Centre gives nod for weapons that outgun Pakistan's arsenal

Centre has allowed inventory upgradation with longer-range loitering ammunition, artillery shells, kamikaze drones and beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles.

Even as national security planners and military chiefs celebrated one month of Operation Sindoor on Saturday evening, HT learns that the defence ministry has given the green signal to the three services to replenish inventory with longer-range loitering ammunition, artillery shells, kamikaze drones and beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles that out-range the Chinese missiles used by Pakistan during the four day high intensity skirmish.

The decision was taken on the basis of action taken reports and damage assessment undertaken by the three services. (ANI)

According to people familiar with the matter and on the basis of action taken reports and damage assessment undertaken by the three services, there is digital evidence to conclude that the Indian Air Force (IAF) fighters, surface-to-air missile batteries and S-400 air defence system downed four Pakistani Chinese-made fighter jets and two big aircraft (possibly one C-130 J and one SAAB 2000 airborne early warning system) during Operation Sindoor. There are also indications, the people added, that two F-16 fighter aircraft may have been partly damaged during the IAF’s missile assault on 11 airbases, including those at Sargodha, Rafiqui, Jacobabad and Nur Khan (Chaklala, Rawalpindi). The reports indicate that India’s Rafale fighters, S-400 missile systems and M777 howitzers acquitted themselves well during the four-day conflict with the Russian air defence system taking three enemy aircraft.

They also show that India destroyed one Chinese LY-80 fire radar, two AN TPQ-43 US-made automatic tracking radar and one fire unit of Chinese HQ-9 radar at Chaklala during the retaliatory strike on May 10. Intelligence inputs now suggest that Pakistan has four HQ-9 (the Chinese equivalent of the Russian S-300 air defence radars) instead of two originally estimated by national security planners. The Pakistani military used the Chinese version of PL -15 air to air missile which has a range of 180 km.There are also inputs that the Pakistanis, by mixing two fire units of 250-km range HQ 9 air defence system with two other 150-km range systems at Chaklala and Malir cantonment near Karachi, respectively, may have tried to catch the Indian Air Force by surprise.

The Action Taken Reports also show that IAF fired 19 BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles on Pakistan air bases and almost an equal number of French SCALP subsonic cruise missiles. The Pakistanis, in turn, fired CM-400 AKG air-launched supersonic missiles at Indian air bases using Chinese JF-17 fighters but these failed to do any damage. The Turkish built YIHA loitering ammunition that Pakistanis fired in large numbers were either jammed by the Indian electronic warfare suite, missed their targets, or were taken down by India’s robust air defence system. Even the FATAH-1 rockets fired by Pakistan were either off the mark or were intercepted by the Indian air defence systems.

HT learns that there is now adequate evidence that India’s first counter-terror strike on May 7 was a success as Markaz-e-Taiba (the LeT headquarters at Muridke) was hit by four to five Crystal Maze missiles, which show a small entry point but damage the facility within. The Jaish-e-Mohammed facility at Markaz-e-Subhan Allah was hit by 6 SCALP missiles launched from Rafale fighters and totally destroyed the terror factory through pin-pointed strike using bunker busting techniques. The US-made Excalibur ammunition used by M-777 howitzers of the Indian Army destroyed the tier 2 defences of the Pakistan Army across the LoC as did India’s Polish-made loitering extended range ammunition.

The Indian Air Force and Indian Navy used Israeli loitering ammunition to destroy terror camps in Occupied Kashmir on May 7.

Between the launch of the operation in the early hours of May 7 and the ceasefire on the evening of May 10, Indian forces bombed nine terror camps in Pakistan and PoK and killed at least 100 terrorists, and the Indian Air Force struck targets at 13 Pakistani air bases and military installations.

On Tuesday, it emerged that India’s targeting of locations within Pakistan during the May 7-10 clash was more extensive than was previously known, with a Pakistani document acknowledging that Indian drones had struck locations ranging from Peshawar in the northwest to Hyderabad in the south.

Pakistan’s Operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos, which was mounted in response to Operation Sindoor, “folded in eight hours” on May 10 belying Islamabad’s ambitious target of bringing India to its knees in 48 hours, chief of defence staff General Anil Chauhan said on Tuesday.

The action taken reports as well as the immediate emphasis on replenishment suggest that the Indian forces are aware, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly said, that Operation Sindoor isn’t over.