Operation Sindoor: Near-Impregnable Air Defence
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
By all counts, writes Anil Padmanabhan (has worked in various news outlets including Press Trust of India, The Afternoon, Business Standard, India Today (New York) and Mint) “India's comprehensive takedown of Pakistan's military in the 4-day face-off was enabled by its ability to mount a near-impregnable air defence, while simultaneously undertaking devastating precision strikes on multiple enemy targets. Remarkably, this capability was inspired by a homegrown deftech stack.”
Akash: The standout air defence weapon, Akash, “a short-range surface-to-air missile, shielded vulnerable installations and cities. It's entirely configured on mobile platforms, making it very versatile. Similarly, deployment of an array of UAVs, a hybrid constellation of homegrown and foreign drones, boosted India's offensive repertoire…..”
BrahMos: The piece de resistance, though, was “BrahMos cruise missile, which decapitated Pakistan's prime airbases, including Nur Khan and Rahim Yar Khan. At present, BrahMos is 3x faster than other cruise missiles - achieving almost 3x speed of sound - and is considered the best in the world.”
NavIC: The surgical precision of these strikes, writes Padmanabhan “was achieved by using NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation), India's homegrown satellite navigations system put together by Isro. It is the equivalent of GPS (US), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (EU), and BeiDou (China). The accuracy of NavIC's footprint over the subcontinent is within a metre.”
