The Su-30MKI fighter lost the battle to the F-16 fighters, according to a leaked pilot’s interview to the Times of India.
Despite the fact that the licensed-built $121 million Su-30MKI fighter is sold as air superiority combat aircraft with the Indian Air Force, it became known that the American made radar and AMRAAM were the winning combination between the Pakistani F-16 fighters against the Su-30MKI fighters, the Russian-made fighters lost the air combat. They were forced to retreat after facing AIM-120 AMRAAM. The Su-30MKI formation was forced to leave Kashmir skirmish as the IAF didn’t want to lose any Su-30MKI aircraft to Pakistani F-16.
Backed by Saab 2000 AEW&C, F-16 fired the AMRAAM missiles while Pakistani Air Force fighters were in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir surprised the Indian Air Force as the PAF overtook the Indian control area.
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Two Su-30MKI fighters were 100 km away from AMRAAM and had to find a way to evade them. Indian fighters escaped but were unable to respond to the F-16 squadron because the Russian R-77 missile is out of reach. Later, the Indian Air Force said that Russian missiles could not reach the declared range and could not hit targets beyond 70 km, reported the Times of India.
The Kashmir Skirmish was the reason India has significantly reduced its interest in Russian Su-30 fighters and other combat aircraft, including the latest MiG-35 fighters evicting MiG-35 from the Indian MMRCA competition, subsequently IAF ordered 36 Dassault Rafale fighters. India has received so far 14 Rafale fighters from Dassault Aviation.
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