India shot down five Pakistan fighter jets in May when the two nuclear-armed nations came dangerously close to a full-scale war, the top Indian Air Force official said on Friday.
Air Force chief Amar Preet Singh also revealed the class of the fighter jets India struck.
“As far as air defence part is concerned, we have evidence of one long range strike … along with that five fighters, high-tech fighters between F-16 and JF-17 class, our system tells,” Captain Singh said at the Indian Air Force annual day press conference in New Delhi on Friday.
Pakistan’s fighter jet F-16 is US-made and the JF-17 is of Chinese origin. The Indian Air Force and the government had not, until now, revealed the class of jets of the rival nation they targeted since the military escalation earlier this year.

The top Indian Air Force official also declined to comment on questions on Pakistan’s claim of downing Indian jets.
India and Pakistan exchanged heavy fire for four straight days in their worst conflict in more than a quarter century in May, launching missiles and drones at each other’s military bases and leaving dozens of people dead.
The Narendra Modi government said it launched airstrikes at terrorist installations in the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan in May retaliation to the terror attacks carried out on its civilians in Kashmir’s Pahalgam in April.
Both sides used fighter jets, missiles, artillery and drones during the four-day conflict, killing dozens of people, before agreeing to a ceasefire.
While Islamabad denied involvement in the Kashmir attack and said that there was no evidence linking the strike back to Pakistan, India said in July that three “terrorists” involved in the attack who were killed and there was “lot of proof” that they were Pakistani nationals.
The attack in Kashmir killed 26 men and was the worst assault on civilians in India since the Mumbai attacks in 2008.
Islamabad has denied India’s assertions and the Pakistan foreign ministry said the India’s account of the events was “replete with fabrications”.
India and Pakistan have been locked in a dispute over Kashmir since independence from British colonial rule in 1947. They both claim the territory in full but control it only in part.
The neighbours have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir.
India has long accused Pakistan of fuelling an armed separatist movement in its part of Kashmir which started in 1980 and has killed tens of thousands so far. It also blames Pakistani Islamist groups for attacks elsewhere in the country.
Pakistan rejects the accusations. It claims to only provide moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.
Both countries have expelled each other’s diplomats and nationals, as well as closed their borders and shuttered airspace. India has also suspended a critical water-sharing treaty with Pakistan.
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