‘No Rafale shot down in combat, India lost one to technical malfunction, probe on’: Dassault CEO
New Delhi: India has lost one Rafale fighter jet, but the incident, currently under probe, was due to a high-altitude technical failure and involved no enemy engagement, says a French report quoting Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO Éric Trappier.
The report appeared in a French website Avion De Chasse saying the incident occurred “at an altitude of over 12,000 metres during an extended training mission, with no enemy involvement or hostile radar contact”.
However, India has not made any official statement or assertions acknowledging the loss of a Rafale aircraft in non-hostile conditions.
Last month, India’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan, speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore had acknowledged that the IAF did suffer losses during Op Sindoor. However, he categorically denied Pakistan’s claim of downing six Indian jets, including Rafales, calling the assertion “absolutely incorrect”. In a separate interview with Reuters the same day, General Chauhan had further added, “We rectified tactics and then went back on 7th, 8th and 10th—on the 10th in large numbers—to hit airbases deep inside Pakistan. (We) penetrated all their air defences with impunity and carried out precision strikes.”
Separately, India’s Defence Attaché to Indonesia, Navy Captain Shiv Kumar, also acknowledged “some” losses during Operation Sindoor. Speaking at a seminar in Indonesia, he was responding to a previous speaker who had cited Pakistan’s claim that multiple Indian fighters, including three Rafales, were shot down. “I may not agree with him 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,” Capt. Kumar said, referring to directives that restricted Indian military to targeting only terror camps.
Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO Éric Trappier had earlier rejected Pakistan’s claim of shooting down three Rafale jets during Operation Sindoor, calling the allegations “inaccurate and unfounded”.
Refuting Pakistan’s claims of downing six fighter aircraft, he had said then that, “the Indians haven’t communicated, so we don’t know exactly what happened. What we already know is that what the Pakistanis are saying, three Rafales destroyed is inaccurate.”
In the French report published 25 June, Trappier, ahead of the Paris Air Show, had spoken from a technical angle to “firmly reject any suggestion of operational failure.”
He, according to the report, said that the Rafale’s SPECTRA electronic warfare suite had detected no signs of hostile engagement at the time. Adding that, data from friend-or-foe systems and flight logs shared with Dassault supported the conclusion that there were no combat-related losses.
Trappier had further framed the Pakistani claims as part of a broader disinformation strategy aimed at undermining the credibility of the Rafale fighter, especially as it competes in several ongoing international tenders, including in Colombia, Serbia and Malaysia. He noted that Dassault has never concealed operational losses, citing detailed public reporting from French military campaigns in the Sahel.
French intelligence officials further suspect that China played a key role in fueling skepticism around the Rafale’s combat performance following Operation Sindoor. According to findings reported by the Associated Press on Sunday, classified intelligence assessments suggest that Chinese defence attachés actively lobbied foreign governments, especially Indonesia, urging them to reconsider additional Rafale purchases and instead opt for Chinese-made fighter aircraft. French military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, believe this effort was part of a broader strategy to undermine Rafale’s export prospects.
