A top Indian Air Force official on Monday defended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent assertion that a rainy day was a better pick for Balakot strikes as the clouds could help fighter jets evade detection by Pakistani radars during the operation.
"That is true up to some effect that very strong clouds and very strong convective conditions in clouds prevent the radar from detecting very accurately,” News Agency ANI quoted Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, Raghunath Nambiar as saying.
Earlier, PM Modi in an interview to a TV channel said that cloud cover likely helped the Indian fighter jets to prevent the Pakistani radars from detecting them. PM Modi was talking about the Balakot airstrikes India carried out in Pakistan in the month of February.
"The weather suddenly turned bad, there were clouds... heavy rain. There was a doubt about whether we can go in the clouds. During a review (of the Balakot plan), by and large, the opinion of experts was - what if we change the date. I had two issues in mind. One was secrecy. Second, I said I am not someone who knows the science. I said there is so much cloud and rain. There is a benefit. I have raw wisdom, the clouds can benefit us too. We can escape the radar. Everyone was confused. Ultimately I said there are clouds... let's proceed.”
Army Chief General Bipin Rawat had also defended PM Modi’s remarks.
"There are various kinds of radars working with different technologies. Some have the capacity to see through, some don't have the capacity to see through. Some kinds of radar cannot see through clouds because of the manner in which it is operating. Sometimes we can, sometimes we can't," Rawat had reportedly said.
Twelve Mirage 2000s had crossed over to Pakistan on February and attacked a JeM terrorist training camp in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to avenge the deadly Pulwama attack in which 44 CRPF personnel were killed.
(With ANI inputs)
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