When IAF Came Up With An Ingenious Decoy Plan To Stave Off Pakistani F-16 Threat During Balakot Air Strike

The Indian Air Force had to resort to quick thinking to come up with an innovative plan to stave off an unexpected Pakistani F-16 threat after the Balakot air strike was already underway, Times Now has reported.

After the Mirage-2000 jets of the IAF had taken off to drop payloads on the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) facility in Balakot, the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) after detecting an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in the air presumed a surgical strike and scrambled two F-16s as a countermeasure.

These F-16s could have posed a threat to India’s Mirage 2000 package, hence the IAF came up with an innovative plan to launch six Jaguar bombers towards Lahore.

This effectively deceived Pakistan into thinking that India planned to target the Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarters in Bahawalpur and thus set its F-16s on course to intercept the Jaguars.

This provided a clear path for the Mirage 2000 jets to target the Balakot terror base and return safely. India’s Jaguar package turned back before crossing the international border.

The report claims that launching the UAV was part of the plan to put additional pressure on Pakistan and possibly make it believe that India was launching a ground based operation.