Air Marshal Hails Akash Air Defence System For Foiling Pakistan Attacks, Says Chinese PL-15 Missile Missed Target

The Director Generals of the three armed forces held a press briefing on Monday (12 May), which started by showing a video clip of how India tracked Pakistan's activities and destroyed their misadventures including a Pakistani Mirage jet.

Air Marshal A K Bharti reiterated that India only attacked terror infrastructure in the first leg of Operation Sindoor, but after retaliation by the Pakistan Army, it became necessary for the armed forces to target Pakistan's defence sites.

He highlighted the role of the Integrated Air Command and Control system and the multi-tier air defence (AD) system which comprises of a large variety of AD sensors, and Weapon Systems.

"While much has been said and written about the newer systems, I would like to place on record the performance and efficacy demonstrated by even the older and battle-proven AD weapons," Air Marshal Bharti said in the context of Russian S-400 getting major credit for AD.

He specifically named Pechora, OSA-AK and the LLAD guns and the indigenous AD weapons like the Akash system that helped India to thwart Pakistani drones. In contrast, Pakistan's attacks on India failed as the Chinese PL-15 missile missed its target and the Turkish drones were destroyed by India.

"Putting together and operationalisation of this potent AD environment has been possible over the last decade, due to unwavering budgetary and policy support provided by the Gvernment of India, in acquiring state-of-the-art equipment and weapon systems," he added.

Air Marshal Bharti asserted that there were minimal losses on our side and emphatically stated that our all military bases and systems continue to remain fully operational, as opposed to the Pakistani propaganda which claims to have damaged our bases with doctored images.