Indian Navy Officer Admits Loss Of Rafale, Su-30MKI & MiG-29 Jets During Operation Sindoor? Here’s The Truth Behind The Viral Claim

Indian defence attaché Captain Shiv Kumar, a colonel-rank Navy officer currently with the embassy in Indonesia, recently found himself in the spotlight after reportedly revealing during a seminar in Jakarta last month that the Indian Air Force had lost “some” jets during its precision military strikes under Operation Sindoor. Some social media users claimed that Captain Kumar admitted that the IAF lost three Rafales, one Su-30MKI, and one MiG-29 during the May 7, 2025, strikes on Pakistani terror hubs, while sharing a screengrab of a news report.

The news report, purportedly published by digital news platform The Asia Live on June 29, 2025, stated, as seen in the screengrab, that, “More startling was the material presented alongside Kumar’s 35-minute address. Presentation slides displayed during the seminar reportedly confirmed the loss of three Rafale fighters, one Su-30MKI, and one MiG-29-a devastating blow for any modern air force, let alone one which touts technological superiority over its rivals.”

Fact Check

Newschecker came across multiple news reports by leading media outlets, seen here, here, and here, on Captain Shiv Kumar’s comments during a seminar earlier in June, which prompted a clarification from the Indian embassy that his remarks were being “quoted out of context”. According to the reports, Captain Kumar was speaking at a June 10 seminar on “Analysis of the Pakistan-India Air Battle and Indonesia’s Anticipatory Strategies from the Perspective of Air Power,” organised by the Universitas Dirgantara Marsekal Suryadarma in Indonesia.

“I may not agree with him [an earlier Indonesian speaker’s claim] that India lost so many aircraft. But, I do agree that we did lose some aircraft and that happened only because of the constraint given by the political leadership to not attack the military establishments and their air defences,” he had reportedly said during his 35-minute presentation made at the seminar.

“During a presentation on June 10, India’s defence attaché to Indonesia, Captain (Indian Navy) Shiv Kumar stated that the Indian Air Force lost “some aircraft” after it struck terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor,” read a Hindustan Times report, dated June 30, 2025.

None of these reports, however, stated that Captain Kumar specified the numbers or types of aircraft downed or crashed, contradicting the viral claim.

A further search led us to the 05:48:45-hour seminar, which was streamed live by the Universitas Dirgantara Marsekal Suryadarma on June 10, 2025.

Captain Kumar’s presentation starts from the 03:15:16 mark, and at 03:50:10, the Navy officer refutes an earlier speaker’s claim that India lost many aircraft. However, Captain Kumar said he did agree that they lost “some aircraft” but that happened only because of the then government constraint to not attack military installations and the air defences. The captain further went on to state that after this loss, the armed forces changed their tactics, where they went for the military installations. We also went through Captain Kumar’s presentation at the seminar, all 59 slides of which can be seen here.

At no point did he specify aircraft such as Rafales, Su-30MKI, or MiG-29 being lost during the May 7 strikes nor did any of the slides state as such, which further disproves the Asia Live report’s claim that presentation slides displayed during the seminar confirmed the loss of three Rafale fighters, one Su-30MKI, and one MiG-29.

We learnt that the earlier speaker, whose claims were refuted by Captain Kumar, was Tommy Tamtomo, an Indonesian defence expert and vice-chairman, Indonesia Centre for Air Power Studies. “India lost a lot, but Pakistan also lost a lot. Maybe more than India,” he said at the seminar (02:40:28 mark), while sharing a slide that stated India lost three Rafale fighters, one Su-30MKI, and one MiG-29 (five fighter jets in total).

Interestingly, while stating Pakistan lost six fighter jets, he said the information was corroborated by both “Pakistani claims and independent sources, including satellite imagery and statements from military officials,” citing Reddit, Wikipedia, and India Today. His slide summarising India’s losses did not attribute the figures to any source.

UPDATE ON 02/07/2025:

Newschecker reached out to the Kathmandu-based The Asia Live on email to clarify whether its report was referring to Tamtomo’s analysis of the India-Pakistan May 2025 conflict, when stating that “Presentation slides displayed during the seminar reportedly confirmed the loss of three Rafale fighters, one Su-30MKI, and one MiG-29.”   We pointed out that we could not find any such number or information during Captain Kumar’s speech.

The Asia Live responded to Newschecker’s email, saying: “We have done our best to present this news truthfully and accurately, including the information shared during the seminar presentation. Our intention has always been to deliver reliable and balanced reporting. The news you are now reporting seems to reflect and affirm the same statements and conclusions….”. However, their response did not clarify whether the report was referring to Tamtomo’s or Captain Kumar’s presentation.

It is clear that the misleading wording of the article has resulted in the confusion, triggering the claim that the Indian defence attaché to Indonesia confirmed the loss of the said aircraft.

UPDATE ON 02/07/2025:

Meanwhile, The Asia Live, in another response on email, said that it has reposted the news in an article uploaded on July 1, 2025, for “better clarity and wider reach”.

However, Newschecker noticed that the older article, with the misleading paragraph, was still up on the website’s homepage, while the new report also has ambiguous wording, implying that Captain Shiv Kumar admitted the loss of Rafale jets. The new report, too, did not carry Captain Kumar’s clarification regarding Tomtamo’s claim of downed Rafale, Su-30MKI, and MiG-29 jets.

Also Read: Video Of Man Being Assaulted For Blasphemy In Bangladesh Shared With False Communal Spin

Sources
Financial Express report, June 30, 2025
Hindustan Times report, June 30, 2025
The Wire report, June 29, 2025
Youtube video, Universitas Dirgantara Marsekal Suryadarma, June 10, 2025