Every war the Pakistan Air Force has fought
Pakistan and India fought in 1947–1948, 1965, 1971, 1999, 2019 and May 2025, and for each clash the two sides’ loss and kill claims differ: they are given here as each side’s claims, attributed, with independent estimates where they exist, and neither side’s figures are adopted. Kashmir is disputed and administered in parts by India, Pakistan and China. Casualty figures from the PAF’s strikes in Afghanistan since 2022 are also disputed between Pakistan and the Taliban and are attributed. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the first Kashmir war of 1947–1948 to air strikes in Afghanistan today.
| Konflikt | Roky | Proti | Hlavní letadlo | Výpady | Ztráta letadla | |
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| Indo-Pakistani war of 1947–1948the first Kashmir warRoyal Pakistan Air Force | 1947–1948 | Indie | C-47 Dakota | — | — | |
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Flew transport and supply missions, including night supply drops at Skardu. The RPAF was weeks old when fighting began in Kashmir, and its main contribution was logistic. Wikipedia’s account says it used eight C-47 Dakotas to carry supplies to troops fighting in the territory, among them night supply drops to the besieged area around Skardu in Baltistan. The Tempests and Furies that made up its combat strength were not, in the sources checked, recorded in air combat with the Indian Air Force during this war. The details of sorties and losses were not found. Výsledek A UN-brokered ceasefire took effect on 1 January 1949, leaving Kashmir divided along a ceasefire line. Only a short Wikipedia account was checked; operational detail is thin and no official Pakistani figures were reached. The ceasefire date is general knowledge and was not checked on a separate source. |
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| Afghan border operationsMughalgai 1949 and Bajaur 1960–61Royal Pakistan Air Force / Pakistan Air Force | 1949–1961 | Afghan forces and tribal lashkars | Hawker Fury, F-86 Sabre | — | — | |
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Bombed across the border in 1949 and supported ground operations against Afghan-backed infiltrators in Bajaur in 1960–61. Wikipedia records that in June 1949 the PAF inadvertently bombed the Afghan village of Mughalgai, a raid that Afghanistan protested. A decade later, in the 1960–61 Bajaur campaign, PAF F-86 Sabres supported operations against infiltrators from Afghanistan; the PAF claims to have had complete air superiority. These were small operations, but they began a pattern of Pakistani air action on its western border that runs to the air campaigns of 2025 and 2026. Výsledek Pakistan retained control of Bajaur. Afghan accounts of these events were not checked; the claim of air superiority is the PAF’s own. The Afghan protest in 1949 is summarised from Wikipedia’s account.
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| Indo-Pakistani war of 1965the September warPakistan Air Force | 1965 | Indie | F-86F Sabre, F-104A Starfighter, B-57B Canberraa 1 další | — | — | |
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Struck Indian airfields, defended Sargodha and other bases, and supported the army; B-57s bombed at night. The air war began on 1 September over Chhamb and widened on 6 September. That evening the PAF struck Pathankot, Adampur and Halwara; Wikipedia’s account says almost ten Indian aircraft were destroyed at Pathankot while the other two raids failed, and a commando drop on Indian airfields the next night largely ended in capture. On 7 September the IAF mounted 33 sorties against Sargodha, and the PAF credited Squadron Leader M. M. Alam with five Hunters in less than a minute; Indian records show the pilots named flew on separate missions, and Air Commodore Sajad Haider called the claim tactically very difficult. F-104 pilots claimed Mystères and Canberras, the first of which India disputes. Each side’s totals were several times the losses the other admitted, which is why the independent range is the only safe summary. Výsledek A ceasefire on 23 September 1965 ended the fighting. Every kill and loss figure here is a claim of one side or a secondary summary of independent estimates; no primary Indian or Pakistani official history was reached. German Wikipedia counts about 120 Sabres at the start; the English page says about 100.
