Some info on first fighter jet dogfight between India and Pakistan in nearly half a century; My dim memories of Bangladesh Liberation war period and my IAF SSB interview
After 1971 Bangladesh war this is the first fighter jet dogfight between India and Pakistan. That is a period of slightly over 47 years! Nearly half a century!
I think fighter jets play a crucial role in both attack and defense capability. Therefore this incident is a very noteworthy incident now for India.
A patrol plane of Pakistan seems to have been brought down by India in 1999 Kargil conflict. But it was a patrol plane and not an attacking fighter jet. For around half a century there was no battle in the air between India and Pakistan involving invading and defending fighter jets. Now that peace has been broken. It is worthwhile to dig a little deeper into the dogfight based on reports from Indian sources.
The article: Why were Mig-21s used against Pak's F-16s and not Su-30 MKIs, http://defencenews.in/article.aspx?id=583346, 28th Feb. 2019 provides the following information about the Indian and Pakistani fighter jet dogfight.
MIG21 Bison (an upgraded version of MIG21) from Srinagar airforce base intercepted one Pakistani F16 D fighter. [Ravi: This would have been the MIG21 Bison piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan. I also think that as part of pursuing the F16 D and getting a "lock" on it, Abhinandan took the MIG21 Bison into Pakistani territory.]
MIG21 Bison fired a short-range missile at the F16 D bringing down the F16 D with its two pilots ejecting out.
The article states, "The taking down of a modern F16 with the relatively old MiG21 Bison is an unusual feat in aerial combat."
This article gives some more details: 24 Pak Jets Tried To Cross Over, Intercepted By 8 Air Force Fighters, http://www.defencenews.in/article.aspx?id=583356, 28th Feb. 2019
Pak jets crossed over to India and dropped bombs along line of control. On the return leg, the Pak jets were pursued by Indian jets.
Wing Commander Abhinandan pursued an F16 D but in the process exposed his plane to attack by other F16s of Pak Air Force. Abhinandan fired a missile and struck the F16 he was pursuing but another F16 was able to strike Abhinandan's jet with their missile. Another missile from a Pak jet missed its target which was the wingman (another Indian Air Force jet in the formation) of Abhinandan's jet.
Ravi: Hmm. That's some dogfight! I wonder whether we will get further details over time especially as Abhinandan is back in India now.
I think that maintaining defense superiority in the air is vital for India to be protected from any major conventional war strike by Pakistan. Therefore Indian Air Force fighter jets and its pilots play a vital role in protecting India from Pakistan conventional war threats.
Peace is surely preferable to war. But terrorist attacks and invasions have to be repelled by armed might. That is the brutal reality.
This time around it seems that Indian Air Force (IAF) did a good job in protecting India from Pak fighter jets attack. Congratulations must be given to IAF.
My dim recollections of Bangladesh Liberation war period
From my blog post: How Russia helped India by blocking USA Seventh Fleet in 1971 Bangladesh liberation war; Nixon-Kissinger discussions on the war, http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2015/09/how-russia-helped-india-fend-off-usa.html
In December 1971 I was nine years old living in Bombay (now Mumbai) in a Ground+6 stories set of buildings in Dadar (East) area of Mumbai (Central Railway Officers' Quarters, Dadar; my father was then an Accounts officer in Central Railway). If I recall correctly, we lived on the fourth floor (the building had a lift), and we had to put brown paper on glass window panes and be prepared to switch off all lights if the air raid siren went off. The fear then was that Pakistani war planes could attack and bomb Bombay. At that time, these four or five Ground+Six stories buildings, clustered together, would have been standing out among the rest of the much lesser in height (two or three storied) buildings around it in Dadar. Further, the vital railway tracks of Central Railway connecting Bombay to a large part of India was next to the buildings (Bombay also has a Western Railway which connects some parts of Western India to Bombay). So if these buildings and the railway tracks could be spotted by Pakistani fighter jets during a night time raid, they would have been an attractive target for them to bomb. But no Pakistani fighter jet ever made it that far to Bombay, during that war, if memory serves me right.
