A video circulating on social media claims to show Indian Air Chief Marshal AP Singh admitting that India lost six jets and a Heron drone during Operation Sindoor in May, 2025.
BOOM found that the video has been manipulated to include a segment of AI-generated voice clone of Singh into his recent speech that was streamed live on August 9, 2025.
At the 33-second mark of the footage, Singh is heard saying, "While we did lose six jets and one large Heron drone, we were able to get there at least two command and control centers, like Murid and Chaklala, that I have shown you in one of the pictures."
The Claim
An X user shared the video with the caption, "Breaking: Finally Indian Airforce Chief admits India did lose 6 Jets and one Heron UAV during May 7th Air engagements." BOOM had earlier fact checked similar videos which were manipulated using AI to target Indian defence chiefs after the escalation between India and Pakistan in May.
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What We Found
1. No such admission by Air Chief Marshal AP Singh: We found the original video, which was posted by ANI on August 9, 2025. In the video, Singh makes no such admission while speaking about the damage caused by the Indian Air Force during Operation Sindoor.
We then watched the entire speech streamed live on The Hindu’s official YouTube channel, where the viral segment appears between the 29:04 and 30:53 timestamps. A comparison of the viral footage and the Air Chief Marshal’s original speech is shown below. According to the live stream's caption Singh was speaking at the 16th Air Chief Marshal LM Katre Memorial Lecture in Marathalli, Bengaluru
2. AI Audio Detector Tool Flags Manipulation: We tested the audio of the viral video, where the alleged admission of losing six Indian jets is heard, using Resemble AI. The platform’s audio detector flagged the audio as fake.