Meanwhile, Singh also credited “political will” and operational freedom for the IAF’s success during the operation.“A key reason for success was the presence of political will. There were very clear directions given to us. No restrictions were put on us… If there were any constraints, they were self-made… We decided how much to escalate… We had full freedom to plan and execute,” Singh said. “Our attacks were calibrated because we wanted to be mature about it… There was a synchronisation between the three forces… The CDS made a real difference. He was there to get us together… The NSA also played a big role in getting all the agencies,” he added.Displaying before-and-after images of a strike on the Muridke Lashkar-e-Taiba headquarters, the IAF chief said the site housed senior leadership and meeting spaces.“This is their senior leadership’s residential area. These were their office building where they would get together to conduct meetings. We could get video from the weapons themselves as the location was within range,” Singh said.He added that strikes on the Bahawalpur Jaish-e-Mohammed headquarters caused minimal collateral damage, citing satellite and local media imagery.“These are the before and after images of the damage we caused (at Bahawalpur – JeM HQ)… There’s hardly any collateral here… The adjacent buildings are fairly intact… Not only did we have satellite pictures, but also from local media, through which we could get inside pictures,” he said.Singh also hailed the S-400 air defence system as a “game-changer” in deterring enemy aircraft during the operation. “Our air defence systems have done a wonderful job. The S-400 system, which we had recently bought, has been a game-changer,” he said. “The range of that system has really kept their aircraft away from their weapons like, those long-range glide bombs that they have, they have not been able to use any one of those because they have not been able to penetrate the system,” Singh added.
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