Indian Mirage 2000 hits targets in Pakistan

In the early hours of Tuesday, 12 Mirage-2000 combat jets of the Indian Air Force (IAF) armed with Israeli Precision Guided Munitions (PGM) took off from their Gwalior airbase on a crucial mission, cloaked in secrecy. The multirole fighter aircraft flew over Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir before crossing into Pakistani airspace and striking the largest training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Balakot inside Pakistan.

“The terror launch pads along the LoC were moved deep inside after the Pulwama attack,” a senior defence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “The camp in Balakot, which was targeted, is JeM’s major training camp. It’s in proper Pakistan itself, close to Abbottabad infamous because of Osama bin Laden.”

Balakot is about 60 km aerial distance from the LoC, in the Mansehra district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, and is about two hours’ drive from Abbottabad.

“Twelve Mirage-2000 jets from Gwalior were involved in the strike and they carried SPICE 2000 and Crystal Maze Mk2, also called AGM 142 Popeye PGMs,” an IAF source confirmed.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ ... 379607.ece

According to open sources SPICE 2000 has a range of approx 60 km and Popeye a range of 80 km(?). If so, it would seem to me that perhaps the Mirage 2000 did not fly very deep into Pakistan (if at all).

Comments?

The Pakistani government claims the Indian Air Force hit nothing but open desert.

The Pakistani government claims the Indian Air Force hit nothing but open desert.

I am willing to believe India-Pakistan claims as much as I believe Iran-Iraq war claims by both sides. Remember - Su-30MKIs already detected J-20s, according to people who have nothing to gain from such claims. Accordingly, Pakistan, who definitly never had anything to do with training and harboring armed groups who may or may not have been terrorists and definitely never launched covert operations into Indian territory will of course provide nothing but the crystal clear and truthful statements about the neighbors, who they love and respect so much.

The strikes did happen, though. Most likely.

Indians also claim to have baptized Derby air defense system by shooting down "Pakistani spy drone", and have this wreckage to prove that:

The Pakistani government claims the Indian Air Force hit nothing but open desert.

Of course nobody were hit -- there are no terrorists hiding in Pakistan! Since there are no terrorists hiding in Pakistan it is simply not possible to drop bombs at them. Thus, following this logic, nobody were hit in this attack.

hahahaha, you guys are acting like I believe them (Pak gov). OP asked for comments, I simply put out the statement by the Pakistani gov. It was a comment, not an opinion. Heck, my post is even fact. Pak Gov does claim nothing was hit.

So best case scenario: hundreds of dead terrorists. Worst case scenario: no one dead and the Pakistan armed forces got a good look at an Indian air mission. Notice none of those Mirage 2000s got shot down. That's got to sting a bit.

It’s interesting that they chose the Mirage-2000 for the mission. Is it the best strike plane in their arsenal? I thought the Su-30MKI had some pretty potent strike capabilities. My theory is that the Russian strike munitions aren’t as good as the Israeli ones. I’m guessing the avionics/targeting pods etc. aren’t as advanced in the Su-30MKIs.

That being said, the MKIs are probably the superior air to air platform and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were flying top cover on the mission.

Indian MiG-21 fighter possibly shot down, confirmed crashed in Jammu & Kashmir : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 179349.cms

It's beginning to heat up, Pakistan Air Force clearly want revenge.

Reading that graphic I can't help but marvel at the phrase "non-military pre-emptive strike".

Mi-17 seems to the aircraft that crashed, not a MiG-21. Image in article looks a lot more likely.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-ne ... dM6lM.html

There's a claim of a shot down Pakistani F-16 now, but the fog of war today is very thick. Also claims that an Indian fighter was shot down inside Pakistan and the pilots were captured : https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/43760 ... y-pakistan (includes video of captured pilot, probably NSFW).

Pakistan is now claiming they "didn't" loose an F-16??? Said it had none in the area???

India-Pakistan tension escalates as 'jets shot down'



https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-asia-47383889

Pakistan has shown the Indian mig-21 pilot on TV, looks like at least 1 downed fighter is confirmed, in addition to the mi-17 crash.

India-Pakistan tension escalates as 'jets shot down'

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-asia-47383889

Yea, looks pretty real:

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=CXuEa_1551256199