Operation Sindoor marks combat debut for two women colonels
Operation Sindoor marked a pivotal moment as two women commanding officers led air defence units against Pakistan during the May 2025 conflict.
Operation Sindoor — India’s retaliation against Pakistan for the Pahalgam terror strike — served as a rite of passage for two women commanding officers who were at the centre of the army’s muscular air defence (AD) that countered Pakistan’s missile and drone attacks on multiple Indian military installations, airbases and cities during the May 7-10 clash between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, people aware of the matter said on Friday.
The women colonels commanded two of the 25-odd Indian Army AD units that beat off the enemy’s unceasing aerial attacks on military and civilian areas, including religious places, the people added, asking not to be named.
The operation marked the maiden live combat exposure for the army’s women commanding officers (COs).
One of the women COs led her AD unit at Pathankot in Punjab; the other at Suratgarh in Rajasthan, HT learns. Both cities were among the locations that the Pakistani forces attempted to target along India’s western front, but India’s resilient AD shield fended off the attacks.
“The women COs were in the thick of the action and their leadership was commendable during the operation. They assumed the command of their units barely two years ago,” said one of the people cited above.
The two COs are the only women in their units, said a second person. An AD unit has around 800 soldiers.
The army currently inducts women Agniveers in its personnel below officer rank (PBOR) cadre only in the Corps of Military Police.
India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 when the army and the Indian Air Force (IAF) hit nine terror camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, killing more than 100 terrorists. It triggered four days of strikes and counterstrikes with fighter jets, missiles, drones, long-range weapons and heavy artillery before the two sides reached an understanding on stopping all military action on May 10.
And between the strikes on the terror sites and the calling of the ceasefire, the IAF struck multiple military targets in Pakistan, which attempted to target several locations in India’s north and west including Awantipora, Srinagar, Jammu, Chandigarh, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bathinda, Suratgarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj.
The army began appointing women as COs in 2023 — a watershed in the country ‘s military history — when it conducted a special selection board to promote 108 women officers to the rank of colonel.
The move was aimed at bringing about gender parity, offering women command assignments in select branches, and giving them new hard-earned identities.
Around 120 women are currently serving as COs, with 60% of them heading units in operational areas, including forward locations in the Northern and Eastern Commands that are responsible for guarding India’s borders.
Operation Sindoor marked trial by fire for Agniveers too, as first reported by HT on Thursday.
At least 3,000 Agniveers — barely 20 years old and recruited during the last two years — manned critical weapons and systems integral to the army’s hardy AD shield, which Pakistan couldn’t punch through despite launching wave after wave of missile and drone attacks.
The soldiers, recruited under the Agnipath model, made their training count at a pivotal moment and acquitted themselves honourably in different roles during the four-day military confrontation that sparked fears of a full-blown shooting war with Pakistan.
The Agnipath scheme for recruiting PBOR in the three services, for long a political hot button, was introduced around three years ago with the stated objective of keeping the armed forces young and battle-ready. Agnipath was a major departure from the military’s decades-old recruitment system that was scrapped when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government announced the new scheme in June 2022.
It recruits soldiers for only four years, with a provision to retain 25% of them in regular service for another 15 years.
The Agniveers helped operationalise the locally developed air defence control and reporting system, called Akashteer, which emerged as the centrepiece of India’s AD grid during the clash.
Serving alongside the regular soldiers, they took down targets with shoulder-fired missiles; manned and fired guns including the upgraded L-70s and Zu-23-2Bs; operated the Pechora, Schilka, OSA-AK, Strela and Tunguska weapons, and the medium-range surface-to-air missile system; manned a variety of radars and Akashteer nodes; were an integral part of the communication network; and drove vehicles used for transporting and launching missiles.
The agile Akashteer system, an integral part of the Indian military’s multi-layered AD grid, played a pivotal role in detecting, identifying, tracking and engaging Pakistani missiles and drones. It is mated with IAF’s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), the beating heart of the military’s four-tiered AD shield that Pakistan couldn’t penetrate.
India’s AD grid operated with multiple weapons across four levels, depending on the distance of the incoming target. The weapons that formed part of the grid included the S-400 system.
The locally produced military hardware that packed a formidable punch during the military confrontation with Pakistan included Akash surface-to-air missiles, the Samar (surface-to-air missile for assured retaliation) system and several counter-drone weapons.
The threats countered by the Indian forces included Chinese-origin PL-15 air-to-air missiles, long-range rockets, loitering munitions, and Turkish-origin drones.
