THE CONTEXT: The four-day Operation Sindoor (7 – 10 May 2025)—the first India-Pakistan engagement in which unmanned aerial systems (UAS), rather than piloted combat aircraft, executed the main kinetic tasks. Both exchanged swarms of armed drones, loitering munitions, and electronic decoys under a carefully managed “below-threshold” escalation ladder, redefining the grammar of deterrence in South Asia. The drones are viewed as a cost-effective coercive instrument that avoids the political risk of pilot losses.
TECHNICAL ORDER OF BATTLE:
| Parameter | India | Pakistan |
|---|---|---|
| ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) | IAI Heron Mk-II (Israel); TAPAS-BH-201 / Rustom-II (indigenous) | Shahpar-II (indigenous); Bayraktar TB-2 (Turkey) |
| Loitering Munitions | Harop (Israel), Nagastra-1 (DRDO) | CH-901, WS-43 (China) |
| Swarm Assets | DRDO “Air-Launched Swarm Drone” (150 mini-UAV package) | Domestically-fabricated quad-swarms |
| Air-Defence Kill-Chain | Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) & Akashteer digital grid | HQ-9 batteries around Lahore; Ya Zahra SAMs on western front |
| Counter-UAS | Spyder-SR, Pechora upgrades, 30 kW Laser DEW (Mk IIA) tested April 2025 | FM-90, jamming pods, MANPADS |
Note: ISR = Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance; DEW = Directed Energy Weapon.
KEY TECHNOLOGIES DEPLOYED — WHAT THEY ARE & HOW THEY WORK:
| Technology Family | System | Working Principle (simplified) | Combat Value in Operation Sindoor |
|---|---|---|---|
| MALE ISR Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) | Heron Mk-II (Israel), TAPAS-BH-201 / Rustom-II (India) | Twin-boom drone cruises at ~200 km h, 35 h endurance; Synthetic-Aperture Radar, electro-optical/infra-red (EO/IR) gimbals stream real-time video through Ku-band SATCOM links. | 48-h pre-strike “pattern-of-life” mapping of terror camps and Pakistani SAM batteries. |
| Loitering Munition (Kamikaze Drone) | Harop (Israel), Nagastra-1 (DRDO) | Blended-wing drone with delta canard; passive anti-radiation seeker hunts radar emissions, loiters 2-3 h, then dives with 15 kg HE warhead. | Knock-out of HQ-9 site near Lahore; zero risk to pilots. |
| AI-Enabled Swarm Drone | 150-node Air-Launched Swarm (DRDO) | Mother aircraft ejects canisters; each mini-UAV uses on-board neural-net for self-assigning targets (behaviour rules inspired by “boids” algorithm); mesh radio keeps swarm coherent even if nodes drop. | Saturated Pakistani radars, forcing premature interceptor launches. |
| Directed-Energy Weapon (DEW) | 30 kW Fibre-Laser (DRDO) | High-energy photons focused by adaptive mirror; burns control surfaces of incoming drones within 5 km; silent, shot-per-rupee cost negligible once fielded. | Mobile DEW trucks on western border logged first operational kills of quad-copters. |
| Integrated Air Command & Control | IACCS (Indian Air Force) | Sensor fusion of ground, airborne and satellite radars; AI engine prioritises tracks, auto-allocates “shooter” (Akash, Barak-8, Spyder). Redundant fibre-optic and SATCOM back-up. | Maintained 360° situational awareness despite spoofing attempts; supported 600+ drone kills. |
| Ground-Tactical C² | Akashteer (Army Air Defence) | Digitised control and reporting network; links low-level sensors to quick-reaction guns/MANPADS; feeds into IACCS. | Enabled sub-10-second “sensor-to-shooter” loop along Punjab & Rajasthan sectors. |
| Navigation & Guidance | NavIC/INS Hybrid | Hardened Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System receivers fused with Ring-Laser Gyro Inertial Navigation; fallback to terrain-contour matching. | Resisted GNSS jamming over LoC; ensured terminal accuracy of Nagastra-1 strikes. |
SECURITY ARCHITECTURE IN INDIA – LAYERED, YET STILL EVOLVING
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- Strategic Apex: Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) under Chief of Defence Staff ensures tri-service jointness; Defence Space Agency provides satellite bandwidth and space-based ISR.
- National Air-Defence Triangle:
- Sensor Layer – Mountain-top AESA radars (Arudhra) + aerostat radars + AEW&C “Netra” aircraft.
- Decision Layer – IACCS (Air Force) and Akashteer (Army) fuse tracks into a common real-time air picture.
- Shooter Layer – Quick-reaction guns (ZU-23-2), Very-Short-Range Air-Defence (VSHORAD) missiles, Akash-NG (medium range), Barak-8 (long range), S-400 “Sudarshan Chakra” (strategic).
- Counter-UAS Ring: Passive RF direction-finders, jammers, DEW trucks and Spyder-SR at critical infrastructure.