--- end extract from blog post ---
My curiosity driven attempt at Indian Air Force pilot SSB interview
After writing/passing the 12th standard board exam around 1980, a Ruia college colleague and good friend (Anil Tiwari is his name) had encouraged me to, along with him, write Service Selection Board (SSB) entrance exam for Indian Air Force Pilot Officer posts. He said it would be a good experience even if we don’t clear it.
We cleared the written exams and got calls for the SSB interview – mine was at Dehradun in North India. It was a weeklong affair, IIRC (if I recall correctly), and involved physical, psychological and other tests, along with getting a taste of armed forces life. We candidates lived in the IAF camp for that week.
I failed miserably in the physical/obstacle course as I had not even known about obstacles like Tiger’s Leap, Tarzan’s Jump, Monkey Bridge etc. But some chaps, especially those from Sainik (army) schools, handled it quite comfortably – maybe they had trained for these obstacles. I think I did badly in the psychological too (got poor marks in some result data that was provided perhaps later by mail). But I passed the Pilot Aptitude Battery Test which was done only once in one's life - one could not attempt it again. It was like a video game test, IIRC, but I don't think I had tried any video game prior to that test.
Only 2 guys from around 20 cleared the SSB interview and were asked to proceed to undergo the separately done medical test.
Even though I failed the SSB interview as a whole, it was a very interesting exposure to armed forces life. I still recall the dignity, athletic bearing and crisp speech of a senior Indian Air Force officer who addressed the eighteen or so of us who had not cleared the SSB interview/test and significantly lightened our disappointment, before we departed from the base in Dehradun.
I could have appeared again for it if I wanted to, this time after having done some preparation for the obstacle course, and also prepared for the psychological test in a more aggressive frame of mind, moving away from Gandhian Ahimsa stuff which had some influence on me at that time.
But my home circumstances and general situation were such that it was not viewed as an appropriate thing for me to pursue. I think that would have led me to drop any thoughts of seriously trying (again) to be an IAF fighter pilot!
I think fighter jets play a crucial role in both attack and defense capability. Therefore this incident is a very noteworthy incident now for India.
A patrol plane of Pakistan seems to have been brought down by India in 1999 Kargil conflict. But it was a patrol plane and not an attacking fighter jet. For around half a century there was no battle in the air between India and Pakistan involving invading and defending fighter jets. Now that peace has been broken. It is worthwhile to dig a little deeper into the dogfight based on reports from Indian sources.
The article: Why were Mig-21s used against Pak's F-16s and not Su-30 MKIs, http://defencenews.in/article.aspx?id=583346, 28th Feb. 2019 provides the following information about the Indian and Pakistani fighter jet dogfight.
MIG21 Bison (an upgraded version of MIG21) from Srinagar airforce base intercepted one Pakistani F16 D fighter. [Ravi: This would have been the MIG21 Bison piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan. I also think that as part of pursuing the F16 D and getting a "lock" on it, Abhinandan took the MIG21 Bison into Pakistani territory.]
MIG21 Bison fired a short-range missile at the F16 D bringing down the F16 D with its two pilots ejecting out.
The article states, "The taking down of a modern F16 with the relatively old MiG21 Bison is an unusual feat in aerial combat."
This article gives some more details: 24 Pak Jets Tried To Cross Over, Intercepted By 8 Air Force Fighters, http://www.defencenews.in/article.aspx?id=583356, 28th Feb. 2019
Pak jets crossed over to India and dropped bombs along line of control. On the return leg, the Pak jets were pursued by Indian jets.
Wing Commander Abhinandan pursued an F16 D but in the process exposed his plane to attack by other F16s of Pak Air Force. Abhinandan fired a missile and struck the F16 he was pursuing but another F16 was able to strike Abhinandan's jet with their missile. Another missile from a Pak jet missed its target which was the wingman (another Indian Air Force jet in the formation) of Abhinandan's jet.
