Argus News - French Navy Terms Pakistan Media Reports on Rafale Losses as ‘Extensive Misinformation’

Bhubaneswar, Nov 23: The French Navy on Sunday strongly dismissed reports in Pakistani media claiming that a French naval commander had acknowledged Pakistan’s air superiority over India during the May 2025 conflict and confirmed the loss of Rafale jets. The Navy described the reports as “extensive misinformation”.

Pakistan’s Geo TV had published a report alleging that French commander Captain Jaquis Launay had stated that the Pakistan Air Force was better prepared during Operation Sindoor and that a Rafale was downed not due to technological limitations but because of the superior performance of Chinese-built J-10C fighters.

Refuting the claims, the French Navy issued a statement calling the article “fake news”, saying: “These statements were attributed to Captain Launay who never gave his consent for any form of publication. The article contains extensive misinformation and disinformation.”

The controversy triggered a sharp response online, with many social media users calling the claims part of a wider propaganda campaign in the Pakistani media.

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BJP leader Amit Malviya also reacted strongly, calling the incident evidence of Pakistan’s “desperate misinformation machinery”. “The French Navy has called out Pakistan’s Geo TV and its correspondent Hamid Mir for spreading ‘misinformation and disinformation.’ In his report, Hamid Mir peddled the same old, fabricated claims about Rafales and the so-called May conflict and has now been publicly exposed. When official institutions start debunking their propaganda, you know how desperate Pakistan’s misinformation machinery has become,” he wrote.