On 27 February, when the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) tried to target Indian military installations a day after Indian Air Force’s (IAF’s) strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot, the two air forces engaged in an air battle of the kind not witnessed since the 1971 war, not even during the Kargil conflict.

During the air engagement, multiple Pakistani F-16s fired their air to air missiles towards two Su-30MKIs of the IAF which were on Combat Air Patrol in the region. Tha air skirmish between the PAF and the IAF ended with a MiG-21 Bison of the latter being shot down over Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the former losing an F-16. While the Indian pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, ejected and found himself in Pakistani custody, what fate the Pakistani pilot(s) met remains unknown as the PAF refuses to accept the loss of a fighter jet.

Beyond this, little is known about the air engagement of 27 February. However, a former Mirage-2000 pilot of the IAF, Sameer Joshi, has now put out an authoritative account of the air skirmish between the IAF and the PAF.

Joshi, who had recently explained — in an article that went viral — how the IAF struck the Jaish camp in Balakote using Spice-2000 bombs, says that the PAF used three strike groups for its mission on 27 February. The first group (labelled north axis in the map below), the northernmost package, consisted of four J-17 fighters. The second group, which he calls the central axis, had eight F-16s, a combination of four Mirage IIIs and Vs, and four JF-17 fighters. The third group, labelled south axis, had a combination of four Mirage IIIs and Vs. While the fighters in the north and south axes of the PAF were decoys, used to distract the IAF, those in the central axis were part of the main thrust.

According to Joshi, the F-16s were equipped with 1000 pound Laser Guided Bombs, the JF-17s carried general purpose bomb equipped with range-extension kits (REKs) and the Mirage IIIs/Vs had H2/H4 Stand-Off Weapon.