Operation Sindoor - Post Conflict Analysis

[williams]

Tom Cooper believes in the 90s India's armed forces was a superpower but the political dispensation was not willing to use the Indian assets.,,

Yes, and that gives reason to believe that this period's politico-bureaucratic dispensation (irrespective of party affiliation) is compromised. If we had acted this way, we could have saved many lives in the 90s. Somewhere, there was a missing link between Indian capability and the decision to use that capability. Pakis were also very aware of this missing link and they exploited it to the max. The residue of this psyche is what we see in some of the world's media. They still believe that Indian decision makers and policy professionals can be influenced by their false propaganda.

A few dates we need to remember, the Brahmos missile came to play in 1995, and we should have had a rudimentary missile in the Kargil conflict. The same goes for Akash, whose development trails started in 1997. We must address the lethargy issue in decision-making and long cycles between development and deployment at an institutional level to avoid repeating it.

[ramana]

Possible that US has own maal comingled in Chaklala airbase and Kirna Hills storage.

Odd that Chinese are least bothered about cleaning up own warhead technology but US has rushed it's NEST team.

Pak must have hidden this from the Chinese too!

[vera_k]

Of the 3 players Turkey, China, US called out in this article, Turkey is the weakest.
On this, India's interests run counter to Nato.

Global equilibrium upended

[V_Raman]

IMO the key superpower enabler is the full spectrum AD we have now. We cannot compare to USA who is geographically in a far away island - I dont think they can intercept 400 drones even today like what we did - they dont need to for their mainland and their THAAD is a joke which fails repeatedly. The true mark of a superpower with neighbors as enemies is this AD. Russia has this and now India has this. Indian ocean is now truly India's ocean

[brvarsh]

Trump is making such comments for several reasons, foremost is, after his debacle in Ukraine conflict, he has to show something to his domestic audience. He is also looking for an opening into the Kashmir issue to put his foot in. He is trying to dilute India's stance of Kashmir being a bilateral issue. In the backdrop, in his narrative, he does not want to build India's strong image that has come out after this conflict as it would have some business consequences catapulting India as a potent Military hardware supplier. On the other hand, he wants to project India's vulnerability to pressure it to purchase F-35 he offered. All in all, he is driven by his own interest and until Pakistan threatens that interest directly, it will always come to prevent its total destruction and in messaging, place US as a mediator.

[ramana]

Member tandav is banned for four weeks for indulging in Pak propaganda.
Thanks, ramana

[ramana]

Trump is making such comments for several reasons, foremost is, after his debacle in Ukraine conflict, he has to show something to his domestic audience. He is also looking for an opening into the Kashmir issue to put his foot in. He is trying to dilute India's stance of Kashmir being a bilateral issue. In the backdrop, in his narrative, he does not want to build India's strong image that has come out after this conflict as it would have some business consequences catapulting India as a potent Military hardware supplier. On the other hand, he wants to project India's vulnerability to pressure it to purchase F-35 he offered. All in all, he is driven by his own interest and until Pakistan threatens that interest directly, it will always come to prevent its total destruction and in messaging, place US as a mediator.

About a hundred plus F-35s are in various stages of assembly and in abeyance after Trump verbal attacks on EU.
He wanted India to help him out. This will be not done as if he can threaten trade think of what he can do with combat jets!

As for ceasefire etc I strongly suspects US had something classified in Chaklala storage. Ceasefire is to reduce that.
No word from Chinese about Pak nukes which are supposed to be their design if not manufacture.

[RCase]

Pakistan Air Force: We have reduced the Indian Air Force’s Adampur base to rubble.

PM Modi: Cool. Let me land there first thing in the morning.

PAF: Even the S-400 stationed there is down.

PM Modi: Great idea. Let me pose right in front of it.

Nobody trolls better than the chief. The man doesn’t do statements. He does comebacks.

Brilliant! Modiji's info war skills far outclass the Paki and Western media crap. Such a tight slap to all those idiots parroting the DGISPR bull crap.

The image speaks so loudly, without having to say anything. This will become an iconic image similar to the Niazi surrender photo.

Adampur Airbase, MiG-29, S-400!

Humble suggestion: Visit to Ambala airstation with the backdrop of Rafales lined up!

