Air to air combat is rare.
But with a massive spike in escalation between nuclear-armed neighbors - India & Pakistan,
a dog fight has taken place.
In a remarkable feat, India pilot has shot down Pakistani F 16 flying his Mig 21, which
is basically a generation older fighter jet when compared to F 16.
The air dual is one of its kind in recent times.
The interesting part is that the battle was between Pakistan Air Force (PAF)’s most
formidable fighter against the Indian Air Force (IAF)’s least capable fighter.
In this video Defense Updates analyses HOW INDIAN PILOT IN RUSSIAN MADE MIG 21 SHOT DOWN
PAKISTAN’s AMERICAN MADE F 16?
Let's get into the details
On 14 February 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar
National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber in the Pulwama district.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and
the attacker.
The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group
Jaish-e-Mohammed.
On 26th Feb, about two weeks after Pulwama terror strike, 12 IAF Mirage 2000 fighter
jets struck joint training camps of Jaish and LeT inside Pakistan.
It completely destroyed the camp by dropping 1,000 kg bombs.
The operation took 19 minutes to complete.
The strike was conducted after specific intel inputs were received that indicated that 300-400
Jaish terrorists, including 25 top commanders, would gather in the Balakot camp to celebrate
the Pulwama terror attack.
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine supersonic multirole fighter
aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics which is now Lockheed Martin.
Designed as per the requirement of U.S Air force, it is an air superiority fighter.
It has a top speed of Mach 2 and a combat radius of 340 mi or 550 km.
When fully loaded it weighs in at around 26,500 lb (12,000 kg)
The unit cost of F16 is around 15 to19 million USD depending on variant.
The F-16 has also been procured by air forces of 25 nations apart from the U.S. and is currently
the world's most numerous fixed-wing military aircraft.
Pakistan has about 75 F16s of different variants and it is the most capable fighter in PAF’s inventory.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 is a supersonic interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich
Design Bureau in the Soviet Union.
It has a top speed of Mach 1.76 and a combat radius of 230 mi or 370 km.
When fully loaded it weighs in at around 19,230 lb (8,725 kg )
The unit cost of Mig 21 is around 2 million USD which makes it 8-9 times cheaper than a F16.
In 1961, the Indian Air Force (IAF) opted to purchase the MiG-21.
At that time, the Soviet Union offered India full transfer of technology and rights for
local assembly.
In 1964, the MiG-21 became the first supersonic fighter jet to enter service with the IAF.
Since 1963, India has introduced more than 1,200 MiG fighters into its air force.
As of 2019, 113 MiG-21s are known to be in operation in the IAF.
All of these are have been upgraded to MiG-21 Bison standard.
This upgrade enhances many important aspects like better integration with missiles.
MiG-21 serves as an Interceptor aircraft in the IAF.
It is currently the least capable fighter of Indian Air Force and the service plans
to phase these out by 2021-2022
On 27th Feb a package of 24 Pakistani aircraft crossed over the Line of Control (LOC).
The strike formation contained 8 F-16s, 4 Mirage-3 aircraft, 4 Chinese made JF-17 "Thunder"
fighter.
They were escorted by 8 other fighters.
India side immediately sent a package of 8 fighters which included 4 Sukhoi 30s, 2 upgraded
Mirage 2000s and 2 MiG 21 Bisons.
Having seen the prompt response of IAF, the Pakistani fighters hurriedly dropped their
payloads and quickly turned back.
As per reports, one of the Mig 21 piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman gave
chase & got a lock on F16 using R 73 missile.
He fired the missile and the shot down the F16.
The Vympel R-73 is a short-range air-to-air missile developed by Vympel NPO that entered
service in 1984.
It has a range of 30 km and flies at a speed of Mach 2.5.
It uses All-aspect infrared homing.
The Mig 21 caught fire after that, the pilot landed in Pakistan side after ejecting and
was captured.
It is not clear if it was hit by a Pakistani air defense battery or had a technical snag.
This clearly indicates that skill levels of pilots and support from other assets like
Airborne Early Warning (AEW) play a very important role during Within Visual Range (WVR) combat.
Under immense diplomatic pressure from India & world community, Pakistan decided to release
the Indian pilot and he got back to India on 1 March.
It must be noted that American F 16 provided to Pakistan comes with riders.
These can be used only for self-defense & anti-terror operations in its own soil, and are not meant
for carrying out attacks on other counties.
Keeping this aspect in view, Pakistan has officially denied using F 16s.
But it seems, the truth is now coming out.
As per reports, India is sharing evidence with the U.S about the deployment of F 16s.
The data includes radar signatures & visuals of F16 captured from the Indian side
Not only this, Indian Air Force also displayed parts of the AIM-120C-5 Advanced Medium Range
Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) fired by the F-16 during a press briefing.
AIM-120C-5 is manufactured by America’s Raytheon.
The wreckage contains identification number which can be traced back to determine its
origin and date of manufacture.
It is to be noted that out of all the fighter possessed by PAF, only F16s can deploy the
AIM-120C.
Though some Pakistani publication claimed that the missile was sold by the U.S. to Taiwan
but Taiwan's Air Force stated that identification numbers displayed did not match any of its
missiles and such as missiles supplied by the U.S. were for Taiwan’s own use and never
sold by Taiwan to anyone else.
It remains to be seen, what steps the US takes in this regard.