For India, the successful Operation Sindoor, conducted to strike at terrorist bases within Pakistan in response to the Pahalgam massacre, has taught our armed forces a great deal. The Ministry of Defense has formulated a new policy for the restructuring and technological transformation of the military. The Ministry’s 2025-26 report provides a roadmap for this policy. During Operation Sindoor, it was realized that our military’s indigenous defense industry would need to provide specialized products to the military in areas such as drones, anti-drone systems, and loitering munitions. The goal is to make our military self-reliant, enabling us to be defensive while also being offensive. First, nine fast-track development projects have been approved to achieve sufficient drone availability. The Department of Defence Production has been assigned this innovative project to advance security excellence. It should be noted that the S-400 missiles received from Russia were a significant asset. The goal is now to produce a total of five such S-400 missiles from Russia. The Army, in collaboration with its units and small industries, has manufactured 819 drones. These include 193 surveillance drones, 337 armed drones, and 289 first-person view drones. The Army has developed internal capacity for continuous production. Drone platoons are now being formed in infantry battalions in a phased manner. They have been named Bhairav Light Commando. Fifteen battalions are being formed. These battalions will engage in hybrid warfare and participate in high-speed special operations. One armed and one mountain brigade are being gradually developed into an all-arms brigade, named Rudra. The decision to raise drone battalions was made because during Operation Sindoor, two Chinese PR-15 missiles and a weapon launched from a Turkiye TB-2 drone were deactivated. One Turkiye drone was found to be of a different type, and after further investigation, the need for raising these drone battalions was realized. The decision also stems from the fact that 863 drones were intruded from Pakistan on the western border in a single year. Nine such incidents occurred along the international border in Jammu and Kashmir, and 854 along the Punjab and Rajasthan borders. India shot down 237 drones using spoofers and jammers. Upon search, five drones were found to contain munitions, and 72 were found to contain narcotics. The Punjab-Rajasthan border is an active border for Pakistani drone infiltration. The BSF had also decided to raise a drone battalion in Punjab to respond to these drone attacks. Now, as per security policy, this decision has been made at the national level. Another change seen on India’s borders after the BRICS summit is that the Chinese military deployment along the Line of Control in Ladakh has been reported to have decreased since the 2020 Galwan conflict. However, ten combined armed brigades of Chinese troops are still deployed. Therefore, weapons will be needed there, but the real need is on the Pakistan front, where we are responding to their terrorist support. In Operation Sindoor, India attacked nine terrorist hideouts. We reached Pakistan’s air defense, command and control, and air force bases. Our air force targeted six radars, two surface-to-air guided weapon locations, four aircraft hangars, and damaged several F-16s in Jacobabad
New Security Strategy
