@SQ8 - I read in another forum (from a knowledgeable Indian member) that IAFs SOP did not allow / allowed limited engagement / allowed engagement at some distance or something like that (he says SOPs have since been changed).
Would you think those SOPs have something to do with the results on that day when 24 or so PAF aircrafts showed up?
Thats idiotic of either the member or the IAF - take your pick. Why would you have restrictive SOPs the DAY after you attacked? Are we to assume that the IAF from top to bottom are complete goofballs who can’t understand the basic paradigm of expecting retaliation after the attack. The member is clearly either not informed or like all toeing the Bhakt line lying to fellow Indians and keeping the delusion going.
There was abject failure at all levels of IAF leadership from the chief down to the sector air defense commander who made the decision to shoot down the Mi-17 leading to the fratricide. It all points to poor training and expectations from these battlefield leaders who I assume are all “yes men” appointments with the true fighter leaders all sidelined for making noise against such complacency or leaving the IAF for greener pastures.
Again, I reiterate for the consumption of all Indian members and IAF fans - there are extremely experienced, knowledge and natural leaders and warfighters within the IAF who can and do perform. But it is also a side effect of political interference in military merit that the current Indian government has initiated that a large percentage of these will be sidelined simply because of speaking up.
27th February also exposed massive chinks in the Indian Air Defense armor that indicate a lot of expensive toys that don’t work well either in the actual environment and each other or the methods to make them work well were not tested in a battle environment.
I had a feeling many years ago that the IAF would come away with a bloody nose from the PAF not because of a majority of its pilots but because of the very way it was training its squadron leadership. Many Indians under the purported slight of ego went ballistic at the red flag video of the USAF colonel who plainly pointed out how they set up win-win scenarios for themselves during exercises with the USAF but performed poorly in an environment with a different and more equal scenario.
When you train thinking victory is easy with superior equipment and your enemy is beneath you - like many Indians do, you get 26th(botched strike) and 27th( military embarrassment). When you train to fight outgunned,outnumbered and assume your enemy is superior - you get what the PAF did and what the IDFAF did and continues to do.
The IAF is well placed to change its attitudes from this cultural misappropriation of superiority masking inferiority and focus on every man a tiger philosophy. Only then will it truly be the force to reckon with and dominate not just its western border but also its northern one.
As a reference, they can look to the period from December 65 to December 71 as an example of how to change mindsets and train as an effective fighting force.