Operation Sindoor: Story, success, takeaways

India's stunning military project, Operation Sindoor, to punish the terrorist Pakistan was planned and executed with admirable precision and confidence by the defence forces in just two weeks.

- S GURUMURTHY Editor, Thuglak Tamil Magazine. Chairman, Vivekananda International Foundation Strategic Think Tank

But the capability to accomplish this grand project in weeks was developed over years, painstakingly, against all odds and opposition by internal and external designs. The transformation of the defence infrastructure to the non-contact war model undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was the foundation for the spectacular Op Sindoor, as compared to the earlier Uri surgical strike and the Balakot aerial attack based on the traditional war model. Modi realised that the old model would not work in the future. That it would not enable deep strikes into Pakistan, without which India would not be able to destroy terror outfits at their source, impelled Modi to transform the war model to non-contact warfare, the outcome of which was Op Sindoor and its breathtaking success.

Despite all the military infrastructure and preparations, Op Sindoor could not have been undertaken with the eventual ease without a cluster of supportive factors that dramatically transformed the geopolitical, economic and strategic ecosystem in India's favour under Modi's 10-year rule. It was also aided by the relative decline of Pakistan in the same period.

Non-contact warfare What is non-contact warfare and how Modi put India on its ladder? This is what the Pakistan Defence website had to say [8.7.2020] about how India was climbing on to non-contact warfare. It described the induction of long-range missiles, high-precision smart weapons, unmanned systems, robots and satellites primarily driven by technology and aimed at achieving a quick, decisive victory by remote delivery of destructive kinetic energy as "Non-Contact Warfare". The Pakistani site went on to say, "The concept has recently gained currency with the Indian strategic community." It added, "The Balakot strikes and earlier fake surgical strike claims (by India) point to its strong desire for gaining psychological ascendancy with