Air Vice Marshal Suryakant Chafekar (Retd) delivers lecture on ‘Balakot surgical strike, a bold step’
“The Indian psychology consists of, belief in peace, avoiding conflict and decision making paralysis. This lack in decision making, is the only reason why we don’t do what we want to do,” expressed Air Vice Marshal Suryakant Chafekar (Retd) while delivering a lecture on ‘Balakot surgical strike, a bold step’ recently at Ahilya Mandir.
Chafekar divided the presentation in three parts. He first spoke about, why the air strikes were necessary, later shifted to how the strikes happened and concluded the session with the future post air strikes.
Chafekar also clarified that since he is a retired professional, he does not have the exact details of the strike, but has tried to gather the necessary data on the basis of his experience and research.
Chafekar opined that post Pulwama attack where 40 soldiers martyred, India had financial, strategic and military options to handle the thriving militants in the neighbouring nation.
Air Vice Marshal Suryakant Chafekar (Retd) expressed that using the air power was a historic decision, as the Air Force is never called for such strike, as it can lead to escalation of war. However, the use of Indian Air Force has definitely lead to the change in the psychology of the nation.
Planning, in his opinion is very important which goes on for years. In case of success of Balakot air strikes, intelligence gathering of target, date and time of attack, choice of aircraft and choice of armament played a major role.
In Chafekar’s opinion, EL/M2070 TecSAR, an Israeli reconnaissance satellite would have been used which passed the data collected to RISAT-2, an Indian radar reconnaissance satellite. This data was further transferred to IAF Phalcon AWACS and then Mirage 2000 was informed leading to the air strikes. In his opinion the exchange of data happened in just 15 minutes.
Chafekar opined that if people knew about the arms and ammunition they would not have asked for the proof of air strikes.
Chafekar said intelligence played an important role, and the date 26 February 2019 was set based on the number of militants of Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) who claimed the responsibilityof the Pulwama attack, gathering at that particular date, place and time.
The night attack was most difficult for the pilots owing to unavailability of horizon which is their reference. He also spoke upon the post-strike image shared by an agency which asked for proof for the strikes, and claimed no such strikes happened. To which, Chafekar said that the weapons especially the missile used for the attack create an aperture which destroys whatever is below the target, leading to unavailability of the destroyed images.
The attack by Pakistan Air Force, later revealed that the neighbouring country just wanted to portray that they did something in retaliation.
He also said that US is supporting the claim of no missing F-16 because, there are other people asking for proofs around the world and they have to safeguard their future sale of aircrafts.
Chafekar opined that this government has set an example and hence, the future governments will be left with no choice but to take such bold decisions.
In future, he opined, India needs to maintain diplomatic and financial pressure, the decision making by the government is must and also it is essential to retain the boldness acquired.
