New Delhi:
Amid reports of Indian Air Force lacking ‘operational-data link and jets going incommunicado' during the Pakistan Air Force retaliation on February 27, former Air Chief BS Dhanoa on Sunday said Indian Air Force is a network enabled force and it has joint air defence centre. Dhanoa said any assumption that IAF lacks communication and airborne Sukhoi-30s could not establish communication with bases during retaliatory measures against Pakistan post-Balakot is wrong.
BS Dhanoa, who headed Indian Air Force’s Balakot Airstrike told ANI, “To say that Sukhoi 30 went air borne and couldn't talk to anybody is a false statement.”
Former Air Force Chief BS Dhanoa: Similarly to say that Army and Air Force don't have communication is a wrong statement. We have joint air defence centre. Air Force is a network enabled force. https://t.co/XD3TZa508S
— ANI (@ANI) December 15, 2019
“Similarly to say that Army and Air Force don't have communication is a wrong statement. We have joint air defence centre. Air Force is a network enabled force”, ex-Air chief added.
Earlier, former Air Chief BS Dhanoa had said that India was ready to escalate the conflict along the line of control by targeting Pakistan’s military installations if Islamabad had been ‘successful’ in targeting Indian territory in response to New Delhi’s airstrikes on February 26. BS Dhanoa added that Indian Air Force specifically targeted Jaish terror infrastructure as India had no intensions to ‘pick a fight’ with Pakistan.
Had this been the case, Dhanoa added, New Delhi had Sukhoi 30-BrahMos combination available but as it was not a ‘kill all’ mission and just a precision strike on terror infrastructure so Air Force chose weapon with limited impact.
On February 26, India launched airstrikes on terror camps in Pakistan to avenge the dastardly attacks in Pulwama.
One day later, on February 27, Islamabad responded with the violation of Indian airspace in the Rajouri sector of Jammu and Kashmir and dropped bombs when they were exiting. As per reports, an F-16 fighter of the Pakistan Air Force was shot down by the Indian Air Force and was seen falling in Lam area, about three kilometers inside Pakistan.