[williams]

IMO the key superpower enabler is the full spectrum AD we have now. We cannot compare to USA who is geographically in a far away island - I dont think they can intercept 400 drones even today like what we did - they dont need to for their mainland and their THAAD is a joke which fails repeatedly. The true mark of a superpower with neighbors as enemies is this AD. Russia has this and now India has this. Indian ocean is now truly India's ocean

Very true. The US has no operational threat of this kind. However, they (and others worldwide) will actively study Indian AD infrastructure. I sat with a very junior-level retired officer who worked in one of IA's AD regiments and chatted. He comments that it is not just one weapon system but a series of weapon systems and communication infrastructure. He says building an AD system in itself is an art, and doing that for such a large country like India with such imminent threats on multiple fronts is a black art.

[VinodTK]

Tom Cooper with Navika Kumar in English.

ऑस्ट्रियाई डिफेंस एक्सपर्ट का बहुत बड़ा बयान | Operation Sindoor | India Vs PAK

[Luxtor]

^^
https://x.com/xe0n13/status/19222210649 ... _4j-Q&s=19

Enhanced this PAF Bholari Airbase Maxar image shared by
@VishnuNDTV. Running an edge detection algorithm on it clearly indicates presence of an aircraft ( likely F-16 ) inside hanger likely damaged. @detresfa_ @ShivAroor @adgpi @IAF_MCC #OperationSindoor

Oh, that F-16 damage is very minimal, it'll buff right off.

[Suraj]

Meanwhile the Turks are in damage control mode while predictably missing the target of Indian anger entirely, same as PAF.

[V_Raman]

About a hundred plus F-35s are in various stages of assembly and in abeyance after Trump verbal attacks on EU.
He wanted India to help him out. This will be not done as if he can threaten trade think of what he can do with combat jets!

As for ceasefire etc I strongly suspects US had something classified in Chaklala storage. Ceasefire is to reduce that.
No word from Chinese about Pak nukes which are supposed to be their design if not manufacture.

I remember Clinton offering F35 for 60M a piece? Not a bad deal if they can give us 100 for 6B and make them all the VSTOL carrier variety for a change with MRO facilities in India - heck we can pay 10B for such a setup! Of course, it has to come unencumbered with no link to alphabet soup of treaties, deep customization with NAVIC, and our own domestic weapons integration capability....

[bala]

Possible that US has own maal comingled in Chaklala airbase and Kirna Hills storage.

I am beginning to speculate:

[speculate]
US and China are using Pak land nuke storage as their own storage facility of spent nuclear fuel. Pak land is getting paid for this nuclear refuse dump. Meanwhile both of them spun this as Pak land nukes deterrent against India.

A missile into such storage would cause radiation leak due to spent nuclear fuel's dying radiation trail.
[/speculate]

[RCase]

As for ceasefire etc I strongly suspects US had something classified in Chaklala storage. Ceasefire is to reduce that.
No word from Chinese about Pak nukes which are supposed to be their design if not manufacture.

Ramana ji - I had mentioned that in a prior post. I felt that the abrupt cessation of firing by India was to accommodate the US to do something on Paki soil and probably had a nuclear angle. Else, India could have gone on to decapitate the Pak fauj or maintained low intensity surprise warfare to tire out the Paki's militarily and economically.

The Chinese don't care about pollution as much. I am sure the Chinese intrinsically do not hold the Pakis in high esteem. Mainland China is too far away to be affected by nuclear radiation in Pak. It is an open secret that the Paki nukes were Chinese designs or possibly manufactured. My head cannot wrap itself with the idea that the in-bred Pakis have the wherewithal to design and manufacture nukes. There may be a few brilliant people, but to have the ecosystem to design and manufacture is stretching my intellect.

[A_Gupta]

If we are going to revisit decisions of the past and decide folks back then were “compromised” we need to look at all the circumstances in which the decisions were made.

In 1995 the Y2K effort that launched India’s services exports had not started. Pakistan’s economy was riding high. India’s GDP was behind Mexico. PSLV development flight 3 was still in the future (1996). In 1995 India filed 7,036 patents, last year 108,603.

Before saying people of the past were “compromised” at least look at the difference in comprehensive national power.

