliation would come from the Pakistan military for breaching their nation’s sovereignty. By his utterance, Bharti gave a sense that IAF was operationally surprised on night 6/7, which was shocking. Did the IAF not expect the PAF to be waiting to hit back immediately?
2. When asked to comment on PAF saying in its media briefing that it executed its ‘new art of war (Multi Domain Operation)’ & also giving out details of fighter’s participation & air war from both sides on 6/7 night, Bharti said ‘we cannot share details of aircraft by both sides. It has technical details.’ Well, Bharti should know that the world has been waiting for India’s military assessment of 6/7 night air warfare: number of aircraft & kills. Not doing this gave credence to the PAF version, which amounted to their big win in the air domain.
3. Now, no one is interested in knowing what an Integrated Air Defense layered network was put in place by the Indian military. Too much time was wasted in explaining the Indian military’s potent air defense, which left one wondering if some big hits on the Indian side by the Pakistan Army & air force were being hidden. For sure, it was clear that the Pakistan military employed unexpectedly large numbers of drones, loitering munitions & so on along the whole border with India.
4. On asked whether IAF hit Pakistan’s Kirana Hills, which supposedly have Pakistan’s underground nuclear storage facilities, Bharti confirmed that IAF did not hit there.
To sum up: NO mention of air war on the night of May 6/7. And making the incredible remark that IAF hits inside Pakistan sovereign space were meant to kill terrorists & not fight with the Pakistan military. It showed little thought had gone even in organizing this media interaction, whose proceedings the world would have watched with utter disbelief!