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| Arab–Israeli wars (PAF pilots on secondment)Jordan and Iraq 1967, Syria 1974Pakistan Air Force pilots seconded to Arab air forces | 1967–1974 | Izrael | Hawker Hunter (Jordanian and Iraqi), MiG-21F-13 (Syrian) | — | 0 | |
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Individual PAF pilots flew Jordanian, Iraqi and Syrian aircraft as advisers and volunteers; the PAF did not deploy as a force. Flight Lieutenant Saiful Azam, sent to Jordan as an adviser in November 1966, is credited in Pakistani sources with an Israeli Mystère while flying a Jordanian Hunter in June 1967 and, after moving to an Iraqi base, with a Vautour and a Mirage in an Iraqi Hunter. He later joined the Bangladesh Air Force. In 1973 Pakistani volunteers went to support Egypt and Syria but arrived after the Egyptian ceasefire; on 26 April 1974, flying a Syrian MiG-21 from Dumayr, Flight Lieutenant Sattar Alvi is credited with shooting down an Israeli Mirage. Wikipedia’s own article on Alvi notes that no major contemporary source reported that incident. Výsledek Individual claims only; the wars were decided without a Pakistani force role. The victories are credited by Pakistani sources; Israeli records confirming them were not found in the sources checked, and the Alvi claim lacks contemporary corroboration.
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| Indo-Pakistani war of 1971and the Bangladesh Liberation WarPakistan Air Force | 1971 | India and Mukti Bahini | F-86E/F Sabre, F-6, Mirage IIIEPa 2 další | — | — | |
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Opened the western war with pre-emptive airfield strikes (Operation Chengiz Khan), defended bases and supported the army; one F-86 squadron defended East Pakistan. The PAF struck first, at about 17:35 on 3 December, against eight Indian airfields as far as Agra, but Wikipedia’s account says it flew too few aircraft to do significant damage. In the west it fought a defensive air war: B-57s bombed Indian airfields at night and at least five were put out of service, F-6 squadrons flew 945 sorties, and two F-104s were lost to Indian MiG-21s on 12 and 17 December. Wikipedia reports that France confirmed all Pakistani Mirages survived. In the east, No. 14 Squadron’s Sabres at Dhaka were put out of action and its commanding officer taken prisoner, leaving the eastern command without air cover. Months earlier, on 20 August, the Bengali instructor Matiur Rahman had tried to fly a T-33 to India; Pakistan honours Rashid Minhas, the student who fought him for the controls, and Bangladesh honours Rahman. Výsledek Pakistan’s Eastern Command surrendered at Dhaka on 16 December and a ceasefire took effect on 17 December; Bangladesh became independent. Aircraft totals are claims or secondary estimates; the Indian claim figure is left out because the sources checked did not state it clearly. The Bangladesh war’s wider human toll is outside this page and is not given.
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| Soviet–Afghan war border incidentsF-16s over the Durand LinePakistan Air Force | 1979–1988 | Soviet Union and Democratic Republic of Afghanistan | F-16A/B, Mirage III, F-6 | — | — | |
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Intercepted Soviet and Afghan government aircraft that crossed into Pakistan while attacking mujahideen bases and refugee areas. Pakistan was the rear base of the Afghan resistance, and Soviet and Afghan aircraft repeatedly crossed the border. The F-16s delivered from 1983 changed the balance: Wikipedia, citing Pakistani sources, says that between May 1986 and November 1988 PAF F-16s shot down at least eight intruding aircraft — three credited to No. 9 Squadron (a Su-22, a probable Su-22 and an An-26) and five to No. 14 Squadron (two Su-22s, two MiG-23s and a Su-25), mostly with Sidewinders. Flight Lieutenant Khalid Mahmoud is credited with three. The best-known was on 4 August 1988, when Squadron Leader Athar Bukhari shot down the Su-25 of Colonel Alexander Rutskoy, later Russia’s vice-president; Rutskoy was captured and, according to the historian Steve Coll, released after CIA intervention. Earlier Mirage claims against MiG-21s were never confirmed. Výsledek The incidents ended with the Soviet withdrawal under the Geneva Accords. The kill list is the PAF’s count as reported by Wikipedia; Soviet and Afghan government records were not checked, and a reported PAF F-16 loss in 1987 could not be verified and is left out.