- Blue-Force Tracking & De-confliction: Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) DigitalSky platform shares civilian unmanned-traffic information with IACCS to avoid fratricide.
- Cyber & EW Shield: Defence Cyber Agency (DCA) oversees spectrum dominance; National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) encrypts C² nodes.
OPERATIONAL SHORTFALLS EXPOSED & UPGRADE IMPERATIVES:
| Observed Flaw | Root Cause | Upgrade Required |
|---|---|---|
| Patchy Low-Altitude Radar Coverage in Thar sector allowed 37 Pakistani micro-drones to infiltrate before interception. | Reliance on 1980-era THD-1955 radars with 200 m minimum-detectable altitude. | Deploy truck-mounted Vigil AESA gap-fillers every 40 km; integrate passive IR sky-watch sensors. |
| EW Saturation – IACCS nodes briefly lost Ku-band uplink when adversary flooded spectrum with wide-band noise bursts. | Single-band datalink dependency. | Shift to frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) + laser COM links; embed quantum-resistant encryption. |
| Supply-Chain Fragility – Imported Li-ion cells and IR sensors faced customs delay amid global chip crunches. | 65 % component import dependency. | Swarm Sahayata PLI: Incentivise domestic battery, sensor-grade Indium-Antimonide fabs by 2027. |
| Legacy Gun Systems needed manual cueing, slowing kill-chain by 15–20 s. | WWII-era L/70 gun mounts lack digital fire-control. | Retrofit electro-optical directors & predictive fire-control computers; field D-4 (DRDO) 40 mm smart-ammo rounds. |
| Legal Grey Zone on autonomous lethal engagement—no codified human-in-the-loop criteria. | Absence of dedicated statute; dependence on MoD executive orders. | Draft Autonomous Weapons and Counter-UAS Bill, 2026 to anchor testing, certification and accountability. |
THE WAY FORWARD:
A. Technological Road-Map
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- National Counter-UAS Grid (NCUG): Mesh 1,000 passive RF/EO nodes with 200 high-energy laser interceptors across border states; central control through IACCS-II Cloud. Finance via the Defence Cyber Agency capital budget.
- NavIC++ Adoption: Deploy dual-frequency L1/L5 NavIC receivers with anti-spoofing authentication; back-fit on Heron and Rustom fleets by 2027.
- Quantum-Secure Datalinks: Pilot Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) between AWACS and ground nodes on Mumbai-Jodhpur fibre corridor.
- Swarm Sandbox: Defence AI Project Agency to open source a non-export-controlled swarming kernel for academia-startup co-development.
B. Organisational & Regulatory Measures
1. Air Defence Command Operationalisation by 2026 with an exclusive Counter-UAS Brigade for western & northern fronts.
2. Autonomous Warfare Oversight Authority (AWOA): Mandate Verification-and-Validation (V&V) and ethical audit for every algorithm, modelled on U.S. DoD Directive 3000.09.
3. Drone Rules 2021—Schedule VI Update: Reserve 960-1030 MHz band exclusively for military UAS during hostilities; compulsory geofencing API for private drones near border belts.
4. State–Centre Joint Counter-Drone Protocols: Equip Border States with plug-and-play Akashteer consoles and conduct weekly joint drills.
C. Diplomacy & Confidence-Building
-
- Propose a South Asia Drone CBM Regime—24-hour pre-notification of drone exercises above 15,000 ft, mirroring ballistic-test HOTLINE templates.
- Champion an “Algorithmic Arms-Control Clause” at the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons for meaningful human control in lethal autonomy debates.
D. Whole-of-Nation Ecosystem
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- Skill-Up: Launch a Defence Drone Fellowship at IIT-Kanpur and IISc for AI-EW fusion curricula.
- Industry 4.0 Clusters: Create “Drone Corridors” connecting Belagavi composites, Coimbatore avionics, and Lucknow software parks, leveraging existing Defence Industrial Corridors.
- Dual-Use Doctrine: Codify the phased transfer of decommissioned military UAVs to the National Disaster Response Force for flood mapping and coastal cyclone relief, showcasing the peace dividends of defense technology.
THE CONCLUSION:
Operation Sindoor marks a paradigm shift: future crises may unfold through silent propellers and algorithmic kill-chains rather than dogfights. Marrying Atmanirbhar industrial depth with robust doctrinal and regulatory guardrails is critical to preserve deterrence stability in a volatile nuclear dyad while harnessing the promise of autonomous systems for national power projection.
UPSC PAST YEAR QUESTION:
Q. How is the S-400 air defence system technically superior to any other system presently available in the world? 2021
MAINS PRACTICE QUESTION:
Q. Operation Sindoor reveals that the decisive battles of the future will be waged in the algorithmic and electromagnetic domains rather than on traditional battlefields. Discuss.
SOURCE:
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/autonomous-warfare-in-operation-sindoor/article69633124.ece
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