The Balakot air strike by the Indian Air Force was a befitting reply to the dastardly attack carried out on the Central Reserve Police Force jawans in Pulwama by terror groups operating from Pakistan. Considered as one of the deadliest attacks in recent times, 40 CRPF personnel were martyred in the incident on February 14, 2019.
India was swift in its response with air strikes at terror training camps in Balakot. But the Indian response had its own shares of controversies and questions.
Almost two and a half months down the line, another controversy on the Balakot air strike has been doing the rounds of TV news and social media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an interview to a media house recently, said that he had suggested that clouds and rain could prevent Pakistani radars from detecting Indian fighter planes during the Balakot air strike.
Soon after the interview Narendra Modi's comment became a point of criticism and ridicule by the opposition. And social media users made it a talking point.
Looks like the tweet got lost in the clouds. Luckily there are screen shots floating around to help pic.twitter.com/zSW7CsdhKL
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) May 11, 2019
Modi's words are truly shameful. Most importantly, because they insult our Air Force as being ignorant and unprofessional. The fact that he is talking about all this is itself anti-national; no patriot would do this. pic.twitter.com/jxfGmdmlx7
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) May 11, 2019
Jumla hi fekta raha paanch saal ki sarkar mein,
Socha tha cloudy hai mausam,
Nahi aaunga radar mein. pic.twitter.com/xDeOg4Yq5K— Congress (@INCIndia) May 12, 2019
Air Vice Marshal (Retd) GP Sharma who is an expert on weather and President of Meteorology at Skymet Weather Services says that during inclement weather, such strikes are least expected and can therefore be used against the enemy to bring in the surprise element.
He however, denied the fact that radars are not capable to detect targets during poor weather conditions.
According to Sharma, radars are equipped with modern technologies and are largely capable in detecting every target, even during the worst of weather conditions.
Also read - INDIAN AIR FORCE DESTROYS TERROR CAMPS IN POK BRAVING INCLEMENT WEATHER
Stealth technology in fighter planes used by countries like America have the capability to escape the radars. But the fighter jets used during the Balakot attack by India were Mirage 2000 which do not have these capabilities, so the question of escaping Pakistani radars does not arise.
According to Sharma, what strongly went in India's favour was the short response time left for Pakistan and the attack made during poor weather conditions, which is highly unexpected in such difficult mountainous terrain.
Image Credit: Wikipedia
Please Note: Any information picked from here must be attributed to skymetweather.com