Ravi: Hmm. That's some dogfight! I wonder whether we will get further details over time especially as Abhinandan is back in India now.
I think that maintaining defense superiority in the air is vital for India to be protected from any major conventional war strike by Pakistan. Therefore Indian Air Force fighter jets and its pilots play a vital role in protecting India from Pakistan conventional war threats.
Peace is surely preferable to war. But terrorist attacks and invasions have to be repelled by armed might. That is the brutal reality.
This time around it seems that Indian Air Force (IAF) did a good job in protecting India from Pak fighter jets attack. Congratulations must be given to IAF.
My dim recollections of Bangladesh Liberation war period
From my blog post: How Russia helped India by blocking USA Seventh Fleet in 1971 Bangladesh liberation war; Nixon-Kissinger discussions on the war, http://ravisiyermisc.blogspot.com/2015/09/how-russia-helped-india-fend-off-usa.html
In December 1971 I was nine years old living in Bombay (now Mumbai) in a Ground+6 stories set of buildings in Dadar (East) area of Mumbai (Central Railway Officers' Quarters, Dadar; my father was then an Accounts officer in Central Railway). If I recall correctly, we lived on the fourth floor (the building had a lift), and we had to put brown paper on glass window panes and be prepared to switch off all lights if the air raid siren went off. The fear then was that Pakistani war planes could attack and bomb Bombay. At that time, these four or five Ground+Six stories buildings, clustered together, would have been standing out among the rest of the much lesser in height (two or three storied) buildings around it in Dadar. Further, the vital railway tracks of Central Railway connecting Bombay to a large part of India was next to the buildings (Bombay also has a Western Railway which connects some parts of Western India to Bombay). So if these buildings and the railway tracks could be spotted by Pakistani fighter jets during a night time raid, they would have been an attractive target for them to bomb. But no Pakistani fighter jet ever made it that far to Bombay, during that war, if memory serves me right.
--- end extract from blog post ---
My curiosity driven attempt at Indian Air Force pilot SSB interview
After writing/passing the 12th standard board exam around 1980, a Ruia college colleague and good friend (Anil Tiwari is his name) had encouraged me to, along with him, write Service Selection Board (SSB) entrance exam for Indian Air Force Pilot Officer posts. He said it would be a good experience even if we don’t clear it.
We cleared the written exams and got calls for the SSB interview – mine was at Dehradun in North India. It was a weeklong affair, IIRC (if I recall correctly), and involved physical, psychological and other tests, along with getting a taste of armed forces life. We candidates lived in the IAF camp for that week.
I failed miserably in the physical/obstacle course as I had not even known about obstacles like Tiger’s Leap, Tarzan’s Jump, Monkey Bridge etc. But some chaps, especially those from Sainik (army) schools, handled it quite comfortably – maybe they had trained for these obstacles. I think I did badly in the psychological too (got poor marks in some result data that was provided perhaps later by mail). But I passed the Pilot Aptitude Battery Test which was done only once in one's life - one could not attempt it again. It was like a video game test, IIRC, but I don't think I had tried any video game prior to that test.
Only 2 guys from around 20 cleared the SSB interview and were asked to proceed to undergo the separately done medical test.
Even though I failed the SSB interview as a whole, it was a very interesting exposure to armed forces life. I still recall the dignity, athletic bearing and crisp speech of a senior Indian Air Force officer who addressed the eighteen or so of us who had not cleared the SSB interview/test and significantly lightened our disappointment, before we departed from the base in Dehradun.
I could have appeared again for it if I wanted to, this time after having done some preparation for the obstacle course, and also prepared for the psychological test in a more aggressive frame of mind, moving away from Gandhian Ahimsa stuff which had some influence on me at that time.
But my home circumstances and general situation were such that it was not viewed as an appropriate thing for me to pursue. I think that would have led me to drop any thoughts of seriously trying (again) to be an IAF fighter pilot!
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