Reportedly the government will, as it was expected to, announce military decorations for Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman for shooting down a Pakistani F-16 during a dogfight over the Line of Control on February 27 and the Mirage-2000 pilots involved in the operation a day before that to precision bomb a terror base in pakistan’s Balakot. Meanwhile Varthaman is likely to be awarded a Vir Chakra for his exploits, and the five Mirage-2000 fighter aces who dropped bombs on the terror facility of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, the Vayu Sena Medal for gallantry, said one of the officials cited above. Meanwhile Hindustan Times was the first to report on April 20 that Varthaman and the Mirage-2000 pilots could get gallantry awards.
Perhaps Varthaman, then 35, scripted military aviation history by downing an F-16, seconds before his own MiG-21 Bison was hit by a missile forcing him to eject. Furthermore experts hailed it as the first ever kill of an F-16 by a MiG-21 Bison, fighter jets of two different generations and Varthaman was captured after he bailed out of his aircraft, but pakistan returned him to india on March 1 after holding him captive for almost 60 hours.
Moreover Vir Chakra is india’s third-highest wartime gallantry award, after the Param Vir Chakra and the Maha Vir Chakra. Air Vice Marshal manmohan Bahadur (retd), additional director general, Centre for Air Power Studies said “If the awards are being announced on Independence Day, it will be an acknowledgement of the professionalism and courage displayed by the fighter pilots in missions where stakes were very high”.
