The US administration led by President Donald Trump has refused to answer queries on F-16 fighter planes that Pakistan Air Force operated and lost during India’s Operation Sindoor from May 7-10. The US government, in a reply to a query by a media house, said that the question about loss of F-16 jets should be posed to Islamabad, and not Washington.
“We refer you to the Government of Pakistan to discuss its F-16s,” the US government said in a statement to NDTV. The response contradicts the fact that the US keeps full information about the status of Pakistan-operated F-16s through US contractors – Technical Support Teams (TSTs).
The F-16 fighter jets that Pakistan has are built by the US and these TSTs reportedly monitor the movement and status of the planes 24/7. The NDTV report mentioned that the two sides inked an end-use agreement that allows TSTs to function and set guidelines under which Pakistan’s F-16s can be used in combat.
This agreement also reportedly forms the foundation basis upon which Islamabad continues to receive US aid to maintain and sustain its F-16 fleet. Hence, these Technical Support Teams are actually bound by the contract signed to have full knowledge of the status of all of Pakistan’s F-16 jets at all times.
US statement differs from its 2019 stance
In 2019, the US government sources told Foreign Policy Magazine that none of the F-16s with Pakistan were missing. This was after India carried out airstrikes targeting terror facilities in Balakot after the Pulwama attack.
“Two senior US defence officials with direct knowledge of the situation told Foreign Policy that US personnel recently counted Islamabad’s F-16s and found none missing,” they said at that time, as per NDTV.
India had claimed to have struck at least one of Pakistan’s F-16 planes during the airstrike.
Operation Sindoor and Pakistan’s claims
After the tragic Pahalgam terror attack, India launched Operation Sindoor, eliminating terrorists in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). This led to four nights of intense escalation between India and Pakistan with Indian forces precisely striking the airbases in Pakistan.
India said that Pakistan Air Force has lost several F-16 jets in the 88-hour-long combat, either on the ground as a result of IAF strikes or in the air.
The Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh recently said, “Shahbaz Jacobabad airfield (was) one of the major airfields that was attacked. Here, there’s an F-16 hangar. One half of the hangar is gone. And I’m sure there were some aircraft inside which were damaged there.”
The IAF also said they struck six Pakistani aircrafts during the operation. “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 chief added.
Pakistan, on the other hand, claimed to have shot down IAF jets, which the Indian forces have denied multiple times in the past three months.