Opinion | India’s Air-Power Inflection Point: Tejas, Sindoor, Air Defence Layering & The New Tech-Doctrine Convergence |
When Pakistan’s senior journalist Najam Sethi publicly admitted that Pakistan lacks any air-defence system comparable to India’s S-400, and that Indian strikes during Operation Sindoor hit Pakistani airbases “whenever, wherever and however they wanted", he was not merely acknowledging a military setback. He was declaring the collapse of years of regional assumption: that Pakistan’s nuclear shield, coupled with Chinese military support, would deter India from exercising punitive, decisive air power. What unfolded during the 2025 India–Pakistan conflict was far more consequential than a tactical victory. It revealed that India has quietly entered a new air-power era defined by indigenous precision weapons, layered air-defence dominance, aerospace confidence, and an increasingly autonomous kill chain that allows New Delhi to strike, shield and deter without foreign approval.
The first rupture came with Operation Sindoor. India demonstrated a doctrinal shift that American scholar John Spencer captured in his analysis titled “The End of Old Assumptions: What India’s New Security Paradigm Actually Looks Like." Spencer argued that India has moved from the posture of “strategic restraint" to calibrated, controlled, precision punishment. The evidence was unmistakable.
In the opening hours of Sindoor, the Indian Air Force fielded a composite strike package of Rafale, Mirage-2000 and Su-30MKI jets, executing stand-off precision strikes guided by satellite ISR, ELINT inputs and AWACS-directed battle management. The strikes exploited radar gaps created through electronic suppression, hit multiple Pakistani airbases and terror-linked sites, and returned under the protection of India’s layered air-defence grid. These were not symbolic “message drops" on empty hillsides. They were structural strikes on terrorist infrastructure, logistics hubs and sensitive airbases. India hit what mattered and did so without triggering uncontrolled escalation.
The second rupture was Pakistan’s failed retaliation. According to multiple assessments, Pakistan attempted a mixed response: missiles aimed at major Indian cities, accompanied by suicide drones and diversionary UAV swarms. None produced decisive effects. India’s sensors detected the launches early. S-400 systems engaged select threats. Ground-based SAMs, EW jammers and electro-optical guns used as a multi-layered air defence system by our forces neutralised 413 Pakistani drones and missiles over Rajasthan and Punjab.
What Sindoor proved is that India can absorb a coordinated missile-drone salvo and prevent mass casualty damage – a capability that only a handful of nations possess. More importantly, what emerged was a fully Indian-controlled kill chain – what I describe as a ‘sovereign kill chain’ – where every........