One thing does puzzle me though, if the PAF did loose an aircraft, shot down by the captured IAF airman, why would they be so confident in releasing him so early? Surely they’ll know he’ll give his account. In any case, let’s see how the indians spin the story when he gets back to india.

My urdu/hindi is not that great, but this eyewitness on the Pakistan side states that there were 3 chutes, but at least 1 or 2 of these landed on the other side of the LoC? But then again he also claims the Indian pilot was a “Sikh”?

Well if a PAF F-16 was shot down, they’ve done a pretty good job of hiding it! In addition, if the downed IAF pilot did shoot down a Viper, or witness the kill of the Viper, why would the Pakistanis release him? We’ll probably know soon enough. One thing is for sure though, if the wreckage of the AMRAAM is true, that disproves the official Pakistani line that no F-16s were used.

It would be pretty difficult for the Pakistanis to hide their own loss of aircraft. In both the IAF helicopter crash and the IAF Mig-21 loss, the first news that emerged was from local residents posting images and videos of the incidents online. There’s videos circulating of locals apprehending the IAF pilot and beating him, with Pak army personnel coming to his rescue, and likewise there’s videos made by local residents in Indian occupied Kashmir of the IAF helicopter loss. These are the only accounts we have. If the PAF had lost an aircraft, there would have been similar sources online, not much the Pakistanis could have done to stop that, but there aren’t. Even in the Balakot incident, media crews and locals were the first to be on the scene of the alleged strike area. In this age of information and online content, it’s quite difficult to hide anything. Perhaps 20-30 years ago, but not now.

USAF in Pakistan for air exercise Falcon Talon

I like how the side bay doors close even with the SRAAM deployed, very neat. Although the side bays seem they could hold more than 1 ASRAAM ?

So much for the idea that the Chinese acquired the Su-35 only for its TVC capability.

That’s not going to do its RCS any good, no integrated EOTS like the F-35?