Indo-Pakistani Aerial War of 1965 | |||||||
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Part of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Indian Air Force |
Pakistan Air Force |
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
ACM Arjan Singh | AM Noor Khan | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Neutral claims
Indian claims
Pakistani claims
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Neutral claims
Pakistani claims
Indian claims
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Neutral claims
Indian claims
Pakistani claims
Neutral claims
Pakistani claims
Indian claims
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 saw the Indian and Pakistani Air Forces engaged in large-scale aerial combat against each other for the first time since the Partition of India in 1947. The war took place during the course of September 1965 and saw both air forces conduct defensive and offensive operations over Indian and Pakistani airspace. The aerial war saw both sides conducting thousands of sorties in a single month. Both sides claimed victory in the air war; Pakistan claimed to have destroyed 104 enemy aircraft against its own losses of 19, while India claimed to have destroyed 73 enemy aircraft and lost 35 of its own. Despite the intense fighting, the conflict was effectively a stalemate.
The war began in early August 1965 and initially the fighting was confined mainly to the ground. Later, however, as the war progressed, the war took on another dimension as the two sides began air operations against each other. Although the two forces had previously taken part in the First Kashmir War which had occurred shortly after the Partition of India in 1947, that engagement had been limited in scale compared to the 1965 conflict and the air operations that both sides had undertaken were limited and largely confined to interdiction and other strategic purposes such as re-supply and troop transport operations. Although there had been one incident where Indian fighter aircraft intercepted a Pakistani transport, there had been no significant air-to-air combat. During the 1965 conflict, however, the PAF flew a total 2,364 sorties while the IAF flew 3,937 sorties.