FEB 27: OPERATION SWIFT RETREAT

After the successful Balakot Airstrike of IAF by crossing Indo-Pak border for the first time after 1971 war and bombing JeM Camps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the entire military establishment of the Pakistan rattled.

PAF was given go ahead by PM Imran Khan [DGISPR actually] to conduct a revenge strikes on India’s military establishment in POK even though they acknowledged only crows were killed and Trees were uprooted in Balakot.

The following targets were selected by the PAF for the air-strikes:
Bhimber Gali [5,479 feet],Krishna Ghati (Nangi Tekri)[4,665 feet], Potha [4,073 feet], and an ammunition depot in Narian (belonging to the 25 Infantry Division of the Indian Army) at 2,000 feet above seal level.

The aerial confrontation happened between these aircrafts:
IAF - 3MiG-21 Bisons, 2 upgraded Mirage 2000INs and 4 Su-30MKIs.

PAF- 4 F-16A/Bs [each armed with two DENEL-supplied Raptor TV-guided gliding PGMs], 4 F-16A/Bs and 4 JF-17s [ tasked with the protection of the strike package], 4 Mirage-IIIEAs while remaining were present deep inside POK for fancy dress competition.

It clearly revealed neither the JF-17 nor the Mirage-IIIEAs are as yet able to launch standoff PGMs.

February 27: Morning 9:58AM- The 4 F 16 tried to breach Indian Airspace through Bhimber Gali, Naushara/Sunderbani and Rajouri/Lam/Kalal sectors.

10:00AM- Within 2 min. They were confronted by 2 MiG-21 Bisons, 2 Mirage 2000INs and 4 Su-30MKIs.

Meanwhile other 4 PAF F-16s were resorting to terrain-masking by flying parallel to the western portion of the Pir Panjal Range and the Trikuta Range. Their primary target was to ambush The Sukhoi 30MKIs.

10:25AM: These 4 F16s started gaining altitude east of the Ranges to ambush their targets. However they were detected by the IAF’s medium-power radars and accompanying radar finger-printing systems which immediately vectored 2 Mig 21 bis. from Srinagar.

The Su-30MKIs were kept on standby to engage those PAF F-16s that were still orbiting over PoK airspace further to the west and guard the military installations of the Army.

The Mig 21 Bis. Flown by W/C Abhinandan along with his wingman cruising at a height of 15,000ft engaged the 4 F 16s and alerted the Sukhoi’s regarding the ambush. He made a shallow dive at the F 16s at 9,000ft to get within R-73E firing range.

One of the F 16B rattled by the sudden appearance of Migs took an evasive manoeuver by going into a steep climb to about 26,000 feet.W/C Abhinandan manoeuvred his MiG-21 Bison behind the fleeing F-16Band had positioned himself at a 60-degree angle of elevation below the F-16B

He conveyed his final words to his wingman “Visuals and Locked“ and Fired R73E towards the F16B which directly hit the rear fuselage of the F16B since it was next to impossible to evade a heat seeking missile at such a close range.

However the wingman of the Shot F 16B moved in from behind and fired an AIM-120C-5 AMRAAM from a distance of less than 12km, hitting the centre-fuselage of the MiG-21 Bis. Of Abhinandan.

A second AIM-120C-5 that was probably fired against  Wg Cdr Abhinandan’s wingman failed to hit its target and consequently it slammed into Mamankote Mallas village, Reasi, and caused an explosion that spread splinters and missile parts within a radius of 100m

The downed PAF F-16B was shot down over the Jhangar area of Jammu & Kashmir, but its wreckage fell in Khuiratta-Charhoi inside PoK, opposite the Lam Valley. The MiG-21 Bison, on the other hand, went down near Horran village, located 7km west of the LoC in PoK’s  Bhimber district

Meanwhile one of the Sukhoi 30MKI code named ‘Avenger-1’ was targeted by a F16 flown by Hassan M Siddiqui from a distance of 70-85 KM. He fired a volley of AIM-120-C5 BVR Missiles towards avenger

but according to Squadron Leader Minty Agarwal who was the Fighter Controller that day stated that Avenger-1 not only survived AMRAAMs even made a run towards PAF F-16s which were already running back after an aggressive push by W/C Abhinandan Varthaman with his Mig-21Bis

For a highly manoeuvrable Aircraft like Sukhoi the dodge was quite easy since the active Ku-band terminal seekers of BVRAAMs were already suffering from ground-clutter phenomena over such terrain and are therefore next-to-useless in such situations.

