It is certainly possible India lost Rafale BS-001, but I still have my doubts, especially because India has not confirmed the loss (understandable in wartime but leaves the field wide-open for AI fakes). I am no expert in image analysis so I will just post this link FWIW.
If India DID lose a Rafale, it’s just unbelievable it happened in hour 1 on day 1.
Not surprising when you consider that if this thing blows up into a wider hotter war, possibly to the nuke (hopefully just tactical) level, Afghanistan could suffer a lot of spillover.
Isn’t that when air defenses would be at their strongest? I’d fully expect that the first planes in would be the ones at the biggest risk.
Consistently in military war games, when “tactical” weapons are used the engagement escalates to a strategic exchange. That’s a major reason the military largely lost interest in the idea, the concept is fairly pointless if using them leads to mutual destruction.
Note: There is no indication that any aircraft from the two sides crossed the joint border. The ‘dogfights’ were conducted by BVR (beyond visual range) missiles fired from their own territory. The missiles will get a launch heading from the aircraft. At some point, the missile seeker will search for a target (radar, infrared or a combination), and more advanced missiles can have targeting updated from a datalink to/from the launching aircraft. That’s why pictures of downed aircraft parts are their own side. India also launched ground attack missiles against suspected terrorist bases. There was sporadic cross border artillery fire (not unusual but it sucks to be those targets).
When the Taliban started 30 years ago, they were full of piss and vinegar. Ready to take on the world. Now that they’re going gray with creaky joints, they just want to settle down and enjoy the privileges of power without too much bother.
Latest on conflict. Recovery of missile parts. Tit for Tat attacks on each other’s military bases.Videos. Still mostly claims rather than confirmed.