Operation Sindoor Showed The IAF’s Strength, But Also Its Blind Spots

Swarajya Staff

Source Link

In contemporary air operations, the strength of a force depends less on the quantity of aircraft and more on the integration of fighters, sensors, and command systems.

If one was scrolling through X or Twitter yesterday, it was impossible to miss the flood of citations for the gallantry awardees of Operation Sindoor. Yet, alongside the accolades, a parallel debate has been simmering, sparked by a critical piece from a naval veteran examining the performance of the IAF during the operation.

There is little doubt that the IAF delivered a devastating blow to Pakistan in Operation Sindoor. It obliterated the JeM and LeT mosque complexes in Bahawalpur and Muridkie, targets that had long stood as grim symbols of India’s inability to punish Pakistan’s military-jihad nexus. Nearly a dozen Pakistani airbases were hammered with pinpoint accuracy, while successive waves of Pakistani counterattacks were intercepted and neutralised by the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS).

Yet, as the post-Operation Sindoor euphoria begins to settle, the IAF faces some hard questions.

Much of the public debate has focused on whether India got its money’s worth from the Rafales. The fact that 36 Rafales equipped with Meteor missiles cannot tip the balance in beyond-visual-range air combat should not be difficult to grasp. Moreover, with China for help, Pakistan will almost always have access to countermeasures, such as PL-15–equipped J-10s in this case, capable of blunting, if not matching, India’s capabilities.

But IAF has only itself to blame for the questions over the Rafales. For years, the service presented the aircraft as a silver bullet that would decisively shift the balance. This reflects a deeper problem. The IAF has long suffered from a platform-centric mindset, believing that air superiority comes from acquiring the next aircraft rather than integrating all its assets into a single, intelligent network.

No aircraft, however advanced, can deliver its full potential without a robust digital backbone connecting it to other sensors, shooters, and command nodes.