Also the Distance between F16 And Sukhoi 30MKI was 70-80KM apart which clearly exceeded the Kill zone of AIM-120 which runs out fuel within 35 kms and the momentum then depends upon the initial thrust given by the rocket motor and keeps on decreasing with distance.

Avenger also activated its EL/L-8222 jamming pod along with ‘Thrust Vectoring’ and continuously releasing chaff and flares which made it impossible for AMRAAMs to reach its designated target.

The entire dogfight ended by 10:45 AM.

PAF Awarded Siddiqui for Su-30MKI kill based on the thermal target being take down by an AMRAAM fired by him which was recorded by the PAF’s SAAB 340 AEW&C. This thermal target was nothing but the Flares and Chaff which illuminated their screens.

27-02-2019: 11:49AM- DGISPR made the official statement regarding shooting down of 2 Indian Warplanes inside PAK airspace and the capture of 1-Indian Pilot where as 2-Pilots were still in the area.

27-02-19: PAF made the statement that No F-16 Falcons were used in the aerial combat

28-02-19: In response to this IAF revealed the AMRAAM wreckage which could be only used in F-16 Falcons of the pak Inventory

1-03-19: IAF made the official statement that a F-16 was shot down by IAF over pak airspace by one of its Mig 21Bis

5-April 2019: 9:16PM- More than a month after the IAF statement DGISPR revealed all the missiles wreckage that it claimed to have recovered from Mig-21 Bis. Of W/C Abhinandan which clearly showed that none of the missiles were fired and hence No F16 was shot down by him.

8-April 2019: IAF officially revealed it’s Airborne Early Warning and Control System’s Radar Images which gave concrete evidence that F16 was indeed shot down as was conclusively identified by its electronic signature and radio transcripts.

This data had been made public only after PAF started making false claims as well as a report from US news magazine’Foreign Policy’.

The claims and evidence of IAF further strengthened when PAF publicly showed all the missiles which they as ‘claimed’ recovered from Abhinandan’s mig 21 wreckage.

However the R-73E recovered from The Right Wing of Mig-21 Bis had serious complications when it was found that it carried a 14-digit serial number on its frame, as a genuine R-73E missile always carries a 13 Digit Serial number on its frame.

Genuine R-73 are shown below

This cleared that indeed the missile was fake and was smuggled from either China or Online platforms like EBay where missiles are sold openly. This further verified that W/C Abhinandan fired a R-73E missile on the targeted F-16 which brought it down.

UAV interception:

February 26,2019:- 6:00AM - a Pakistan Navy-operated ScanEagle UAV was detected and shot down by an IAF-operated SpyDer-SR near Nanghatad village in Abdasa taluka of Kutch district in Gujarat on It was suspected to have been launched from an area near Sir Creek.

March 4,2019:- 11:00AM- PAF-operated Falco UAS, which had taken off from Bahawalpur Airport, entered Indian airspace near the BSF’s outposts at Anupgarh in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar district. The intruding Falco was shot down by a Su-30MKI with 30mm cannon-fire

These UAVs were sent from Pakistan to ascertain whether the IAF had any plans for undertaking a missile-strike (with ground-launched BrahMos-1 Block-3 missiles) against probable targets like the JeM’s HQ at Bahawalpur

OR the Karachi-based seafront villa owned by Dawood Ibrahim at D-13, Block-4, Karachi Development Authority, Scheme-5, Clifton.

THE END. The real Hero Is Here