India is exaggerating propaganda, and Pakistan is no different.

In fact, the bombing that night did not destroy many Indian fighters, because there were enough fortified aircraft forts at the Indian air base near the border area, and the advanced fighters must have been parked in the forts, while the open air was either false targets or backward combat aircraft.

Obviously, it is basically useless to use submunitions against fortified forts.

Even according to the minimum design standards, the fort can resist large-caliber shells, while the average fort can withstand a direct attack from 500-pound, or 250-kilogram bombs, so only a direct hit of a 500-kilogram bomb can destroy the fighters in the fort.

Constrained by the number of combat aircraft, as well as by the bomb-carrying capacity of fighter aircraft, it is clear that the Pakistan Air Force cannot use bombs to attack fortified forts.

According to the information released by the Indian Air Force, less than 20 fighters were lost that night, all of which were fighters such as the Mig-21 that were about to be retired.

In fact, these fighters have already been decommissioned, but they have not yet had time to deal with them.

Because there is no place to put it, many of the Indian Air Force's retired fighter jets are placed at front-line airfields, and some directly serve as false targets.

Comparatively speaking, the bombing of airfield infrastructure is more effective.

Fuel and ammunition depots at at least five Indian air bases were bombed that night, and at least three large ammunition depots were destroyed.

The violent explosion could be seen from dozens of kilometers away, and there was no way to hide it.

In addition, several large fuel depots were blown up.

Tens of thousands of tons of fuel burned for days at an Indian air base at an Indian air base more than 300 kilometers north of Mumbai.

It can be said that the loss of fuel and ammunition has had a greater impact on the Indian Air Force.

Although fuel is not valuable, even if 10,000 tons of aviation kerosene is more than 10 million US dollars, and it will take about 100,000 tons of fuel to withstand an advanced fighter, but India's fuel stocks are not much, and its strategic oil reserves are only 60 days, which is far below the safety level.

As for ammunition, it's even more so.

Although before the outbreak of the war, India made great efforts to raise the level of ammunition stockpiles, from less than three months a few years ago to about half a year, for a large-scale war, half a year's ammunition reserves are still far from sufficient.

Most of them are ordinary ammunition such as artillery shells and iron-hulled bombs.

In terms of precision-guided munitions, especially advanced ammunition, India's reserves can be said to be pitifully small.

Why?

Because India's advanced ammunition has to be imported, none of them can be produced on its own, and advanced missiles such as the AIM-120D cannot even be assembled domestically.

How many can be imported by imports?

Take, for example, medium-range air-to-air missiles.

Before the outbreak of the war, India purchased AIM-120D from the United States through the introduction of F-35AI fighters, and the number is not much, less than 400 in total, and an average F-35AI can get 12, which is only enough to meet 3 high-intensity air supremacy operations.

Is 3 fights too much?

Apparently not much!

In the first two days of fighting, the Indian Air Force's F-35AI flew 14 sorties, flew four rounds of air supremacy, and used up 54 AIM-120Ds.

The result?

Shot down less than 10 fighters of the Pakistan Air Force.

According to this ratio, even if the AIM-120D is used up, it will only be able to shoot down about 60 Pakistani fighters.

In addition, if it continues to be fought at this intensity, the AIM-120D in the inventory of the Indian Air Force will be used up in half a month.

Can the Indian Air Force crush the Pakistani Air Force in half a month?

The situation is slightly better for the AIM-120A, and at the time of the introduction of the production line for the F-16E / F, India purchased an assembly line for the AIM-120A.

By the time the war broke out, the Indian Air Force had about 1,000 AIM-120A in stock.

Nominally, this missile has already achieved domestic production.

In fact, core equipment, including seekers and data transmitters, still needs to be imported from the United States, and the price is not cheap at all.

Obviously, if the United States closes the export channel, India will not be able to produce AIM-120A.

Comparatively, AIM-9X has the largest reserves.

At that time, the Indian Air Force had at least 1200 AIM-9Xs in stock.

The problem is that previous battles have proven that air combat has entered the era of over-the-horizon, and combat missiles like the AIM-9X are almost useless.

After two days of fighting, the fighters of both sides also engaged in a melee air battle.

More than 80 percent of the gains achieved by the two sides were medium-range air-to-air missiles, while combat missiles shot down less than 20 percent of targets.

In fact, fighters on both sides are trying to avoid dogfights.

This is true of American missiles, and so are Russian missiles.

The Indian Air Force has been procuring advanced air-to-air missiles such as the R-77D and R-73 from Russia because of the large purchase of the Su-30MKI.

It is a pity that Russia does not have a production line for the sale of missiles and does not even allow India to assemble them.

Before the war, India had up to 2,000 R-77Ds in stock.

It looks like a lot, but is it actually a lot?

Obviously not enough.

Why?

The Indian Air Force has more than 300 Su-30MKI, and on average, one is less than 8, while the Su-30MKI can carry up to 10 R-77Ds when performing air supremacy tasks, and generally 8 will be hung, that is, the reserve level, which has not yet reached a sortie wave.

In addition, the performance of the R-77D is really not very good.

In two days of fighting, the Indian Air Force used up about 200 R-77Ds and shot down only 21 Pakistani fighters, and on average, it would take close to 10 R-77Ds to shoot down one.

Judging by the shoot-down ratio, the R-77D is about half of the AIM-120D, and slightly worse than the AIM-120A.

As for the R-73, not only is it poor, but it is also almost unusable, because the pilots of the Su-30MKI will try to avoid fighting with the JF-20.

The smallest reserves are actually French missiles.

At the beginning, when purchasing the Rafale, the Indian Air Force purchased more than 700 Mika, and an average of 20 Rafale could be distributed.

The problem is, half of these "Mika" are fighting types!

In addition, the "Mika" was used by the "Mika" 2000.

In other words, on average, each Rafale can be assigned only a few medium-range "Mika".

Of course, the performance of "Mika" is also the worst.

Because when it was designed, it was necessary to achieve dual-use use of one bomb and take into account the high mobility requirements of combat missiles, so the overall mass of the "Mika" was severely limited, and it became the lightest medium-range missile in the world, and the result was that the range was also the shortest.

Strictly speaking, "Mika" is not even a medium-range missile.

Why?

Its range of 40 kilometers is not even comparable to some combat missiles with a slightly longer range.

You must know that Israel's "Strange Snake 6" combat missile has a range of more than 40 kilometers, while the combat missile jointly developed by Europe also has a range of 40 kilometers, the AIM-9X light combat missile has a range of 30 kilometers, and Huaxia's PL-10 has a range of 40 kilometers.

In fact, this is one of the main reasons why the Rafale has not participated in the battle.