Short answer: None , as it is quite difficult to defend against such attacks.Inder Sharma wrote: ↑04 Oct 2025 14:39 Dear Sirs,
What could be our preparation to prevent asymmetric attacks on our deep airbases - similar to what we saw in Russia in "Operation Spider Web" or the Israeli strikes on Iranian Air assets from within the Iran itself. This is a concern, since many of the IAF's airbases have vast ungovernable "bastis" surrounding them.
Long answer: It really depends on what type of attack it is. If it is a Kashmir type scenario where some abdul wants to load up a truck full of explosives and ram it down the gate, then this threat is well understood and the sentries are alert with multiple layers of defences to stop such a truck ranging from barriers to deliberate detours so that the truck slows down.
However the more likely threat is drone attacks and mortars. Some Abdul smuggles in mortars and launches a salvo. Mortars are not very accurate over long ranges and you can be assured that the aircraft shelters or if parked in open won’t be close to the boundary. Plus, once detected, they would get neutralised quickly. Anything in the open would be gone, but it’s hard to take out an airbase with this attack even if the rounds land on runway - it would get repaired quickly.
Drones are a harder problem. One would have to smuggle in multiple drones and explosives and get people to fly them simultaneously. But if they can, then end result is same as above. The harder problem is if someone simply starts buzzing the airbase to disrupt operations. It becomes quite difficult to identify the controller and neutralise it. The base can get shut down.
The only defence in both cases are parking aircraft in HAS. Not all our bases have these and we still park our aircraft wide open. One hopes IAF has learnt its lesson and has made HAS a top priority. I doubt it though - IAF leadership has a penchant for displaying pikachu face and twiddling thumbs when the threat was obvious and could have been countered easily…