"Operation Sindoor": The "White Lie" That Ensured a Decisive IAF Strike on Pakistan’s Bholari Airbase
NEW DELHI, India – In a dramatic revelation shedding light on the high-stakes world of aerial warfare, former Indian Air Force (IAF) Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor has recounted how a strategically timed "white lie" to his superior ensured the successful execution of a critical mission during "Operation Sindoor" on May 10, 2025. The operation saw India unleash a powerful offensive against Pakistani air bases, culminating in a precision strike on the heavily fortified Bholari Airbase.
The target was audacious: a seemingly inconspicuous hangar at Bholari, located 520 kilometers north of Gandhinagar, the headquarters of the crucial South Western Air Command (SWAC). Intelligence suggested this hangar housed Pakistan Air Force’s most potent Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft, a Swedish-built SAAB Erieye – a strategic asset whose destruction would significantly cripple Pakistan’s aerial surveillance capabilities.
On that fateful morning, Air Marshal Kapoor, then commanding SWAC, found himself in a tense standoff. A group of highly trained IAF pilots sat poised in the cockpits of their Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter jets – the backbone of the IAF – at one of SWAC’s frontline bases. These bases, including Bhuj, Jaisalmer, Phalodi, Naliya, Jamnagar, Jodhpur, Uttarlai/Barmer, and Pune, had been operating under intense pressure as "Operation Sindoor" escalated, with India striking Pakistani air bases "extremely hard."
Each pilot had trained for years for such a moment. Weapons were loaded, aircraft fueled to the last drop, and every pre-flight checklist meticulously completed, knowing that any error could have catastrophic consequences. The mission was "all systems go."
Then, the phone rang. It was the Air Chief, Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh. The call sparked immediate anxiety – was the mission going to be aborted? Would these pilots, whose careers had converged on this single, pivotal moment, be ordered to stand down?
Air Marshal Kapoor, however, was resolute. "There was no way his pilots would be denied a chance at carrying out their mission," he stated unequivocally during an interview on NDTV’s podcast, #CtrlAltDefence.
Recounting the dramatic exchange, Kapoor revealed the ingenious deception: "I had to, kind of, not tell him the truth. I won’t say I lied to him – I didn’t tell him the truth. And this is knowing fully well that he was seeing the same picture that I was seeing in my Ops room. He was seeing the same picture sitting at Air Headquarters Ops Centre. He asked me, ‘Position of those aircraft?’ I said, ‘Sir, getting airborne now.’ I knew for a fact that they were not going to get airborne for the next 15 minutes. So I lied to him inasmuch as time was concerned."
The chosen weapon for this critical strike was the air-launched version of the BrahMos missile, a Mach 3 air-to-surface missile with a formidable 300-kilogram warhead, known for its precision and destructive power.
The tension on the tarmac was palpable. In the cockpits, hushed, practiced communications exchanged between pilots and weapons systems operators betrayed nothing of the immense pressure, even as every man’s pulse surely raced. Canopies were down, and systems were live.
Later, the Air Chief inquired again, "Where are they now?" Air Marshal Kapoor’s response was another calculated ambiguity: "I said, ‘Half an hour from weapon launch.’ I knew they were not there [yet]. But I had to let them go. Those pilots had been waiting with those weapons suspended for such a long time. It would have been criminal for me not to have let them go."
The gamble paid off. The mission was greenlit. The Sukhois roared down the runway, ascending towards their launch zone. Onboard, weapons were calibrated, while air search radars scanned for potential threats from Pakistani Air Force fighters. Radar Warning Receivers in the cockpits would chirp to alert pilots to any enemy radar lock-ons.
"Finally, when the weapon launched, I told him, ‘Sir, all gone, all aircraft returning.’ He told me, ‘Tell me when they land,’" Air Marshal Kapoor concluded.
The strike was an overwhelming success, etching itself as perhaps the defining image of the IAF’s offensive on May 10. Subsequent satellite imagery, exclusively broadcast by NDTV, confirmed the devastating accuracy of the attack. The images revealed a large, irregular hole punched directly through the roof of the targeted hangar at Bholari, exposing a dark, collapsed interior. Debris was scattered widely across the apron between the hangar and the runway, indicating the immense force of the blast that ejected material outwards. The strike’s precision, localized to a single structure, underscored the IAF’s capability for targeted and effective air power projection.
The truth of the "white lie" was eventually revealed much later, during a luncheon with the then Honourable Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister) Rajnath Singh, where Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh was also present. "That is when I told him – in front of the Honourable Raksha Mantri – I said, ‘Sir, I lied to you.’"
Air Chief Marshal Singh, with a knowing smile, simply replied, "Mujhe pata hai" ("Yes, I know.") This anecdote highlights not only the ingenuity and courage of IAF leadership but also the implicit trust and understanding that can exist between senior commanders in critical wartime situations, even when operating on the fringes of standard protocol. The incident underscores the immense pressure and strategic thinking involved in modern aerial combat and the often unconventional methods employed to ensure mission success.
For more details on this remarkable account, you can read the original report from NDTV.