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| Kargil WarOperation Safed Sagar on the Indian sidePakistan Air Force | 1999 | Indie | — | — | 0 | |
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Did not contest Indian air strikes across the Line of Control. The Kargil conflict was fought by the Pakistan Army and paramilitary forces on the heights above the Srinagar–Leh road. Wikipedia’s account says the Pakistani Air Force offered no opposition at all, leaving the Indian Air Force free to attack. India lost two jets on 27 May — a MiG-27 that India attributes to engine failure and Pakistan at first claimed to have shot down, and a MiG-21 downed by Pakistani army ground fire — and an Mi-17 to a Stinger on 28 May. A month after the war, on 10 August 1999, Indian fighters shot down a Pakistan Navy Atlantique near the border, an incident outside the PAF’s history. Výsledek The conflict ended with Pakistani forces withdrawing behind the Line of Control. Why the PAF stayed out, and how far it was consulted, is debated in Pakistani memoirs that were not checked here.
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| Counter-insurgency in the north-westSwat 2009, Zarb-e-Azb 2014–2017Pakistan Air Force | 2001–2017 | Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and allied militant groups | F-16, JF-17, Miragea 1 další | — | — | |
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Struck militant positions with F-16s, JF-17s and others, and flew surveillance with a modified C-130; its bases were attacked in turn. The PAF’s war after 2001 was fought over its own territory. In the 2009 Swat campaign it developed a counter-terrorism doctrine, adapted a C-130 for day and night surveillance and, by Wikipedia’s account, used precision weapons for about 80 per cent of its deliveries. When Operation Zarb-e-Azb began on 15 June 2014 after the attack on Karachi airport, PAF jets hit eight hideouts in North Waziristan on the first day; ISPR reported 88 hideouts destroyed by mid-July and 2,763 militants killed by June 2015, figures that could not be independently checked because the area was closed to the media. The Taliban struck back at the air force itself, at Minhas in 2012 and at Camp Badaber in 2015, where attackers killed airmen at the base mosque during morning prayers. Výsledek Zarb-e-Azb ended on 22 February 2017; operations continued under other names. ISPR’s militant death tolls are unverified; civilian casualties of the air campaign were not established in the sources checked.
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| 2019 India–Pakistan border skirmishesOperation Swift RetortPakistan Air Force | 2019 | Indie | F-16, JF-17, Mirage | — | 0 | |
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Struck targets near Indian military installations in Indian-administered Kashmir on 27 February 2019 and engaged the Indian fighters that responded. On 26 February 2019 Indian jets struck near Balakot; India said it hit a Jaish-e-Mohammed camp and killed a very large number of militants, Pakistan said the bombs fell in empty areas, and satellite analyses by DFRLab, Planet Labs and ASPI found no significant damage. The next day the PAF struck, in Pakistan’s words, six open spaces near Indian military installations. In the air battle an Indian MiG-21 Bison was shot down; Wikipedia names Wing Commander Noman Ali Khan of the PAF as the F-16 pilot Pakistan credits. Abhinandan ejected near Horran, was captured, and was freed after Prime Minister Imran Khan announced his release as a gesture of peace. The IAF says he shot down an F-16 before he was hit and awarded him the Vir Chakra; two senior US officials told Foreign Policy that a count found every Pakistani F-16 present. Pakistan also claimed a second Indian jet, which India denies. Výsledek Pakistan returned Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman at Wagah on 1 March 2019 and the crisis subsided. The F-16 claim remains disputed between the two governments. The second-jet claim is Pakistan’s alone.
