On 10 April 1959, while most of Pakistan was celebrating the holy day of Eid ul-Fitr, an IndianCanberra B(I)58 from the 106 Squadron entered Pakistani airspace on a photo reconnaissance mission. Two PAF F-86F Sabres (flown by Flt. Lt. M. N. Butt as the leader and Flt. Lt. M. Yunis as the wingman) from the No. 15 Squadron on Air Defence Alert were scrambled from PAF Base Peshawar to intercept the IAF aircraft. Butt attempted to bring down the Canberra by firing his Sabre's 50 cal machine guns, but the Canberra was flying at an altitude of more than 50,000 feet—beyond the operational ceiling of the F-86F. When Yunis took over from his leader, the Canberra suddenly lost height while executing a turn over Rawalpindi. Yunis then fired a burst from his F-86 (Serial# 55-005) machine guns that struck the Canberra at an altitude of 47,500 feet and brought it down over Rawat, marking the first aerial victory of the PAF. Both crew members of the IAF Canberra ejected and were captured by Pakistani authorities.[7][8][9]
1965 War
When hostilities broke out over the disputed Kashmir region, the No. 15 Squadron while equipped with F-86 Sabre jet fighters was deployed at PAF Base Sargodha. From there the squadron performed various combat missions including Close Air Support sorties. On 1 September, the IAF scrambled 12 De Havilland Vampire strike fighters and 14 Dassault Mystere IV fighter-bombers in an attempt to slow down the Pakistani Advance in the Chamb-Jourian sector. On the request of the Pakistan Army, two F-86 Sabres, each armed with a couple of AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles were scrambled to intercept the Indian aircraft. In the ensuing dogfight, Flight Lieutenant Imtiaz Bhatti from the No. 15 Squadron shot down two Indian Vampires over Chumb while Squadron Leader Sarfaraz Rafiqui from the No. 5 Squadron shot down another two Vampires. The remaining Indian aircraft managed to escape. This dogfight was a major blow to the Indian Air Force since it had to recall all Vampires and Mysteres from frontline service.[10][11][12]
During the Soviet Afghan war, Soviet and Afghan warplanes would occasionally cross into Pakistani airspace while pursuing Afghan Mujahideen forces which usually resulted in Pakistani infrastructure and Afghan refugee camps getting bombed. Resultantly, the squadron was deployed at Peshawar Airbase for Air Defence Alert duties. Throughout its service at Peshawar, the Squadron's fighters intercepted enemy warplanes only twice. First a Soviet Ilyushin Il-26 on 1 March 1980 and on the second occasion, its fighters intercepted a couple of Mig-21s in February 1986. However, on both occasions the Squadron's pilots were ordered not to engage them.[13]
In February 2019, the Indian Air Force allegedly bombed a terrorist camp in Balakot. Open source satellite imagery revealed that no targets of consequence were hit.[14][15][16] The following day, Pakistan shot down an Indian warplane and took its pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, prisoner.[17][18] The retaliatory airstrikes were codenamed "Operation Swift Retort" and for this purpose Two Dassault Mirage-VPAs armed with H-4 SOW Glide bombs and two dual seat Dassault Mirage-IIIDAs from the No. 15 Squadron were deployed for this mission. In the early hours of 27 February, the No. 15 Squadron carried out the airstrikes while JF-17s and F-16s from other squadrons provided escort and CAP. The Mirage-VPAs dropped their payload while the Weapon Systems Officer seated in the Mirage-IIIDAs guided the bombs to their respective targets,but changed the targets at the last moment, establishing dominance through warning to the enemy; the success of which could be gauged by the fact that India could not move up the escalation ladder and backed down.[19][20][21][22][23][24][25]
2025 India-Pakistan conflict
After Pahalgam incident in April, on 6-7 May night Operation Sindoor started by Indian Airforce by striking in Pakistan which triggered an aerial battle in which more than 114 aircraft, 72 from the IAF and 42 from the PAF, were involved in what was described as the largest beyond visual range engagement on the India–Pakistan border, with the engagement described as one of the largest air battles since the end of World War II. According to independent assessments, at least four Indian fighter aircraft were downed during the dogfight, though Pakistan claimed five, including three Rafales, one MiG-29, one SU-30MKI and a Heronunmanned aerial vehicle. It is first time that a French-origin Dassault Rafale has been lost in combat, reportedly having been shot down by the Chinese-origin Chengdu J-10. Pakistan's response also included the use of Chinese-produced PL-15 long-range air-to-air missiles fired from Chengdu J-10 fighter jets, marking the first combat use of the missile.
