‘India’s standoff with Pakistan has shown a sophisticated style of escalation management’
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The recent India-Pakistan standoff presents a significant shift in the evolution of modern day warfare. It signifies a transformation in India’s military engagement that transcends a traditional understanding of how wars are fought in South Asia and beyond. Operation Sindoor can no longer be seen as a bilateral dispute between the two countries but as an important example of how wars are fought globally, highlighting how technological innovation, strategic calculus, and information manipulation have fundamentally reshaped how military confrontation happens.
Drone warfare is the most revolutionary feature of this war. The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is a sharp departure from traditional operating strategies, as emphasised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his recent speech. In contrast to traditional air combat, which was based on costly and manned fighter jets, contemporary drone warfare is a case of deployment of asymmetric technology. Operation Sindoor has also demonstrated that conventional military force is now not about standalone and expensive platforms, but the capability to introduce swarms of inexpensive, expendable reconnaissance and strike vehicles in order to deluge the enemy.
Drones in the matrix
India’s reported interception of Pakistan’s attempted drone intrusion that reportedly involved between 300 to 400 Songar drones (Turkish-made) across 36 locations demonstrates the scale of this technological revolution. This approach has transformed aerial warfare from a high-stakes, high-risk engagement to a more calculated, probabilistic domain. The SkyStriker Kamekazi drones that India used, allowed India to probe defensive capabilities, gather intelligence about Pakistan’s air defence system, and conduct precision strikes with minimal human risk and collateral damage. The proliferation of drone technologies in all modern conflicts underscores a normalisation of aerial warfare capabilities that was unimaginable just a decade ago.
Air defence has moved from fixed, hardware-oriented methods to layered, dynamic networks of defence. India’s multi-layered air defence — that is composed of indigenous systems such as Akash and Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missiles (QRSAM) together with imported state-of-the-art systems such as Russia’s S-400 and the Barak-8 (jointly developed by Israel and India) — is an example of the new strategic philosophy of a layered defence approach, as emphasized in a press release by Lieutenant General Rajiv Ghai, the present Director General of Military Operations. India’s Akashteer system, that digitally merges radar information for real-time decision-making, is an evolutionary step in defensive capabilities. No longer are missile systems a concern but the development of an adaptive, smart defence network that is able to process and neutralise several simultaneous threats.
Information, deterrence and doctrine
Information warfare has emerged as perhaps the most sophisticated battlefield in the turn of the event. The confrontation has also exposed how disinformation has transformed itself from a mere propaganda tool to a strategic weapon at an unprecedented scale. Pakistan’s information operations demonstrated a nuanced approach to psychological warfare, leveraging digital platforms to create alternative narratives and manipulate international and domestic perceptions, and attempting to fracture India’s morale. By circulating doctored videos, fabricated claims and strategically crafted social media content, it was evident that countries can now wage psychological operations that extend far beyond traditional propaganda mechanisms.
The parallels with the modern wars such as the Israel-Palestine and Russia-Ukraine wars are quite evident. Both conflicts illustrate how modern warfare has transcended physical boundaries, transforming information spaces into multiple theatres of engagement. The ability to control narratives, manipulate international attention and create strategic ambiguity has become as crucial as traditional military capabilities. This represents a fundamental shift from kinetic warfare to a more nuanced form of conflict where perception management can be as decisive as military action.
Technological independence has become an imperative strategic necessity. India’s show of indigenous platforms such as the Akash missile system and its current work on Project Kusha (a missile project) reflect a larger worldwide trend towards technological independence. It is not just a question of military prowess but also an all-encompassing strategy of minimising foreign dependency, generating economic opportunities through exports of defence products, and asserting technological credibility at the international level.
India’s strategic deterrence approach has seen a qualitative transformation. The standoff with Pakistan has shown a sophisticated style of escalation management, where India has signalled strategic capabilities without necessitating full-scale war. This calibrated response model permitted the firm projection of military intent while leaving space for diplomatic flexibility and communication. It was a nuanced departure from traditional models of binary military engagement, where conflicts were normally framed as either total war or total peace.
There seems a visible shift in India’s military warfighting doctrine, signalling a departure from its historically defensive posture to a more proactive, precision-oriented strategic approach. Perhaps the most evident and strategic shift after India’s enunciation of its nuclear doctrine can be sensed in the Prime Minister’s address on May 12. This doctrinal shift can be characterised by three critical elements.
First, the capacity to respond quickly to provocations with accurately measured force; second, the development of a comprehensive and layered defence and offence capability that combines indigenous technologies with cutting-edge imported systems; and third, an advanced escalation control posture that makes precision projection of military power possible without precipitating all-out war. This was reiterated in the May 12 speech by explaining how war has created ‘new normal’ in the ‘new age warfare’ for India.
Joint operations by the forces
Of note is a transformation in joint operations by the Indian armed forces, reflected in unprecedented levels of inter-service coordination that cut across the conventional organisational silos. The Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) became the operational spine, synchronising action by the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force in real time. It fulfilled inter-service integration from a theoretical concept and transformed it into an operational reality. Internal and external intelligence agencies delivered a unified support that facilitated strategic decision-making and precision targeting.
But the democratisation of warfare technologies also poses challenges and opportunities for India. With cutting-edge technologies becoming more accessible, Pakistan is also now capable of creating asymmetric warfare capabilities that can successfully counter the conventional military power of India. This transformation calls for a complete overhaul of military strategy, intelligence gathering, and defence planning. The most important lesson from this confrontation may be the realisation that contemporary warfare is inherently multi-dimensional. Victory is no longer measured in terms of territorial conquest or brute military power, but in terms of the capacity to combine technological, informational and psychological methods in an operational model.
Harsh V. Pant is Vice President, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi. Ankit K. is an Assistant Professor of Security Studies at the Rashtriya Raksha University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat
Published – May 15, 2025 12:16 am IST