Seven Days After Lockheed Pitches Delhi the New F-16, India Shoots One Down Over Kashmir with Vietnam War Era MiG-21

Exactly one week after the Lockheed Martin Corporation, the world’s biggest defence contractor, unveiled the F-21 single engine light multirole fighter - a modernised F-16 Fighting Falcon - India’s Air Force has reported shooting down a Pakistani F-16C amid escalating tensions between the two countries. The American contractor has pitched the F-16, as the F-21, in a bid to win a $15 billion contract to manufacture over 100 aircraft for the Indian Air Force - where it will go up against some of the world’s most capable light and medium weight fighters - facing extremely tough competition particularly from the Boeing F-18E Block 3 Super Hornet and Mikoyan MiG-35. While the F-21’s prospects for being selected already looked somewhat slim in light of the advanced capabilities of its competitors, India’s historical experience with the F-16s in the Pakistani fleet - compounded by its recent claims to have downed a Pakistani Fighting Falcon - make acquisition of the platform far less likely.

Pakistani Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon

Pakistan has yet to confirm losing an F-16. Indeed, given that there is currently no evidence that Pakistani Fighting Flacons were even deployed for operations near the border, with the country’s Air Force instead deploying and relying on the (semi) indigenous JF-17 Block 2 for combat operations. The F-16C deployed by Pakistan is in many ways less capable than the F-21 variant - the latter being a derivative of the '4+ generation' F-16E with additional weapons hardpoints and a new AESA radar among other serious enhancements. The F-16C is nevertheless considered an advanced modern variant of the Fighting Falcon, currently by far the most widely operated, and reports of its vulnerability to Indian MiG-21s reflect poorly on all variants including the F-21. Should Indian claims be true regarding the shootdown, they are likely to shift Delhi’s calculus further against acquisition of the F-21 - possibly in favour of a more advanced MiG fighter such as the MiG-35, which Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation has pitched on highly favourable terms.