Just read another pathetic article by The Hindu and it keeps churning out sh#t like this. Apparently as per The Hindu PAF not only has Mirage 2000 but they were deployed by PAF on the 27 Feb. I have written a very stinging reply coz they have written a judgemental article regarding"the claims of IAF shooting down a F-16"
Did India shoot down an F-16 of the Pakistan Air Force?
Dinakar Peri13 APRIL 2019 21:34 IST
UPDATED: 13 APRIL 2019 21:34 IST
Pakistan says no, U.S. weighs in. Where does the truth lie?
The story so far: In the early hours of February 26, the Indian Air Force (IAF) conducted precision air strikes on a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) training camp at Balakot in Pakistan. In response the next day, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) jets targeted Indian military installations across the Line of Control (LoC), but the attack was thwarted by IAF jets. In the engagement that followed, a MiG-21 of the IAF, piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, was shot. India claimed that Wing Commander Varthaman, before he came down across the LoC, had brought down an F-16. Pakistan denied that an F-16 was targeted, and early this month a report in
Foreign Policy, a prominent American magazine, said a U.S. count of the F-16s with Pakistan had found that none of them was “missing” and all the fighter planes were “accounted for.” Following this, the IAF released two radar images to support its claim that the F-16 was, indeed, shot down.
What happened on February 27?
On February 27, PAF fighter jets, comprising F-16s, JF-11s, Mirage-2000s and Mirage III/Vs, tried to drop precision munitions on Indian military installations in the Naushera sector along the LoC. IAF officers claimed 24 PAF planes were involved, of which 11 were F-16s. However, they were intercepted and engaged by the IAF’s Su-30MKIs, Mirage-2000s and MiG-21 Bison fighters guided by ground radars and the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. This resulted in an engagement between the IAF and PAF jets. The IAF had stated that a PAF F-16 was shot down by a MiG-21. The Army managed to recover the tail units of the H4 glide bombs and pieces of the AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile) fired by the F-16s. Among the PAF fighter fleet, only the F-16s can fire AMRAAMs.