India’s invisible wingman: How Rafale’s X-Guard fooled Pakistan in Operation Sindoor

In a bold and smart military move, India tricked Pakistan into believing it had shot down a Rafale fighter jet during Operation Sindoor, which was launched on May 7 in response to the terror attack in Pahalgam. What Pakistan actually hit, however, wasn’t a real aircraft—it was a high-tech decoy device known as the X-Guard, deployed from India’s Rafale jets.

India’s Defence Secretary, R.K. Singh, confirmed in an interview that no Rafale had been shot down. Around the same time, reports also emerged suggesting that China, through its embassies, had spread false claims about the performance of French-made Rafale jets during the operation.

So, what is this X-Guard? How did it trick Pakistan? And what do experts have to say about it?

What is Rafale’s X-Guard?

The X-Guard is a compact but powerful device that acts like an invisible bodyguard for the Rafale fighter jet. It is part of the jet’s electronic warfare system, designed to protect the aircraft from being hit by radar-guided missiles.

Radar-guided missiles work by sending out radar signals that bounce off enemy aircraft. Once the missile detects the reflection, it locks on and follows the signal—much like how a bat uses echoes to find insects in the dark.

The X-Guard is capable of fooling even the most sophisticated radar systems that guide such missiles. It can deceive both Monopulse radars and LORO (Lobe-On-Receive-Only) radars.

Monopulse radar is a highly accurate radar system that can quickly detect both the position and speed of an aircraft. It is considered very hard to mislead.

LORO radar, on the other hand, operates mostly in a listening mode. It tracks aircraft silently, without sending many signals, making it stealthier—but X-Guard can trick that too.

According to Rafale’s manufacturer, X-Guard is cutting-edge, lightweight, and reusable. It is housed in a pod (a special container fixed to the jet) and can be deployed and retracted using a reel-out/reel-in mechanism. The pilot activates it when the aircraft is in a threat zone.

How does it work?

The X-Guard weighs about 30 kilogrammes and is connected to the jet via a 100-metre-long fibre optic cable. This connection gives the pilot real-time updates on incoming threats, and the fibre-optic system ensures it’s not disrupted by enemy jamming efforts.

Once deployed, the X-Guard sends out a strong 360-degree jamming signal with 500 watts of power. It uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to confuse enemy radars.

What does this mean?

Strong 360-degree jamming signal:

The X-Guard creates a powerful invisible signal (like a radio wave) that spreads in all directions around the aircraft—just like how a light bulb shines light in all directions, not just one. This signal is used to jam, or block, the enemy’s radar so they can’t see or track the real jet.

500 watts of power:

This is how strong the jamming signal is. For comparison, a regular household bulb is about 60 watts. So 500 watts is very powerful—strong enough to interrupt or confuse enemy radar systems from a good distance.

Uses Artificial Intelligence (AI):

The X-Guard is not a simple machine. It has AI software that can:

> Understand what kind of radar is trying to track the jet.

> Decide the best way to block or mislead that radar.

> Adjust its signals in real-time so that the enemy radar thinks it is locking on to the real jet, when it’s actually locking on to the decoy.

In short, X-Guard behaves smartly. It doesn’t just shout randomly to confuse the enemy—it thinks, reacts, and deceives in a way that makes it look like the real aircraft on enemy screens.

What makes it especially clever is that it doesn’t just release random signals, it mimics the exact radar signature of a real Rafale jet, including the Doppler effect.

The Doppler effect refers to the change in radar signals when a fast-moving object—like a jet—flies toward or away from the radar source. A simple way to understand this is to think of how an ambulance siren sounds higher-pitched as it comes closer and lower-pitched as it moves away. Radar systems use this change in signal to measure speed and direction.

The X-Guard copies this effect perfectly, so enemy systems are tricked into thinking the decoy is the real jet in motion. This makes it nearly impossible for missiles or tracking systems to tell the difference.

The device can be deployed in under two seconds and acts like a fake wingman, flying alongside the actual Rafale. Once the threat has passed, it retracts back into the pod (the jet’s external container).

In May 2025, Rafale Advanced Defense Systems introduced an upgraded version called X-Guard RT. According to a Rafale executive quoted by Jane’s Defence Weekly, this new model is standalone, meaning it doesn’t rely on the jet’s internal systems. “That makes it possible to fit it on cargo planes too, which usually don’t have this kind of high-tech protection,” the official said.

How India fooled Pakistan

Ryan Bodenheimer, a former US Air Force pilot, told IDRW.org that India’s use of the X-Guard was “the best spoofing and deception we’ve ever seen.”

Spoofing is when a device—like the X-Guard—pretends to be the real jet by sending out fake signals that look exactly like the actual aircraft’s signals. This confuses enemy radars and missiles, causing them to lock on to the decoy instead of the real target.

India’s Rafale jets outwitted Pakistan’s Chinese-made J-10C fighter aircraft and PL-15E air-to-air missiles, both of which rely heavily on radar guidance.

The X-Guard completely confused them.

Even the KLJ-7A AESA radars, used on Pakistan’s J-10C fighters, mistook the X-Guard for a real Rafale. Bodenheimer remarked that this operation could “redefine the rules of electronic warfare.” According to Jane’s Defence Weekly, the Pakistani claims of having shot down Indian Rafales were likely cases where their missiles had actually hit these X-Guard decoys.

Conclusion

India didn’t just respond with firepower in Operation Sindoor—it responded with intelligence, innovation, and precision. The X-Guard decoy system acted like an invisible wingman, shielding real Rafale jets by confusing and misleading enemy missiles and radars.

This operation showed how brains can win where brute force may fail. By using AI, smart decoys, and electronic trickery, the Indian Air Force demonstrated that modern warfare is no longer just about who fires first—but about who thinks faster.

Sometimes, the smartest victories are won without firing a single shot.