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| Iran–Pakistan border strikesOperation Marg Bar SarmacharPakistan Air Force | 2024 | Balochistan Liberation Army and Front (as stated by Pakistan) | Not stated | — | — | |
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Retaliatory air and drone strikes on seven locations near Saravan on 18 January 2024, two days after Iranian missile strikes in Balochistan. On 16 January 2024 Iran fired missiles at what it called Jaish ul-Adl militants in Pakistani Balochistan; Pakistan called it an unprovoked violation of its airspace and said two children were killed. On 18 January the Pakistan Air Force, with drones and artillery, struck seven targets near Saravan in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province; Pakistan said it hit Baloch separatist groups sheltering in Iran. It was one of the rare Pakistani air strikes on another state’s territory, and it was over within days: Iran’s foreign minister visited Islamabad on 29 January. Výsledek Both governments agreed to de-escalate on 19 January 2024 and restored ambassadors. Target identity and casualty figures are each government’s own.
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| 2025 India–Pakistan conflictOperation Bunyan-um-Marsoos (Pakistan) and Operation Sindoor (India)Pakistan Air Force | 2025 | Indie | J-10CE, JF-17 Block III, F-16a 2 další | — | — | |
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Fought Indian strike packages on 7 May, then took part in retaliatory strikes on Indian bases; its own bases were struck by Indian missiles on 10 May. After a militant attack at Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, India struck targets in Pakistan early on 7 May. Wikipedia describes the air battle that night, with 72 Indian and 42 Pakistani aircraft, as the largest beyond-visual-range engagement on the border. Pakistan said its fighters, led by J-10CEs with PL-15 missiles, shot down six Indian aircraft; Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif later gave four Rafales, a MiG-29 and another aircraft. India’s air operations director said losses are a part of combat, and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Anil Chauhan, accepted on 31 May that India had lost jets while rejecting Pakistan’s count. On 10 May India fired missiles at Nur Khan, Rafiqui, Murid, Sukkur, Sialkot, Chunian, Mushaf, Skardu, Jacobabad, Bholari and other sites; reports cited on Wikipedia describe damage to a transport-wing operations room and a C-130 at Nur Khan, a hangar at Bholari and a runway crater at Mushaf. Pakistan says its strikes hit Indian bases and S-400 batteries, which India denies. Výsledek A ceasefire took effect at 16:30 PKT on 10 May 2025; US President Trump announced it, a role India later rejected. Both governments’ figures remain unverified; AirForces Monthly called India’s August claim unsupported by evidence. No Indian or Pakistani official page could be reached directly; statements are as reported on Wikipedia.
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| Air strikes in AfghanistanOperation Khyber Storm and Operation Ghazab lil-HaqPakistan Air Force | 2022– | Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban; not recognised by most states) | Not stated in the sources checked | — | — | |
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Struck what Pakistan calls TTP and, from 2026, Afghan Taliban military targets inside Afghanistan. Pakistan says the Taliban government shelters the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), which the Taliban deny. The PAF struck Khost and Kunar in April 2022, Khost and Paktika on 18 March 2024 (the Taliban said five women and three children died) and Barmal in Paktika on 25 December 2024 (Pakistan said 20–25 militants; the Taliban said 46 people, mostly women and children). On 9 October 2025 Operation Khyber Storm hit Kabul, targeting the TTP leader Noor Wali Mehsud, who survived; a Doha ceasefire followed on 19 October. On 21 February 2026 Pakistan opened Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, striking corps and brigade headquarters, Kandahar, Kabul and Bagram. On 16 March a strike hit the Omid addiction treatment hospital in Kabul; the Taliban reported more than 200 dead and called it a crime against humanity, while Pakistan said it targeted only military installations. Výsledek Continuing; the Doha ceasefire of 19 October 2025 did not hold and no settlement had been reached by the latest sources checked. All casualty and damage figures are claims of one side, except the UNAMA count; operation names and figures are as reported on Wikipedia.
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Nic neodpovídá tomuto vyhledávání.
Každé číslo, zkontrolované
- Foreign Policy: Did India Shoot Down a Pakistani Jet? U.S. Count Says No (4 April 2019)Two senior US defence officials: all Pakistani F-16s present and accounted for after a US count.
Figures verified 2026-09-30. Back to the Pakistan Air Force.