[Ambar]

Trump is making such comments for several reasons, foremost is, after his debacle in Ukraine conflict, he has to show something to his domestic audience. He is also looking for an opening into the Kashmir issue to put his foot in. He is trying to dilute India's stance of Kashmir being a bilateral issue. In the backdrop, in his narrative, he does not want to build India's strong image that has come out after this conflict as it would have some business consequences catapulting India as a potent Military hardware supplier. On the other hand, he wants to project India's vulnerability to pressure it to purchase F-35 he offered. All in all, he is driven by his own interest and until Pakistan threatens that interest directly, it will always come to prevent its total destruction and in messaging, place US as a mediator.

He needs a new target for his ADHD-fueled outrage every month. If it’s not the Canadians, then it’s the Europeans; if not them, it’s Mexico, China, or Ukraine. Give it a few days, and he’ll move on to the next scapegoat.One important lesson from China’s rise is that when you're on an upward trajectory, others will inevitably try to bring you down. In geopolitics, there are no permanent friends or enemies, only shifting interests. That’s why it’s critical that we stay focused on our $10 trillion goal and continue building our internal capabilities.

Despite being geographically saddled with challenging neighbors like China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, we’re fortunate to be largely self-sufficient—except for oil. That’s a strength we must continue to leverage.On a side note, don’t be surprised if Trump hosts Shahbaz Sharif sooner rather than later. He met with Imran Khan near the end of his term, but this time, I suspect he’ll meet Pakistan’s new Prime Minister much earlier likely to send a message to India, whatever that message may be.

[S_Madhukar]

I think the US has been faffing around the trade deal with us because they don’t want to accommodate us at all. We must use this as leverage and possibly with some media outlets … they will never let out such an opportunity if we were in the mat

[Suraj]

At the start of Indian economic liberalization in 1991, these were the top provinces across either country ranked by state GDPs in USD:
1. Punjab (TSP)
2. Maharashtra
3. West Bengal
4. Uttar Pradesh
5. Sindh (TSP)
6. Tamil Nadu
7. Andhra Pradesh
8. Gujarat
9. Madhya Pradesh
10. Karnataka

Fast forward to the present day and the situation reads:
1. Maharashtra
2. Tamil Nadu
3 -5 : Uttar Pradesh / Karnataka / Pakistan (all of it), nearly tied
6. Gujarat
7. West Bengal
8. Rajasthan
9. Telangana
10. Andhra Pradesh

In other words, all of Pakistan amounts to somewhere between positions 3-5 among Indian states by size of economy. Punjab (Pakistan) would rank between West Bengal and Rajasthan in terms of GDP. That's their highest ranked province by GDP. By 2030, Pakistan as a whole, viewed as a state, won't rank in the top 5 of Indian states by GDP, even though their population exceeds Uttar Pradesh.

Of course this means that among the 28 Indian states ranked by HDI, Pakistan as a whole ranks #29 - behind Bihar which actually has Medium tier HDI now, well above Pakistan's Low tier.

Most people lack context as to just how much things have changed. In 1980, Punjab (TSP) was a whole 40% larger as an economy than India's biggest state by economy - Maharashtra. Today, Maharashtra is 2.5x the size of Punjab(TSP).

[krithivas]

After Lt. Gen. PR Shankar (retd) revelation on Sanjay Dixit, India has new slogan:

Aham Brahmosmi.

Great quote: Used it- I have time to spend wisely, more ideas welcome:

[williams]

If we are going to revisit decisions of the past and decide folks back then were “compromised” we need to look at all the circumstances in which the decisions were made.

In 1995 the Y2K effort that launched India’s services exports had not started. Pakistan’s economy was riding high. India’s GDP was behind Mexico. PSLV development flight 3 was still in the future (1996). In 1995 India filed 7,036 patents, last year 108,603.

Before saying people of the past were “compromised” at least look at the difference in comprehensive national power.

