Fact Check: Air Chief says two S-400 batteries lost in Operation Sindoor? No, video is AI-manipulated

Hyderabad: A video claiming to show the Indian Air Force (IAF) Chief blaming India Air Defence officers for the loss of S-400 systems during Operation Sindoor is going viral on social media.

In the viral video, we can see Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh speaking to the camera. He is heard saying, “The enemy used its satellite to spot our weapons and then obtained their coordinates. But before it could strike, our system had already moved from there. Two to four weapons fell at places where our system had been earlier.”

Air Chief further said, “However, our operators forgot to move some of them. It was a misjudgment on their part. Due to this we had to incur loss of two S-400 batteries. But there is nothing to worry about. We ordered two new batteries from Russia in September, and now our S-400 systems are active and operational.”

Sharing the video on X a user wrote, “Indian Airforce Chief blames India Air defense officers for the loss of S-400 systems. He says that operators of the system couldn’t use the mobility of the weapons timely to evade Pakistan Airforce strikes on the Air defense systems. He assures India that not to worry as they have ordered 2 more systems from Russia. (sic)” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The video is edited using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

During Operation Sindoor in May, the Indian Armed Forces successfully retaliated against Pakistan. The S-400 air defence system was credited with intercepting and destroying several incoming missiles.

We did not find any news reports or credible social media posts stating that India incurred a loss of two S-400 batteries.

Using reverse image search, we found a Jansatta report published on September 19, using a screenshot from the viral video. The Hindi title reads, “‘Drones alone can’t win the war,; Air Force Chief says - S-400 proved to be a game changer in Operation Sindoor.”

The report detailed IAF Chief Air Marshal AP Singh’s remarks on Operation Sindoor.

He said the S-400 long-range air defence system proved a ‘game changer’ in Operation Sindoor, keeping Pakistani aircraft at bay, and stressed that wars can’t be won with drones alone but require a balanced mix of manned and unmanned systems with long-range, heavy-calibre weapons.

What was the IAF Chief’s original statement?

The report does not mention anything about the loss of S-400 batteries during Operation Sindoor. An X post by ANI sharing the Air Chief’s speech video was linked in the report.

The ANI post was made on September 19. Neither the caption nor the video mentions the loss of S-400 batteries.

The viral video contained a logo of the Economic Times, so we checked the X account and found a post referring to the Air Chief’s remarks on Operation Sindoor. The post was made on September 19 with the caption, “#IAF chief on how S-400 turned the tide in #OperationSindoor”.

The video shared by Economic Times is 2 minutes 10 seconds long. At the 1:23-minute mark in the video, Air Chief AP Singh is heard saying, “The enemy used its satellite to spot our weapons and then obtained their coordinates. But before it could strike, our system had already moved from there. Two to four weapons fell at places where our system had been earlier.”

He immediately follows with “It was very important that we had this kind of weapons system. We did have some challenges, especially with identification, for which work is still ongoing. Because if you are striking from very far away, then it becomes very important to identify the aircraft correctly.”

There were no cuts or edits in this segment of the video. However, his viral remarks regarding India incurring a loss of two S-400 batteries were not present in the video.

We checked the extended version of the video posted by ANI on the YouTube Channel. The title reads, “IAF Chief AP Singh drops truth bomb on Op Sindoor, says, ‘destroyed enemy bases, radars, aircraft’”.

At the 11:36-minute mark in the video, we can hear the Air Chief speak about moving the system before the enemy could strike. However, the video does not show the Air Chief referring to any losses of S-400 batteries incurred by India. Neither does the video mention ordering batteries from Russia.

It is clear that the original video does not contain any clips of the Air Chief saying that India incurred a loss of two S-400 batteries.

Analysis of the clips

Using Hiya Deepfake Voice Detector, we checked 2 audio samples from the viral video where the Air Chief is heard saying that India lost two S-400 batteries. Hiya determined that both audio samples are likely to be deepfakes. The authenticity scores out of 100 are 3 and 5.

Therefore, NewsMeter found that the viral claims are false. The viral video was manipulated using Artificial Intelligence (AI).