New Delhi: Operation Sindoor, launched weeks after the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack last year, marked a paradigm shift in India’s national security calculus through the extensive use of drones, networking and the integration of artificial intelligence in target analysis and acquisition.
The operation, billed as the Indian military’s most expansive multi-domain combat mission in half a century to punish Pakistan for its relentless support to cross-border terrorism, redefined India’s overarching security and strategic goals.
India’s action was largely seen as a statement of its “political will” to inflict a blow to Pakistan for supporting terrorism, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi asserting that India will not tolerate any nuclear blackmail by Islamabad.
In the course of the last one year after the operation, India’s three services have drawn up extensive plans, strategy and policy initiatives to bolster their combat readiness by acquiring new platforms, missiles and a variety of long and short-range drones, and boosting the overall air defence apparatus.
In response to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed, India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 last year, carrying out airstrikes on nine terror infrastructures in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir eliminating at least 100 terrorists.
The strikes at the terror camps included the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) headquarters at Bahawalpur, the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s base at Muridke and terrorist infrastructure in Mehmoona Joya in Sialkot, Sawai Nala and Syed Na Bilal in Muzaffarabad, Gulpur and Abbas in Kotli, Barnala in Bhimber, and Sarjal.
The action triggered a rapid escalation in tensions with Pakistan launching retaliatory strikes, though most of them were thwarted by the Indian military.
The hostilities ended with an understanding on halting the military actions on May 10 following talks over the hotline between army officials of the two sides, but the episode brought into focus the need to enhance India’s military might.
While India delivered a befitting response to Pakistan, the three services analysed the hostilities to refine operational strategies and integrate advanced technologies and platforms.
The three services have been specifically focusing on procurement of unmanned platforms and infusion of high-end technologies, including artificial intelligence for target acquisitions and surveillance.
India has added significant military might in the last one year, and the credit goes to a whole-of-government approach to bolster military prowess.
Definitely, lessons learned from Operation Sindoor are being implemented, said a senior military official.
The months following the conflict saw the government greenlighting several mega procurement projects in line with the national security strategy and priorities.
The procurement proposals cleared to further crank up the military’s overall strike capabilities included a green signal to acquire a fresh batch of five S-400 missile systems from Russia and the purchase of 60 medium transport aircraft.
In March alone, the government greenlighted the acquisition of military hardware worth Rs 2.38 lakh crore.
In February, the government cleared another long-pending proposal to procure 114 Rafale fighter jets under a government-to-government framework with France, nearly two decades after the plan was originally rolled out to boost the Indian Air Force’s combat prowess.
The defence ministry also approved buying six US-made Boeing P8-I surveillance aircraft for the Indian Navy to enhance the force’s surveillance and anti-submarine warfare capabilities.
The Rafale jets are capable of carrying a range of potent weapons. European missile maker MBDA’s Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile and Scalp cruise missile will be the mainstay of the weapons package of the Rafales.
The government is also in the process of sealing a Euro 5 billion deal for the supply of six stealth submarines to the Indian Navy. The submarines will be built by German defence major ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd (MDL).
In April, India commissioned its third indigenously-built nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, INS Aridaman, significantly bolstering the naval component of the nation’s nuclear triad.
India’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) programme is a closely guarded project. INS Arihant was the first boat under the SSBN project, which was followed by another boat, INS Arighat.
In the course of the last one year, India also successfully test-fired a range of strategically important weapons, including several versions of the Agni missiles.
In August, India successfully test-fired the ‘Agni-five’ intermediate-range ballistic missile that has a range of up to 5,000 km.
The Agni-5 missile can bring almost the entire Asia, including the northernmost part of China, as well as some regions in Europe under its striking range.
Recalling the decisive military action launched exactly a year ago on the intervening night of May 6-7, several defence and strategic affairs experts concurred that the military operation also emphasised that future conflicts would play out not only in airspace, but also in cyberspace and information and cognitive domains.
And, indeed, the Indian military wasn’t just battling against a barrage of hostile drones that came from across the western border, from Leh to Sir Creek, in multiple waves during the nearly four-day conflict, but also countering an intense misinformation campaign that sought to damage the morale of the forces and the masses.
Air Commodore Gaurav M Tripathi (retired), who also played a role during the operation, while acknowledging the criticality of air power in deciding the outcome of a conflict, underlined that in any future scenario, “combined air power” of the three services should be leveraged so that it can work cohesively against a “capable adversary.”
“During (Operation) Sindoor, we saw a mass of drones used by Pakistan. Most of them were harmless, just to engage Indian weapons and munitions so that attack drones could come in later.
“But the enemy is smart. Next time, what they will send will be hardened drones, which will probably be more difficult to jam… have better navigation at the end, might not need GPS, (and) they might have electro-optical homing devices. And, they will probably collaborate as a swarm,” Air Commodore Tripathi told PTI.
The former IAF officer, who took an early retirement last August, has flown multiple kinds of fighter jets and commanded a Hawk Mk 132 squadron, and also served as a chief operations officer of a fighter base.
In the IAF, there has already been some investment in anti-drone capabilities, “but anti-drone capabilities will really have to be proliferated, and cover all important points,” he said, on the military lessons learned from the operation.
The former air officer praised the S-400 and Akash weapon systems, BrahMos and other missiles, in securing the Indian skies and dealing a potent blow to the adversary, which also allowed Indian fighter jets to play their role.
“We used them (S-400 system) very offensively; we moved them around very frequently. We camouflaged them as well and used their decoy forms to deceive the adversary. This technique in military parlance is called camouflage, concealment and deception or CCD,” he said.
