Operation Sindoor and India’s changing military strategy

India’s emergent techno-military doctrine is redefining calibrated escalation to impose the cost of ‘fighting without victory’ on Pakistan within the nuclear environment.

In his first remarks since the launch of Operation Sindoor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his address to the nation on May 12, laid down India’s new approach to tackle cross-border terrorism. His speech was preceded by a series of joint press briefings on May 11 and 12, where senior operational commanders of India’s armed forces provided a comprehensive and detailed account of Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7 in response to the brutal April 22 Pahalgam terrorist attack.

From a military strategy viewpoint, India’s credible demonstration of military power through Operation Sindoor is significant for several reasons. It is significant for the risk-taking, ideation, and execution of the military campaign supported by a broader political strategy. What is also important is the technological and other supporting elements that contributed to the effectiveness of warfighting. With its deployment of advanced weaponry, the Indian military dented Pakistan’s operational capability and willpower to launch an efficient response. Modi, in his speech, hailed the military’s performance in this ‘new age warfare.’

Since the Galwan Valley clashes of June 2020 with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Indian military and strategic mindset have transformed with an effort to deal with the two-front threat through structural reforms and force modernisation. As a result, India has accelerated its technological advancement with major weapon systems acquisitions, and is developing multi-domain capabilities like electronic warfare, sensors, satellites, and cyber for an upgraded intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. New Delhi deployed the same capabilities during Operation Sindoor to pinpoint the locations of terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). Three key propositions emerge from Operation Sindoor that reflect an emergent military strategy.

Precision as the key

India has been developing and procuring precision-based, technology-reliant capabilities like short, medium, and long-range strike weapons. India’s inventory of missiles now includes a variety of cruise and ballistic missiles to inflict cost upon the adversary. For Operation Sindoor, India utilised SCALP/Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile, and HAMMER (Highly Agile Modular Munition Extended Range) air-to-ground precision-guided munition to target nine terror sites: five in PoJK, and four in Pakistani Punjab.

These precision-based, non-escalatory, collateral damage-averse strikes yielded demonstrable success for India and showcased New Delhi’s evolved approach in tackling cross-border terrorism. It established the conventional military response against terrorist outfits and Pakistan’s plausible deniability to harm core national interests – which Modi also mentioned in his speech.

Aerospace superiority for offence-defence

The military strategy entails not just gaining advantage but also denying the same to one’s adversary. In response to Pakistan’s multiple and repeated attacks on both military and civilian infrastructure, India penetrated Pakistani airspace through loitering munitions (kamikaze drones), cruise missiles, and air-based assets to target key military facilities and infrastructure.

This was aimed at imposing cost, inducing chaos, and targeting the adversary’s will to fight. Simultaneously, India’s air defences successfully intercepted numerous missiles and kamikaze drones from Pakistan. This denied Islamabad/Rawalpindi the ability to inflict cost on India.

Tech-enabled escalation dominance

India first struck multiple terrorist infrastructure sites and later a series of Pakistani air bases and military infrastructure. These strikes demonstrate how military strategy is essential for imposing costs on adversaries and for escalating responses as necessary in future scenarios.

By integrating cutting-edge hardware, India can now determine the degree and extent of military coercion against terrorist outfits and the Pakistani military. India’s calibrated and responsible strikes have redrawn the contours of escalation and the nuclear factor compared to the Pulwama-Balakot episode and other past India-Pakistan crises. Modi, in his address, asserted that ‘nuclear blackmail’ won’t work with India.

The new normal is that no military target in Pakistan will be beyond the reach of the Indian military’s conventional deep strikes, if the need arises in the future. The only caveat is that this posture will require excessive readiness and a leap in technological capability, given the role of China in bolstering Pakistani defence capabilities.

Implications for future warfighting strategy

For now, within the broad parameters of strategy akin to the Cold Start, India’s standoff warfare capabilities have opened the possibility of new doctrinal thinking and plausible options without getting bogged down in large-scale, ground-based manoeuvre operations. The evolved techno-military capabilities have infused confidence in the national security establishment to undertake a defensive-offensive strategy against Pakistani military and its sponsored acts of terrorism.

The risk-taking against Pakistan is enhanced with smart, precise, and technologically superior capabilities in India’s arsenal. These robust non-nuclear strategic capabilities, supplemented by the range of supporting air defence measures, bring a key assurance against an adversary committed to hostility and aggression.

However, this evolution in approach does come with certain inherent limitations in the conventional warfighting domain. For this, Pakistan’s learning from the recent episode and its ongoing military developments need to be examined closely. The Indian military needs to maintain continuity to innovate and upscale the production of defence technologies and state of readiness.

To impose one’s will and cripple the adversary’s, India needs to accelerate its technological integration in warfighting capabilities and fully embrace the Concepts of Operations for better validation and integration into the emergent doctrinal thinking. A robust military strategy is consequential in both wartime as well as peacetime to limit the adversary’s ambitions and intentions.

(Sameer Patil is Director, Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at Observer Research Foundation (ORF). Rahul Rawat is Research Assistant, Strategic Studies Programme at ORF.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the authors' own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.