That is true our exports were 30 billion USD in 1995 as apposed to 824 billion USD in 2024 . We were also losing around 2000-3000 people per year on terrorist attacks (both civilian and military) at that time. However in terms of GDP Pak GDP was 60 billion USD while Indian GDP was 366 USD (1995). Perhaps it is different ball game that time. However, ours should be the most tolerable country against state sponsored terrorist attacks in history. We were trading, providing water and were also ready to demilitarize Siachen Glacier with a country that was killing 2000-3000 citizens every year. Perhaps "compromised" is a harsh word. "Incompetent" or "lethargic" or even "Insensitive" leadership could have been the apt description of the state of affairs then.

[Sumeet]

Tom Cooper believes in the 90s India's armed forces was a superpower but the political dispensation was not willing to use the Indian assets.,,

Yes, and that gives reason to believe that this period's politico-bureaucratic dispensation (irrespective of party affiliation) is compromised. If we had acted this way, we could have saved many lives in the 90s. Somewhere, there was a missing link between Indian capability and the decision to use that capability. Pakis were also very aware of this missing link and they exploited it to the max. The residue of this psyche is what we see in some of the world's media. They still believe that Indian decision makers and policy professionals can be influenced by their false propaganda.

A few dates we need to remember, the Brahmos missile came to play in 1995, and we should have had a rudimentary missile in the Kargil conflict. The same goes for Akash, whose development trails started in 1997. We must address the lethargy issue in decision-making and long cycles between development and deployment at an institutional level to avoid repeating it.

In 90s we were in Coalition era and most of secular parties would just tag along happily as long as their vote bank was not effected.

The public mind was mostly clouded with Nehurivian/Gandhian vision of being naive, stupid and always presenting oneself as fodder to the perpetrator one way or the other. Now that has changed. Our future generations don't want to live like this.

[Sumeet]

Tom Cooper with Navika Kumar in English.

This is a good 1-1 video. I wish someone with better understanding interviews Tom Cooper etc in more depth and detail.

I will summarize it later but one thing that stood out is Tom mentions Indian govt should have attacked air bases and launch facilities of TSPAF first and then struck terror camps so Pukes could be more handicapped. He said it's naive on part of current leadership to curtail hands of military and restrict oneself to only known terrorist targets. This won't earn any brownie points from the West because they would always criticize India one way or the other for this or that when it's v/s Pakistan.

Overall very interesting interview, totally BRFite worthy. I just wish anchor although has best intentions for her country, wish could display a more mature understanding of military technology, ways and infrastructure.

Tandav I know you recieved a ban but if you are lurking around please hear this out and it will answer your questions. Also, then understand what Air Marshall Bharti means when he said losses (I will add gains/wins) are part of combat we should focus on objectives and how to achieve them.

TSP has a national trait -- It's cricketers are obsessed about getting VK or RS out or hitting Jasprit for a six and loose focus on how to play collectively to win in the end and same is true about its forces. They were obsessed with Rafale or MKI but will loose focus on objectives.

[williams]

...Indian govt should have attacked air bases and launch facilities of TSPAF first and then struck terror camps so Pukes could be more handicapped. He said it's naive on part of current leadership to curtail hands of military and restrict oneself to only known terrorist targets. This won't earn any brownie points from the West because they would always criticize India one way or the other for this or that when it's v/s Pakistan.

Yeah I am not sure about the logic - "we only destroyed the terror infrastructure and not Paki military infrastructure." I am not sure if there was some diplomatic advantage in doing it that way. Paki military infrastructure is in a way terror infrastructure and we should at least do some defensive strikes to give ourselves some advantage in the future.

[RCase]

...Indian govt should have attacked air bases and launch facilities of TSPAF first and then struck terror camps so Pukes could be more handicapped. He said it's naive on part of current leadership to curtail hands of military and restrict oneself to only known terrorist targets. This won't earn any brownie points from the West because they would always criticize India one way or the other for this or that when it's v/s Pakistan.

Yeah I am not sure about the logic - "we only destroyed the terror infrastructure and not Paki military infrastructure." I am not sure if there was some diplomatic advantage in doing it that way. Paki military infrastructure is in a way terror infrastructure and we should at least do some defensive strikes to give ourselves some advantage in the future.

That would have been all out war from the get go and there would be no 'Non-escalatory, proportionate....'

[bala]

What? Actual losses reported...

