In an exclusive interview with Life of Soldiers, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal A. P. Singh, shared his assessment of the capabilities validated during Operation Sindoor, highlighting the effectiveness of integrated air defence, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), precision strike and networked battle management, alongside the IAF’s priorities for the next three to five years.
Life of Soldiers: Long-range SAMs (including S-400), networked sensors, and precision strike were heavily cited during Sindoor. Which capability set – air defence, ISR, strike, or battle management, do you rate as most “validated,” and where was the sharpest gap you must close in 3-5 years?
Air Chief Marshal AP Singh: It is natural to ask which single capability performed best in Operation Sindoor. But the most important thing the operation validated was not any one capability set. It was the way they all worked together. As I have often said, the IAF has moved from a platform-centric approach to a capability-centric one, in which air defence, ISR, strike and battle management are woven into a single networked system. Sindoor put that system to the test, and it delivered. Its success came from the combined effect of all these elements rather than from any one of them.
If I must single out one area, it would be integrated air defence and battle management, operating as one. Our home-grown, networked air defence safeguarded our critical assets against the large number of drones and stand-off weapons the adversary launched against us. IAF surface-to-air missile and counter-UAS units, supported by the Indian Army’s air defence units, operated effectively under the control of IACCS nodes, drawing on the tri-Service air picture I described earlier. The IAF’s long-range surface-to-air missiles achieved some of the longest recorded kills in the history of aerial warfare. That seriously curtailed the adversary’s freedom of action, even within his own territory. Because our skies were secure, the nation could act with confidence.
Our strike capability was equally validated. I have already described its reach and precision. None of it would have been possible without accurate intelligence and ISR, which allowed us to engage selected targets with precision.
As for the next three to five years, I would describe the task not as closing a single gap, but as deepening and widening what Sindoor validated. That means:
- strengthening combat mass and deepening weapons stocks, so that we can generate effects repeatedly over a prolonged conflict;
- expanding persistent ISR, including through High Altitude Pseudo Satellites and more space-based and land-based sensors integrated into IACCS;
- reinforcing electronic warfare and counter-UAS capability with layered, cost-effective responses to drones;
- making our networks more resilient and adding AI-enabled decision support;
- building the sustenance that high-intensity operations demand: logistics, maintenance, infrastructure and indigenous production.
Operation Sindoor proved that the capability-centric path is the right one. Over the next few years, the IAF will build on that foundation with urgency, so that whatever the nation may demand of us in the future, we respond even more swiftly, more precisely and more decisively.
