The Indian military ’s resilient, multi-tiered air defence (AD) network — a mix of legacy and modernity, and of indigenous and imported weapons — thwarted multiple waves of Pakistani attacks on scores of locations from May 7-10, and minimised damage to military infrastructure and civilian areas, top officials said on Monday at a special briefing on Operation Sindoor.
India’s military bases and systems are fully operational, and ready to undertake any mission, the officials said.
“Putting together and operationalisation of this potent AD environment has been possible over the last decade due to unwavering budgetary and policy support provided by government in acquiring state-of-the art equipment and weapon systems,” said Air Marshal AK Bharti, director general air operations.
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His counterparts from the army and navy were also present at the briefing.
The Indian Air Force shot down a few high-tech fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force during Operation Sindoor, New Delhi’s direct military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror strike that killed 26 people. The operation began on Wednesday with India achieving its intended target; it hit nine terror training camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the precision strikes killing more than 100 terrorists in just 26 minutes.
The action triggered a series of attacks and counterattacks across the western border. Pakistan suffered the worst blow on the intervening night of Friday and Saturday when the IAF struck around a dozen military targets, including airbases, in Rafiqui, Murid, Chaklala, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, Chunian, Pasrur, Sialkot, Skardu, Sargodha, Jacobabad, Bholari and Malir Cantt in Karachi.
And between the strike on the terror camps and the calling of the ceasefire, Pakistan attempted to breach India’s air defences with drones and rockets and missiles — and failed, thanks to an AD grid that operated with multiple weapons across four levels, depending on the distance of the incoming target.
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Elaborating on the AD grid, Bharti said, “This robust network consists of a large variety of AD sensors, and weapon systems; from point defence weapons like guns, shoulder-fired systems and short-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to area defence weapons like the AD fighter planes and longer-range SAMs. Incoming threats were neutralised by the indigenously developed soft and hard-kill counter-unmanned aerial systems and well-trained Indian AD personnel.”
The entire grid is brought together by the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) of the IAF.
The weapons deployed include Russian-origin S-400 Triumf air defence system, locally made Akash surface-to-air missiles and Samar (surface-to-air missile for assured retaliation), medium range SAM (Barak 8), a variety of anti-drone systems and other counter-measures to defeat the incoming threats that were swiftly engaged after being detected and tracked by an integrated network of radars, and command and control systems.
“I would like to place on record the performance and efficacy demonstrated by even the older and battle-proven AD weapons like the Pechora, OSA-AK and AD guns in countering the Pakistani threat vectors (aerial weapons) in the current operations. Another highlight has been the stellar performance of indigenous Akash system,” Bharti said.
The threats countered by the Indian forces include Chinese-origin PL-15 air-to-air missiles, long-range rockets, loitering munitions, and Turkish-origin drones.
“In every single domain that Op Sindoor has been prosecuted, there has been total synergy between the three services,” Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, director general of military operations, told journalists at the briefing.
India and Pakistan on Saturday agreed to stop all military actions against each other, ending four days of fierce fighting across the western border. The so-called ceasefire, which the US claims to have brokered , was announced by New Delhi on Saturday after Ghai and his Pakistani counterpart talked over the hotline.
“Our fight was with terrorists and their support infrastructure. However, it is a pity that the Pakistan military chose to intervene and bat for the terrorists, which compelled us to respond in kind,” Bharti said.
Operation Sindoor showed the unflinching courage and resolve of the Indian armed forces as they smashed terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK, and gave a crushing blow to the neigbouring military by striking its bases after it made brazen attempts to target the country’s military infrastructure and civilian areas, defence minister Rajnath Singh said on Sunday.
The attacks not only shook Pakistani military bases near the border but even Rawalpindi, where the Pakistan Army is headquartered, felt the brunt of the Indian response, he said.
The Indian Navy operates as a networked force capable of simultaneously addressing threats emanating from air, surface and sub-surface through an amalgamation of advanced sensors synchronised with advanced combat management systems, said Vice Admiral AN Pramod, director general naval operations.
“In the current standoff, the presence of our aircraft carrier with large number of Mig-29 K fighters and airborne early warning helicopters prevented any suspicious or hostile aircraft from coming within several hundred kms of the carrier battle group. Effectively it compelled the Pakistani air elements to remain bottled up close to the Makran coast, denying any opportunity to be a threat in maritime space,” he added.