Operation Sindoor: Details of Pak losses emerge; 20% of PAF infra, several warjets, officer among 50 killed
https://indianexpress.com/article/india ... -10002083/
14 May 2025

Sources said several terrorist bunkers and Pakistani Army positions were destroyed in retaliatory fire by Indian forces at the Line of Control.

India’s precision strikes at over a dozen military bases across Pakistan led to the destruction of nearly 20 per cent of Pakistan Air Force infrastructure and several PAF fighter aircraft, official sources disclosed Tuesday.

Sources said that the strikes, in retaliation for Pakistani attempts to hit Indian military installations and civilian areas with armed drones and missiles, targeted major ammunition depots and air bases such as Sargodha and Bholari where PAF’s F-16 and J-17 fighter aircraft were stationed.

Over 50 individuals, including Squadron Leader Usman Yusuf and four airmen, were killed in the strike on the Bholari air base in Jamshoro district of Sindh. Several PAF fighter jets were destroyed in the attack, sources said.

As part of retaliatory strikes during Operation Sindoor, India targeted military installations and the air bases of Nur Khan in Chaklala, Rafiqui in Shorkot, Murid in Chakwal, Sukkur, Sialkot, Pasrur, Chunian, Sargodha, Skardu, Bholari and Jacobabad.

Satellite images before and after the strike showed the scale of destruction at the Shahbaz air base in Jacobabad.

Sources said several terrorist bunkers and Pakistani Army positions were destroyed in retaliatory fire by Indian forces at the Line of Control.

Indian military commanders had earlier said that the Pakistan Army lost 35-40 personnel along the LoC in heavy crossfire, and the PAF lost “a few” aircraft.

On Monday, the Armed Forces released visual evidence of the damage inflicted at Pakistani air bases and of various Pakistani drones and missiles that were successfully intercepted and destroyed by Indian air defence systems.

On Tuesday, Lt General D S Rana, Director General, Defence Intelligence Agency, briefed Foreign Service Attaches of 70 countries on the successful conduct of Operation Sindoor.

In a post on X, Headquarter IDS said Lt General Rana elaborated on the planning process for selection of targets with confirmed terror linkages, and highlighted the integrated, precise and prompt response by the Indian Armed Forces to achieve its military objectives, which were executed through intense multi-domain operations.

“Synergised Force application through Jointness and Integration achieved in Op Sindoor with demonstrated battle effectiveness of indigenous kinetic Force Multipliers was showcased to the FSAs, while highlighting Technological Superiority of Indian Armed Forces in niche non-kinetic domains of Space, Cyber & Electronic Warfare,” it said.

[Amber G.]

Possible that US has own maal comingled in Chaklala airbase and Kirna Hills storage.

I am beginning to speculate:

[speculate]
US and China are using Pak land nuke storage as their own storage facility of spent nuclear fuel. Pak land is getting paid for this nuclear refuse dump. Meanwhile both of them spun this as Pak land nukes deterrent against India.

A missile into such storage would cause radiation leak due to spent nuclear fuel's dying radiation trail.
[/speculate]

FWIW:
As a physicist, I have to say this claim doesn’t make much sense technically or strategically. Spent nuclear fuel is highly radioactive, thermally hot, and requires decades of managed storage in engineered containment—first in cooling pools, then in dry casks. It's not something countries just ship overseas casually, especially not to geopolitically sensitive areas like Pakistan.

The U.S. and China both have their own complex infrastructure for handling spent fuel. Offloading it to a third country would involve enormous logistical, political, and regulatory hurdles—not to mention risks. There's zero evidence of this kind of international transfer happening, and it would be a massive red flag for the IAEA and global monitoring systems.

Also, the idea that spent fuel is being passed off as part of Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent is flawed. It’s a waste product, not an asse d any attempt to extract fissile material requires a reprocessing facility, which is heavily monitored.

As for a missile strike causing a catastrophic radiation event: possible in theory, but storage casks are built to survive major impacts. You’d get localized contamination, not a nuclear disaster. It’s not a bomb, it’s just radioactive garbage—dangerous, yes, but not strategically useful.

In short, there’s no technical, strategic, or physical basis for this theory. It just doesn’t add up.

P.S. I can understand somebody putting this out as a psyop, but this kind of logic—which can be so easily disputed—is not wise.

