The F-16 manufactured by Lockheed Martin
The F-16 manufactured by Lockheed Martin | Lockheed Martin
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New Delhi: A day after Pakistan military’s publicity wing ISPR released pictures of India’s crashed MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft in their urgency to build a narrative, it has now been revealed that one picture of the debris is from an F-16 fighter that Pakistan insisted it never flew or crashed.

At about 1005 hours Wednesday, three Pakistani F-16s crossed about 7 km over the Line of Control to target four Indian military installations. They were answered by a group of MiG-21 Bisons, which were on Combat Air Patrol (CAP).

The 1960s vintage aircraft chased the F-16s out of Indian air space and managed to shoot down one F-16, even as India lost one MiG-21 Bison.

Top Indian military sources had told ThePrint Wednesday that the pilot of the F-16 had ejected, and went over to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with the aircraft. With India having no evidence except some grainy footage of a pilot ejecting, Pakistan was quick to claim that it did not use F-16s in the attack and had lost no aircraft.

Engine casing

The ISPR later released pictures of the debris of the MiG-21, which was tweeted by a number of Pakistani Twitter handles. However, one of the pictures showed the outer casing of an engine. A closer analysis revealed that it was not a part of the MiG-21 Bison but that of the F-16s.

Pakistan uses the F-16 Block 50 aircraft, featuring improved performance engines — the F110-GE-129 for the Block 50, and the F100-PW-229 for the Block 52.

The MiG-21 Bison, meanwhile, uses an R 25 engine.

“The two engines are completely different from each other, including in design terms. The picture clearly shows that the part shown in the picture belongs to the F-16 and not the Indian fighter aircraft,” a source in the defence establishment said.

In the past, Pakistan has tried to hide its losses, especially those of fighter aircraft. In the 1971 war too, Pakistan hid its aircraft and pilot losses from its citizens.

For ThePrint’s smart analysis of how the rest of the media is doing its job, no holds barred, go to PluggedIn .