No Rafale Jets Lost in Operation Sindoor: French Expert Debunks Pakistani Claims
In the aftermath of India's "Operation Sindoor" on May 7, 2025, Pakistan's military and media were quick to claim victory, asserting that they had shot down several Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft, including advanced Rafale fighter jets. The operation, aimed at targeting terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), was a response to a deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, on April 22, 2025.
Pakistani military spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif Chaudhary, flanked by Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, confidently announced that Pakistan Air Force (PAF) had downed three Rafale jets, one MiG-29, one Su-30MKI, and an Israeli-made Heron drone. According to Pakistan, these were downed using Chinese-made Chengdu J-10C fighter jets equipped with PL-15E air-to-air missiles.
Social media lit up with images claiming to show Rafale debris from Wuyan village in Jammu and Kashmir, bearing the markings "Le Bozec et Gautier" and the acronym "RFL," which was hastily interpreted as a reference to Rafale. Another photograph from Bathinda, Punjab, supposedly showed wreckage with serial number BS-001, allegedly from India's first Rafale aircraft. These claims briefly found traction in international media, including reports from outlets like CNN and The Washington Post.
However, these allegations quickly started to unravel when experts began scrutinizing the supposed evidence. A French aerospace expert, supported by India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) and other defense analysts, cast doubt on Pakistan's assertions. A thorough technical examination revealed that the so-called Rafale debris from Wuyan was, in fact, an external fuel tank, not proof of a downed aircraft.
The tank bore the acronym "RPL," which actually stands for "réservoir pendulaire largable" (jettisonable external tank) and not "RFL." Even more telling was the manufacturing date on the tank—December 1984—predating the Rafale program itself, as the first Rafale flight occurred in July 1986. This timeline clearly indicated that the tank belonged to a Mirage 2000, another French-manufactured aircraft used by the IAF since the 1980s.
Experts clarified that the drop tank was likely jettisoned during a mission, a routine procedure when a fighter jet needs to lighten its load. Trevor Ball, an associate researcher at Armament Research Services, corroborated this analysis, stating that while the Wuyan debris could belong to a Mirage 2000 or Rafale, it did not conclusively prove that any aircraft had been shot down.
India's PIB also debunked other pieces of so-called evidence. An image purportedly showing a downed Rafale near Bahawalpur was identified as a 2021 photograph from an IAF MiG-21 crash in Moga, Punjab. Another image claimed to depict a burning Rafale was traced back to a MiG-29 crash in Rajasthan in 2024. Additionally, a video said to show a PAF attack on Srinagar Airbase was actually from sectarian violence in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.
Despite Pakistan's bold announcements, the lack of verifiable proof, such as clear crash site images or identifiable wreckage, has led defense experts to dismiss the claims as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign. Moreover, the Rafale jets, being 4.5-generation multirole fighters equipped with cutting-edge electronic warfare systems, are considered highly resilient. The idea that three such jets could be downed by J-10Cs using PL-15E missiles has met with widespread skepticism.
While the Indian government has not officially confirmed or denied any aircraft losses, the swift and detailed refutation of Pakistan's claims through technical analysis and fact-checking suggests confidence that no Rafale jets were lost during the operation. Some analysts have pointed out that initial Western media reports on Rafale losses could have been driven by commercial interests, subtly promoting U.S.-made aircraft like the F-35 in India’s ongoing Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft (MRFA) procurement program.
As it stands, the expert evaluations and lack of concrete proof indicate that Pakistan's claims of shooting down Rafale jets are baseless, and the debris presented is most likely from a Mirage 2000's drop tank rather than a downed fighter jet. The narrative, once hyped by Pakistan and some international media, now stands largely discredited.
