Image of Wrecked RAF Hawker Harrier Falsely Shared as IAF Dassault Rafale

Early Wednesday morning, the Indian Army carried out targeted military strikes at nine locations in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan, focusing on terrorist infrastructure. The operation, codenamed “Operation Sindoor,” follows recent terror attacks in the Baisaran Valley (Pahalgam, Kashmir), which killed 26 Indian civilians.
Following the strikes, Pakistani media, politicians, and social media users falsely claimed that the Pakistani Air Force (PAF) had “neutralized” Indian fighter jets. Some even circulated images and videos purportedly showing the wreckage of downed Indian aircraft.

We came across one such post on Facebook sharing an image of a wreckage of a combat aircraft. The Facebook user who shared the image claims it to be the wreckage of the Indian Air Force’s Rafale Combat Aircraft. Rafale combat aircrafts are India’s latest acquisition from the French Company, Dassault Aviation. A screenshot of the Facebook post can be seen below.

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However, our investigation reveals that the image does not depict an Indian Air Force (IAF) Rafale. Here’s the truth about the aircraft shown in the picture.

Fact Check

Upon close examination of the image, we identified an insignia on one of the aircraft’s components. The marking features two concentric circles – a larger blue outer ring surrounding a smaller red inner circle. We found that this is one of the roundels of the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force (RAF).

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This roundel is a low visibility roundel used on camouflage aircrafts by the RAF since 1970. We can see this roundel in the list of RAF roundels given below.

Source: British Roundels by C.P. Schenfeld.

We compared the image shared in the post with the RAF’s Hawker Siddleley Harrier GR 3 jumpjet and found that the aircraft seen in the image has plenty of similarities with the Harrier GR3. You can see a side-by-side comparison below.

In the comparison above, you can see that the design of the wrecked aircraft is similar to the Hawker Harrier GR3. The engines and the long nose with compact wings prove that the wrecked aircraft is a Harrier. The design of Dassault’s Rafale aircraft is quite different from the Harrier. Rafale has Delta wings and two engines as opposed to Harrier which has only one engine. Moreover, Rafale is a conventional take off and landing (CTOL) aircraft whereas Harrier is a Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing (VSTOL) aircraft. You can see the difference between the two aircrafts in the image comparison given below.

Hawker Harrier Jumpjets were officially retired by the RAF in 2010. The Indian Navy retired Sea Harriers in 2016. Thus, the Indian Navy and Indian Air Force don’t use Harrier aircrafts at present. 

Conclusion

Our investigation conclusively proves that the wreckage falsely shared as an IAF Dassault Rafale is, in fact, a decommissioned British Harrier jump jet. The Royal Air Force (RAF) retired all Harriers in 2010 – meaning this image predates any current Indo-Pak military operations and is entirely unrelated to recent events.