[vera_k]

Forget anyone else. The domestic audience needs to be convinced of the necessity of war to cover the distance from -

First they ignore you
Then they laugh at you
Then they fight you
Then you win

To

First you bomb them
Then you win

I will summarize it later but one thing that stood out is Tom mentions Indian govt should have attacked air bases and launch facilities of TSPAF first and then struck terror camps so Pukes could be more handicapped. He said it's naive on part of current leadership to curtail hands of military and restrict oneself to only known terrorist targets. This won't earn any brownie points from the West because they would always criticize India one way or the other for this or that when it's v/s Pakistan.

[k prasad]

Tom Cooper with Navika Kumar in English.

This is a good 1-1 video. I wish someone with better understanding interviews Tom Cooper etc in more depth and detail.

Not sure if already posted, but Shiv Aroor interviewed Cooper... a much more technically interesting discussion:

Operation Sindoor A Major Success: Top Aviation Expert's Verdict

War historian Tom Cooper, one of the finest aviation experts in the world, in a very special conversation with NDTV's Shiv Aroor, explains why he thinks Operation Sindoor was a major success. Watch the conversation only on NDTV.

[Amber G.]

...Indian govt should have attacked air bases and launch facilities of TSPAF first and then struck terror camps so Pukes could be more handicapped. He said it's naive on part of current leadership to curtail hands of military and restrict oneself to only known terrorist targets. This won't earn any brownie points from the West because they would always criticize India one way or the other for this or that when it's v/s Pakistan.

Yeah I am not sure about the logic - "we only destroyed the terror infrastructure and not Paki military infrastructure." I am not sure if there was some diplomatic advantage in doing it that way. Paki military infrastructure is in a way terror infrastructure and we should at least do some defensive strikes to give ourselves some advantage in the future.

Good post. Next time we have to keep this in mind.

[Cyrano]

The part that needs improvement in terms of political will from the Indian side, is the ability to strike the Paki terrorists (both uniformed and the other variety) to preempt an attack. We should no longer wait for global diplomatic empathy to hit critical mass before attacking. It sounds like most of the diplomatic empathy is fake or apathetic. We can always do diplomatic things in parallel.

If I remember correctly I had advocated for exactly this kind of approach on the strat forum Paki thread when ambush attacks happened on our soldiers few months ago and got the usual pushbacks from some fellow members like we need to reach 5T first, fdi, tech gaps, 31 squadrons only, what about Paki nooks yadda yadda...

I'm hugely thrilled to see our sarkar didn't get bogged down by such considerations and went ahead and set new naarmals.

[Cyrano]

Possible that US has own maal comingled in Chaklala airbase and Kirna Hills storage.

Odd that Chinese are least bothered about cleaning up own warhead technology but US has rushed it's NEST team.

Pak must have hidden this from the Chinese too!

Very very plausible Ramana garu. Offically China has never been involved in Paki nook program, so it's position is like a burglar stung by a scorpion (thelu kuttina donga in Telugu)

[A_Gupta]

He said it's naive on part of current leadership to curtail hands of military and restrict oneself to only known terrorist targets. This won't earn any brownie points from the West because they would always criticize India one way or the other for this or that when it's v/s Pakistan.

Any suggestion that India is playing to keep the West happy, especially after india took an independent stand on Russia-Ukraine, chose not to enter any new alliance, rebuffed arms vendors, etc., etc., is actually offensive.

India could have declared war on Pakistan. It did not. Why?

India's final strike against Pakistan could have been much more punitive that it was. Why not?

Not because of brownie points. It is because of a balancing of the various national interests. India could have had a conventional landwar with Pakistan, comprehensively defeated them, but be set back economy-wise for five years. I also think the Indian leadership did not want Pakistan to formally declare war.

India could have tried to strike on April 23rd. Presumably the military advised against any such, because more preparation would reduce the risk. One recalls Sam Manekshaw saying No to Indira Gandhi in 1971. If the military are willing to tell the political leadership that such and such path carries too much risk, I have no doubt despite skeptics like Tom Cooper, that they weighed the risks versus the political objectives appropriately for all they did.

They could have had high confidence, but not certainty, that the air defense systems would work so spectacularly. They might have had a very good sense of how far India could go before reaching the nuclear threshold, but they could not be 100% certain. So on and so forth. You cannot go after their past decisions now based on what actually happened.

