The United States has refused to answer questions about whether Pakistan lost any of its F-16 fighter jets during Operation Sindoor the fierce 88-hour battle fought between India and Pakistan from 7th May to 10th May.
According to a report by NDTV, when it asked the US State Department about the matter, the reply was brief: “We refer you to the Government of Pakistan to discuss its F-16s.”
The US has detailed agreements with Pakistan about its F-16 fleet. Under these “end-use” agreements, US contractors called Technical Support Teams (TSTs) are stationed in Pakistan round the clock. Their job is to track and monitor the use of Pakistan’s American-built F-16s at all times. This arrangement ensures the US always knows exactly how many jets are operational, where they are, and what condition they are in.
This latest US response stands in contrast to what American officials had said in 2019. Back then, shortly after India’s airstrikes on Balakot, Foreign Policy magazine quoted two senior US defence officials saying that they had counted all of Pakistan’s F-16s and found none missing contradicting India’s claim that it had shot one down.
Now, three months after Operation Sindoor, Indian authorities believe the situation is different. According to Indian assessments, the Pakistan Air Force lost several F-16s during the fighting either destroyed on the ground in Indian Air Force (IAF) strikes or shot down in aerial combat.
On Saturday, 9th August, in a significant claim three months after the end of hostilities in May, the Indian Air Force chief said, ”Shahbaz Jacobabad airfield (was) one of the major airfields that was attacked. Here, there’s an F-16 hangar.” He added, “One half of the hangar is gone. And I’m sure there were some aircraft inside which have got damaged there.”
While talking about the IAF ground strikes, Air Chief Marshal AP Singh said, “Three hangars that we attacked: Sukkur – UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] hangar, the Bholari hangar of the AEW&C [Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft] and Jacobabad – the F-16 hangar. We have an indication of at least one AEW&C in that AEW&C hangar and a few F-16s, which were under maintenance.”
The IAF also claims it shot down six Pakistani aircraft during the battle: five fighters and one larger aircraft, which could have been either an electronic intelligence (ELINT) or AEW&C aircraft. However, the Air Chief did not name the exact fighter types destroyed.
Pakistan has strongly rejected these claims. Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif challenged India to allow an independent verification of both countries’ aircraft inventories. “If the truth is in question, let both sides open their aircraft inventories to independent verification though we suspect this would lay bare the reality India seeks to obscure,” he said.
This is not the first time the US has stayed quiet on the issue. Earlier, NDTV had filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the US Department of Defence with the same set of questions. The reply was that FOIA does not require US agencies to compile new information or answer direct questions, it only obliges them to release existing records. Later queries to the Pentagon and to the Office of the US Secretary of Defence’s Public Affairs division also went unanswered.
For now, the exact number of F-16s Pakistan may have lost, if any, during Operation Sindoor remains unconfirmed. The US, despite having teams in Pakistan monitoring the jets 24/7, is staying officially silent, and both India and Pakistan are sticking to their own versions of events.
