This would be the first time that the manufacturer of a fighter plane must have come out to deny loss of any of its aircraft in a war between bordering nations. What led them to do it?
By Debasish Roy
Something is surely amiss. Recently, Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO Eric Trappier has been quoted in French website Avion De Chasse, saying that not a single Rafale aircraft had been shot down in combat during Operation Sindoor, but India had lost one jet owing to “technical failure at high altitude”.
The question that DronePages poses at its readers is that has the CEO of any fighter manufacturer ever clarified on loss of aircraft in war between two nations? When there is war in the middle East between USA and a Middle Eastern nation or between two Middle Eastern nations do Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman issue statements denying claims by Iran, Iraq, Syria, Oman, Qatar, Czech Republic, Egypt or Israel about fighter aircraft wins or losses? What about European manufacturers of fighter jets? Do Airbus, BAE Systems, Dassault Aviation, and Saab bring out press releases after wars involving their aircraft in wars in Europe or other parts of the world? So, why is Dassault Aviation obliged to come out in the open and deny India’s claim and even Pakistan’s claims about downing of Rafales?
Next, we notice that Indian voices of authority both in the military and in the government are not admitting to anything. They are neither coming out with a clear statement denying any loss of aircraft or even any loss of aircraft in combat but yes, loss of aircraft owing to technical failure. What about the details of any loss of aircraft? Nothing on those lines either. How many Pakistani F-16s and JF-17s were shot down by the Indian Air Force? No clarity on that either.
Somehow, nobody who is supposed to be somebody in this war is coughing up the right or even wrong words. There is a lot of fog of broken communication.
Pakistan claims to have downed five aircraft of the Indian Air Force but their defence minister Khawaja Asif claims that proof of this act is in the social media (not debris on the ground), which makes that terror sponsoring nation a laughing stock yet again. That was on May 8, 2025.
After that statement, we Indians rested easy. However, then our own men in uniform muddied the waters.
During a live press briefing on May 11, 2025, Air Marshal Awadesh Kumar Bharti, Director General of Air Operations, Indian Air Force (DGAO IAF), said in answer to a question on this topic: “Losses are a part of combat. I don’t want to reveal details. However, I can say that all our pilots are safely back home.” This struck a raw nerve with every Indian as the DGMO never said that “We DID NOT lose a single aircraft in combat.” That clearly means we did lose aircraft in combat. This goes against what the CEO of Dassault Aviation had said a few days earlier.
Again, on May 31, 2025, General Anil Chauhan, a four-star general of the Indian Army, who is currently, the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of the Indian Armed Forces, in an interview to Bloomberg TV, said: “What is important is that – not the jets being down, but why they were being down. Absolutely incorrect [regarding six fighter jets lost]. That is not the information, which I said is important. What is important is why they were down. That is more important for us. And what did we do after that. That is more important.“
Again, this means that we lost Rafale fighter jets in combat. Question: why is this clearly not being admitted openly or being denied openly? What is the end objective in playing these mind games?
This was again echoed by Captain Shiv Kumar, Defence Attaché to Indonesia, during a university seminar in Jakarta, on June 10, 2025, as, “I may not agree that we lost so many aircraft, but I do agree we did lose some aircraft. …The Indian Air Force lost fighter jets to Pakistan on the night of May 7, 2025 only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishment or their air defences.“
This again implies that the Indian political establishment is the likely, alleged source of some either mind games or constraints set for the operations of the Indian military establishment. Isn’t it?
Bringing up similar facts was the Defence secretary, Rajesh Kumar Singh, in his interview to CNBC-TV18, on July 8, 2025, “You have used the term Rafales in the plural, I can assure you that is absolutely not correct. Pakistan suffered losses many times over India in both human and material terms and more than 100 terrorists.” This just misses the point of clarifying whether or not we lost Rafale(s) or one Rafale wether on combat or owing to technical failure.
What about Lieutenant General Sumer Ivan D’Cunha? Again no Yes or No to a clear, simple and direct question by Asian News International (ANI) in
So, what are we to make of it? We can only speculate. What could be the end goal? Is it to force Dassault Aviation’s hand in releasing the source code of the Rafale, so that Hindustan Aeronautics and its private sector partners can use it to fix missiles on the Tejas and Indian Rafales? We can only speculate without any clear cut statement from anywhere. Rafale has since then made out a press release about the active order book position for Rafales. Well, the mind games, (if existing, are allegedly not working.)
What about the highly long and extended negotiations by the now deceased Shri Manohar Parrikkar? Didn’t he ask for the delivery of the source code to be made part of the contract? Clearly, he didn’t. Why do we need the source code suddenly during the war and just when we are building our AMCA?
The last point: why was the ceasefire declared in a hurry and without any apparent reason? Pakistan asked for a ceasefire is not a valid reason. We ought to have obliterated our enemy instead of letting them live.
