Operation Sindoor: Indian Army shares how air defence tracked and downed Pak drones and missiles

The Indian Army has released a booklet for its personnel on Operation Sindoor, with new details of the action by the Army, Navy and Air Force on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, followed by tackling the swarm drones and missiles launched by the enemy and hitting airbases deep inside Pakistani territory.

On May 7, India avenged the dastardly Pahalgam terror attack in which Pakistan-backed terrorists killed 26 civilians in the Baisaran valley.

India’s strikes, codenamed ‘Operation Sindoor’—an ode to the women who lost their husbands in the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack—dismantled vital logistical, operational, and training infrastructure used by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizbul Mujahideen, and other affiliated networks in Pakistan’s Bahawalpur, Muridke, Sialkot, Chakamru and Kotli, Bhimber, Gulpur and two sites in Muzaffarabad that are located in Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Rattled by India’s precision strikes, Pakistan opened fire and launched artillery shelling on Poonch, Rajouri and other areas of Jammu and Kashmir, which was followed by multiple drone and missile attacks on Indian military bases and cities over the next three days.

However, India managed to down almost all the Pakistani drones and missiles, displaying the extensive and excellent preparedness of its air defence systems. The new booklet also carries photographs of the debris of the drones that were tracked, targeted, and shot down successfully.

India’s multi-layered air defence system foiled Pak’s attack

India’s multi-layered air defence system is credited with safeguarding cities and military infrastructure from Pakistan’s attack.

The multi-layered air defence system included Counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS), ack-ack air defence guns like the L70, ZSU 23 Shilka, Man Portable Air Defence Systems (MANPADS) forming the inner layer of air defence for very-short range aerial targets like low-flying drones. Next followed the second layer, which included point defence systems that protect a specific area or an asset, short-range surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) like Spyder, Pechora, and OSA-AK.

The third layer was formed by the medium-range SAMs like Akash and the Indo-Israeli MRSAM, and the outer layer for area-defence was taken care of by long-range SAMs like the S-400 and the fighter jets.

The booklet also carries pictures showing Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi, Navy Chief Admiral DK Tripathi, Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal AP Singh and a senior Army officer in the war room, monitoring the May 7 strikes on terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.