In Operation Sindoor Air Combat Has Emerged As The Lead Force

Wars and warlike operations start creating a chaotic environment the moment the first bullet or the first missile is fired. However, Operation Sindoor started well and stopped abruptly, leaving a lot of Indians dissatisfied, as they had thought that a longer operation was needed for avenging the barbaric attack on innocent civilian tourists near Pahalgam.

Military operations are always preceded by political confabulations, which also include taking advice from the military. In addition, the political leadership also wants to take credit for themselves if all goes well. In cases where this does not go well, the narratives are modified to suit themselves!

Before we start analysing the military aspects, let us first take a brief look at the non-military aspects.

As a start, the optics organised by India were indicators of good planning, vision, stability and exuded self-confidence. These are necessary in this information age, where ‘packaging’ is also as important as the product!

The name of the operation was appropriate, both from the nationalistic and psychological points of view. The Lady officers who had been earmarked as commentators had carried out their limited task of presenting prepared reports, smartly and carried out their tasks with dignity and panache.

The only discernible weakness was the way our very large number of TV channels conducted themselves, creating what may be called a theatre of the absurd, closer to a circus and not a theatre, as the latter has its own dignity and norms.

To this was added the presence of so-called experts comprising veterans from the levels of majors to major generals, spawning their limited knowledge by changing to jingoism, at times forgetting that military officers and dignified behaviour are synonymous.

I am of the view that while this met the ‘political’ aim, the impact would have been better if only military officers dealing with the subject were employed. I recall that in 1971 we had a General officer overseeing all briefings to the media and others. They had a parallel operations room, manned jointly by officers from the three services. The same was the case during the long Operation Vijay of 1999, when the Kargil Border war was fought.

Once the optics and presentation of our case were done, the political efforts should have gone into the background and the military should have taken over the media briefings. This was eventually done and with the fielding of the three DG’s of military, naval and air force operational heads, the narratives and body language added value to the proceedings.

The operations, which were launched on 7 May 2025, with great hopes and adequate preparations, ended on 10 May 2025, merely three days later, creating somewhat of a record even for short wars. However, we do need to note that the Indian Strategy, as announced, was not to wage war with Pakistan but to inflict severe pain on the terrorists who were responsible for the acts of terrorism on India and its citizens.

When dealing with Pakistan, both politically and militarily, we have to be extremely careful, taking no chances. Hence, full preparations are a must, so that even a limited military operation can be smoothly converted into near-war or war, when and if needed.

Now that military operations have been temporarily paused, we need to weigh their impact and draw some major lessons on what was achieved and what was lacking, which needs improvement. As of now, till a more formal arrangement is finalised and becomes operative, the armed forces will remain in a wait and watch operational mode.

However, evaluation of whether the aims of this gigantic operation in which all components of the armed forces were fully involved, have been achieved or not and at what cost. If a brief answer is needed, it is yes indeed we have achieved not just the military objectives but also political, economic and diplomatic, to a large extent. The major achievement, which needs to be lauded, is in the nuclear field, which I propose to highlight later in this narrative.

It had been made amply clear in the first media brief organised at New Delhi and even earlier in various political statements prior to the launch of the armed forces, that our operations would be aimed at the perpetrators of the barbaric and cold-blooded mass murders near Pahalgam and on their controllers and not on any military or civil targets.

This was adhered to, at least on the first day. However, the major differences between the terrorist targets selected this time were qualitatively and quantitively different and superior from those selected earlier after the Uri and Pulwama terrorist attacks. They indicated a better prepared Indian Military, backed by a clear political mandate,

The nine targets on 7 May were all headquarters or training locations of terrorists, where they were trained, equipped and converted to killing machines! What needs to be emphasised is that the targets included Muridke and Bahawalpur, which were the home bases of the two main terrorist groups, which had been sending their foot soldiers of various categories across the Line of Control (LoC) to carry out their nefarious activities. The pounding they received was heavy and severe, besides being accurate and did cause a large number of casualties.