On 15 May, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif claimed that Pakistan shot down six Indian fighter jets, the sixth being a Mirage 2000. On 28 May, he again said that six Indian fighter jets were downed but said that four of these were Rafale, one MiG-29 and one "another plane". The PAF provided the tail numbers BS001, BS021, BS022, and BS027 of four Rafale aircraft it claimed to have shot down to Dassault so the manufacturer could confirm whether the aircraft were still operational. One of the Rafale aircraft, identified by the callsign Godzilla 4, was destroyed over Akalia Kalan, a village in Bathinda in Punjab, India, approximately 70 km from the India–Pakistan border, while returning to Ambala Air Force Station, home to a major wing of the IAF’s Western Air Command. The downed jet was identified as Rafale EH BS001. On 6 June, the PAF said that No. 15 Squadron, also known as the Cobras, was responsible for shooting down IAF fighter jets. The unit operated out of PAF Base Minhas in Kamra with J-10C multirole fighters equipped with PL-15 beyond-visual-range missiles. According to Dawn, the Cobras deployed 18 out of the 20 aircraft assigned to the squadron for the intercept operation on 7 May. [26]
↑ Freedman, Lawrence; Williams, Heather (2023). "India-Pakistan, 2019". Changing the Narrative: Information Campaigns, Strategy and Crisis Escalation in the Digital Age. London, UK: Routledge for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London. pp.43–60, 54. ISBN978-1-032-70786-0. There were two main disputes between India and Pakistan about the final days of the crisis, both of which played out on social media. India contended that it destroyed the madrassa targeted on 26 February, killing at least 300 people. Subsequent open-source intelligence, however, showed there was no damage to the building, and Pakistan claimed no one was killed in the strike.
↑ Lalwani, Sameer; Tallo, Emily (17 April 2019), "Did India shoot down a Pakistani F-16 in February? This just became a big deal: There are broader implications for India – and the United States", Washington Post, But these latest details about the India-Pakistan air battles threaten to discredit the BJP narrative and undermine its electoral prospects. Open-source satellite imagery revealed India did not hit any targets of consequence in the airstrikes it conducted after the terrorist attack on the paramilitaries. Additionally, reporting indicates that during the Feb. 27 air battle, friendly fire from an air-defense missile brought down an Indian military helicopter, killing six military personnel.
↑ Hall, Ian (2019), "India's 2019 General Election: National Security and the Rise of the Watchmen", The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, 108 (5): 507–519, 510, doi:10.1080/00358533.2019.1658360, hdl:10072/387751, S2CID203266692, Ten days after these comments, on 26 February, Modi gave the order for air strikes against alleged JeM facilities. Significantly, the target – near the town of Balakot – was not in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, but in Pakistan proper. … There the Indian Air Force (IAF) bombed a madrassa New Delhi claimed was a terrorist training camp associated with the JeM. The attack was acclaimed a success by the IAF, which claimed that several buildings were destroyed and up to 300 militants killed, but independent analysts suggest that it actually failed, with the missiles falling in nearby woods, rather than on their intended target (Ruser, 2019).
↑ Encyclopaedia Britannica (2021), "Kashmir", Kashmir | History, People, Conflict, Map, & Facts | Britannica, retrieved 15 January 2022, Days later India sent fighter jets across Kashmir's line of control for the first time in five decades and later claimed to have conducted air strikes against the militant group's largest training camp. Pakistan denied the claim, saying that the jets had struck an empty field. The next day, Pakistan conducted relataliatory strikes and shot down two Indian jets in its airspace and captured a pilot.
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