Claims that India shot down one of Pakistan's F-16's proven false.

A Pakistani F-16. Reuters.

The United States government claims that reports that India shot down a Pakistani F-16 are false after reviewing Pakistan's inventory of the fighters. Reuters. India claimed that it had shot down the fighter during a skirmish in February. During that battle India lost one of their MIG-21's and said some missile debris was evidence that they shot the F-16 down. However, the US government has access to Pakistan's F-16's as part of the sales agreement. Multiple US sources said that all F-16's are present and accounted for. 

My Comment:

A quick update to a previous post. I had always thought that the Indian claims that they brought down an F-16 in battle to be suspicious at best and ludicrous at worst. It always seemed to be a face saving gesture and a pretty transparent one as well. 

It didn't make much sense that a MIG-21 could take down a F-16. The F-16 is way more advanced and powerful and has a much better record in dogfights. Plus, my general impression is that Pakistan's military is more competent and better trained than India's. How true that impression is unclear but either way, the F-16 is the better fighter. It's certainly possible that a MIG-21 could get lucky and shoot one down, but that's about all it could be. 

Plus, I doubt that the F-16's were even involved in the dogfight. Pakistan claims that they used their Chinese designed JF-17's and not the F-16's. Pakistan does have motivation to lie as using their fighters against India would violate the end-user agreement they have with the United States, but even then, I think it's unlikely that they did use the fighter. It's very possible that both sides are lying though. 

I do think that this a huge blow to Indian credibility. They told the world that they shot down a Pakistani F-16 and it seems pretty clear that they did not. They may come up with some wild conspiracy theory that they did shoot it down and the United States is trying to cover it up for some reason, (perhaps to perseve the reputation of the F-16 and ensure more sales?), but I doubt anyone will believe them. 

I do worry that this may push India into doing something stupid. Their face saving measure ended up backfiring and now they have lost face. They may want to extract a blood toll from Pakistan to make sure that they are on an even footing. 

Hopefully that won't happen though. Things have largely calmed down between India and Pakistan. Given that the two countries have nuclear weapons, that is a very good thing. Let's hope that this embarrassing incident becomes nothing more than a footnote in history.