While a psychological barrier has been breached with the strikes on the campuses of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba at Muridke and of the Jaish-e-Mohammad at Bahawalpur, the effect should not be overstated. Maybe the Pakistani authorities had thinned out those under training, thus the casualties were less. Still, strikes on Pakistan’s Punjabi heartland are a threshold crossed.

The attacks by the Indian Forces were entirely launched from their own side of the border and the armaments used were modern missiles and rockets of different configurations, but with pin-point accuracy.

This was achieved by bath communications and data links doing the ‘talking’, while the crews maintained electronic silence. The Pakistani Forces were also following similar procedures. So, there was no occasion for the old-fashioned ‘dog fights’ of yore. Nevertheless, since Pakistan’s disinformation campaign was in full swing, they claimed to have inflicted Indian casualties.

On the succeeding two days, Pakistani forces had upped the ante by their riposte across the entire India - Pakistan border, including the LoC, where latest weapons including rockets, missiles and drones, besides fighter aircraft were used. The opposing forces were also well armed, in some cases even better, as they had been supplied well both by the US and China. In some cases, their platforms were qualitatively better too.

India had not only responded in kind, but surprised the enemy with the potent state-of-art armament and more importantly the way communications and data links were seamlessly amalgamated. Besides this, the bravery and will to win of our officers, JCO’S and Jawans and equivalents in the other two services was of a very high order.

Pakistanis are untrustworthy and liars. No ‘Deen’ & no ‘Dharm’. We must remember this. Now they will use the money and time to recoup, repair, rest and get ready for future use, while there is a lull in the battle.

The three Director Generals of Military, Naval and Air operations had revealed the details of Operation Sindoor, even as the tenuous understanding to stop all firing and military action on land, in the air, and at sea, arrived at between the militaries of the two countries on Saturday afternoon, held—despite violations by the Pakistani side just hours after the agreement came into effect on Saturday.

The armed forces did not deny losses but underscored that the aim of the operation had been achieved. Responding to a query on the possible loss of IAF aircraft in the operation and subsequent military exchanges with Pakistan, DG Operations IAF, Air Marshal Bharti did not provide a specific response but maintained that all Indian pilots were back home.

“We are in a combat scenario, and losses are a part of combat. The question you must ask us is: Have we achieved our objective of decimating the terrorist camps? And the answer is a thumping ‘yes’,” said Bharti.

He ended his answer by saying “all I can say is that we have achieved the objectives that we selected and all our pilots are back home”.

“If I comment on anything, it will only be an advantage for the adversary. We don’t want to give them any advantage at this stage.”

Responding to another media query, Bharti said the armed forces had successfully downed a few Pakistani aircraft. “Their planes were prevented from coming inside our border. So, we don’t have the wreckage with us. But we have definitely downed a few Pakistani planes. We would not like to hazard a guess on the numbers,” said Bharti. However, he added that the IAF did have an estimate on the number of Pakistani planes shot down.

The DGMO, General Ghai said over 100 terrorists were eliminated in the May 7 operations against the nine terrorist locations. He also said the terror camps targeted were identified after careful deliberations. He added that the Pakistan Army had lost between 35 and 40 soldiers between May 7 and May 10 in the exchanges on the LoC.

A psychological barrier has been breached with the strikes on the campuses of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba in Muridke and of the Jaish-e-Mohammad in Bahawalpur. But the effect should not be overstated. Because the Pakistani authorities had vacated both areas of people the day before the Indian missiles struck, suggesting the Pakistan army had intelligence on the incoming Indian attacks. Still, strikes on Pakistan’s Punjabi heartland are a threshold crossed.

While Operation Sindoor has caused some deaths and material losses, the destroyed physical facilities can be quickly rebuilt, and youth from extremist-run madrassas provide a steady and unending supply of jihadis and mujahideen.