There are IMO, only two things that need to be examined by the Indian leadership when they do the retrospective/lessons learned , first - which is - given what they knew at the time, dd they take reasonable decisions? and second, ought they have known more at that time?

We can play the armchair general, but we simply do not have all of the information.

[Rakesh]

I remember Clinton offering F35 for 60M a piece? Not a bad deal if they can give us 100 for 6B and make them all the VSTOL carrier variety for a change with MRO facilities in India - heck we can pay 10B for such a setup! Of course, it has to come unencumbered with no link to alphabet soup of treaties, deep customization with NAVIC, and our own domestic weapons integration capability....

Saar, please don't even joke about US fighters being operated by the India.

The duplicity of the US knows no bounds.

[sanjaykumar]

Going after nuke storage sites 48 hrs after commencement of hostilities and being confident that Pakistan air and missile commands have been and are KNOWN to be ineffective is simply astounding.

This is not cautious generalship and a vacillating political leadership.

This is historic.

This is the start of the process to when India enters the UNSC. Not that that body is worthy of ambition.

[Luxtor]

Going after nuke storage sites 48 hrs after commencement of hostilities and being confident that Pakistan air and missile commands have been and are KNOWN to be ineffective is simply astounding.

This is not cautious generalship and a vacillating political leadership.

This is historic.

This is the start of the process to when India enters the UNSC. Not that that body is worthy of ambition.

Yes, that defunct organisation is nothing for India to strive for any more. Actually India should pull all its PK troops out if it and all logistical support in helicopters, vehicles, armoured personal carriers, etc out. Let P5 provide all that.

[RCase]

I know there is sigh of relief that a couple of Paki nuclear sites were struck and their nuclear bluff has been called. However, is it possible for them to have nuclear weapons stored somewhere else and use it later on in their 'survive to fight another day' thought process?

How can we be certain that they have been completely defanged and their nuclear labs/manufacturing facilities are dismantled?

[bala]

Has any nation at war had a foreign secretary brief press, with spokeperson from army and airforce. Usually operations folks of war have a briefing with press. India did lots of things unconventionally during operation Sindoor. India was fighting a multi domain warfare wherein the militiary component was only 1 domain. The good Maj Gen Rajiv Narayanan explains to Aadi Achint many hidden stories.

The nuclear bluff and nuclear umbrella of Pak land was shredded in matter of minutes. At Sargodha, the kirana hills (housing 1 set of war heads) the Indian strike set of a cook off of nuclear weapons to the tune of 4.0 richter. At least 5 entrances were hit. At Chagai hills which has another storage of nuke weapons the hit initiated another cook off of nukes registering 5.7 richter. Jacobabad airfield is nearby to Chagai hills housing nuclear weapon capable F-16 and that took a hit. The hits happened during 11 pm to 4 am and soon after the US aircraft was flying around with radioactive sensors. The US has protection systems at Chagai hills. India has 1 m CEP weapons with Navic precision guidance. BTW you can imagine how many folks were manning systems deep down in the tunnels of the hills of nuclear weapons of Pak land.

The Pak leadership were alarmed and immediately started their rona dhona with the US. The loss at Chagai hills and Jacobabad alerted the US and they immediately called ceasefire. However India did not agree to ceasefire, instead they agreed to halt firing temporarily and talk with DGMO between Pak land a day later.

Maj Gen Rajiv Narayanan on Hidden Story of the Ceasefire Between India Pakistan, Modi's Game

[A_Gupta]

@Suraj wrote:

Of course this means that among the 28 Indian states ranked by HDI, Pakistan as a whole ranks #29 - behind Bihar which actually has Medium tier HDI now, well above Pakistan's Low tier.

And Balochistan is the most impoverished province of Pakistan. Can you imagine their despair and fury?

[RCase]

Why is it that India agrees to ceasefire (pause etc.)? What if India had said it will consider the suggestion, but kept fighting for another few days to totally take out the Pak Fauj?

Could it be that India was not yet prepared to deal with the fallout from a total collapse of the state? If taking out the terror backers (Pak fauj) needed to be accomplished, we should have insisted on Munir to surrender?