In Operation Sindoor, air combat has definitely emerged as the lead force. Hence the need to look at it in depth. UAV’s of all types, missiles, including cruise missiles, layered air defence and above all seamless integration of communications, data links and different types of radars are the areas that need to be in our special focus. The same also for the layered air defence.

We appear to have lost the air dominance over Pakistan and China, and we need to reverse that as soon as possible using all resources. We definitely need to catch up or rather overtake China.

We also have a problem in not being able to detect terrorists using satellite phones and encrypted messaging apps to maintain contact with cross-border handlers through the Chinese BeiDou satellite system, which terrorists can use anywhere in India. We should also expect the Bangladesh army and terrorists getting similar equipment.

In modern military aviation, total radar and radio silence involves

completely shutting down an aircraft's radar and communication systems to prevent detection by enemy sensors or electronic intelligence units. Radar silence ensures that no electromagnetic emissions can be picked up by radar warning receivers, while radio silence blocks interception of voice or data transmissions, such as Link 16 enabling deep strike survivability.

This electromagnetic stealth allowed some of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighters to remain invisible until their weapons were fired, at which point the missiles were guided midcourse by the airborne early warning and control aircraft (AWACS). In the final 20 to 30 km of flight the PL15E's onboard X band radar seeker activated locking onto the targets with lethal precision.

The Indian Rafales, despite being equipped with the RBE2 ASA radar with a theoretical detection range of 200 km, failed to detect the incoming threat. Most analysts attribute this to the PAF jets flying at extremely low altitudes using mountainous terrain to stay below the Indian radar horizon and exploit blind spots.

It demonstrates that supremacy in air warfare is no longer defined by

platforms alone but by the ability to see first, shoot first. and connect faster, across a busy battle space.

Air combat today is fundamentally a struggle for information dominance, where success depends on seamless integration of sensors, shooters and command nodes via real-time high bandwidth data links. Victory now hinges not on sheer speed or agility but on persistent situational awareness, coordinated beyond visual range engagements and the ability to silently operate within contested electromagnetic environments.

According to reports, Pakistan has a total of 13 AWACS equipped with ASA radar that provides 360° coverage The maximum range of these systems is up to 500 km. Additionally, Pakistan has developed its own data link system, similar to NATO's Link 16, which it has named Link 17. This system connects all of Pakistan's military equipment into a unified network, enabling network centric warfare capabilities.

Currently, India has only three operational AWACs: the A50 EI with a maximum range of up to 450 km. If we consider both ASA radar equipped fighters and aircraft, this might explain why despite having advanced fighter jets like the Rafael, India still needs more.

India currently has only 36 fighter jets equipped with ASA radars, specifically the French Rafaels. Among these, eight are dual seat variants and 26 are single seats. These Rafale jets are the only ones in the Indian Air Force equipped with ASA radar, which has a maximum detection range of around 200 km.

In comparison, Pakistan appears to hold the edge in the number of ASA radar equipped fighter jets. According to a SIPRI report, Pakistan has acquired 36 J10C fighter jets from China to counter India's Rafaels.

Additionally, under the joint China-Pakistan plan, JF17 Thunder programme, the latest Block 3 variant is also equipped with this radar.

Currently, the Pakistan Air Force operates approximately 30 JF17 Block 3 jets, bringing the total number of ASA radar equipped fighters in its inventory to 66: 36 J10C's and 30 JF17 Block 3.

Therefore, in terms of ASA equipped aircraft, Pakistan holds a numerical advantage over India. The Indian TEJAS fighter also has an ASA radar, but it is not yet operational in the Indian Air Force.

The precise and pinpoint accuracy of the BrahMos was very noticeable, besides being laudable; IAF hitting the dead centre of the runways of PAF bases and sometimes even the intersection of two runways needs to be applauded. It proves that India has the capability, if the will and the resources are matched. Finally, we need to work all this silently, without bragging.

The last two points I want to dwell on are the sudden and urgent calls on Saturday night of 9 May between USA and the two countries, which brought the curtain down, most unexpectedly, on Operation Sindoor and its equivalent in Pakistan. They were firstly at both the highest political levels as also at the officials’ levels thereafter. The second and linked point is how the nuclear factor was brought into play.

The American President Donald Trump, after getting information about a possible nuclear emergency, spoke to the Prime Ministers of both India and Pakistan and convinced them to agree to a cease fire immediately. He then went public and announced that the two South Asian neighbours had agreed to a “full and immediate ceasefire” after mediation by the United States. This was followed by statements of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others. These stated that the governments of India and Pakistan “have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site”.

While we can discard the part about mediation by the US President, as the usual utterance of Trump wanting to take credit for himself, it appears that the event that prompted it was a possible leak of radiation from the nuclear storage facility in the hills near Chaklala, which if correct, was a far more dangerous event than the operations being fought by India and Pakistan. A leak of nuclear material and the associated radiation thus became priority number one for the United States as well as the two adversaries.

The answer to the leak or the threat of a leak appeared to be to stop all military actions, while the possible leak was being investigated, as it became more important to stop the spread of radiation. This was also confirmed when a special aircraft from Egypt carrying a big load of Boron-10, which is used to dampen nuclear leaks was spotted arriving at the nearest airfield. Later reports appear to confirm that the Kirana Hills was indeed the location of a US nuclear material dump, one of many located in different parts of the world.

The alternative narrative was that the Indian attack on Chaklala (and also allegedly on targets in the Kirana Hills where there might be some nuclear testing facilities) was exploited by Islamabad to get the Americans to step in to stop the proceedings.

President Trump had stated that ‘We stopped a nuclear conflict. I think it could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed.” It was a typical exaggeration for Trump to show himself as a ‘peacemaker’. India was very careful about keeping well away from any nuclear targets.

No doubt HQ Strategic Plans Division of Pakistan’s nuclear secretariat located at Chaklala, had been attacked, but its operational cell is situated underground, which the Indian missiles were not designed to penetrate. It did however spook both Pakistan and USA.

But that is not the reason for the American intercession. The fact is the US cannot afford to let Pakistan go under, or to suffer grievous harm. because it is its most pliable and the most critical ally in Southwestern Asia.

To ensure that India too was convinced, possibly the dirty tricks department of the CIA was tasked to stage a believable tale, like flying in a US special aircraft carrying specialists in nuclear radiation and another transport aircraft from Egypt, loaded with Boron-10, the most appropriate chemical for suppressing leaks of radiation.

It is also clear that the $1.3 billion IMF loan being placed for consideration of the IMF Board was also the means to influence Islamabad into accepting the termination of Operation Sindoor.

In conclusion, let me state that Operation Sindoor was a high-precision, military operation that successfully targeted terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK), achieving India’s military and political objectives while maintaining strategic restraint to avoid full-scale war. It marked a shift toward a more assertive counter-terrorism doctrine, leveraging advanced technology like kamikaze drones.

However, Pakistan’s retaliatory actions and disinformation campaign escalated tensions, and conflicting casualty claims highlight the challenge of separating fact from propaganda. The operation’s symbolic framing as “Sindoor” bolstered domestic support but sparked some criticism. While effective, the operation underscores the fragile India-Pakistan dynamics, with risks of further escalation if de-escalatory measures (like the May 10 ceasefire) fail.

The government and the nation are congratulating the armed forces for a job well done and the adulation is as heady as it was after the 1971 War with Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh as an independent nation. The adulation is well deserved. However, the way the government is continuing to expand it by staging yatras and including past stories of bravery and valour in the national news on the radio need to be replaced by releasing additional funds to the armed forces and simplifying procurement procedures, so that modernisation gets a filip! I hope someone in the government is listening!

Jai Hind.

Lt General Vijay Oberoi is a Former Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS) and Former Founding Director of the Think Tank of the Army, Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS). The vies expressed here are the writer’s own.