NEW DELHI: India’s use of long range precision-guided munitions like the Scalp and BrahMos missiles launched from fighter jets to strike targets on the ground in Pakistan, without crossing the border during Operation Sindoor, show geographical barriers have become almost meaningless, chief of integrated defence staff Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit said on Wednesday.The senior IAF officer, speaking at a seminar here, also underlined the critical role of real-time situational awareness and “deep surveillance” in contemporary conflicts, while stressing that advances in technology have fundamentally altered the relationship between distance and vulnerability.“When we look at global conflicts commencing from Armenia-Azerbaijan to Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas and to our own experiences in Operation Sindoor, one truth emerges with crystal clarity: the side that sees first, sees farthest and sees most accurately, prevails,” Air Marshal Dixit said.The existing principles of war are being challenged, with new ones emerging rather rapidly. “Earlier, the horizon marked the limit of immediate threat. Today, precision-guided munitions like the Scalp, BrahMos and Hammer have rendered geographical barriers almost meaningless, as strikes with beyond visual range air-to-air missiles and supersonic air-to-ground missiles have become commonplace,” he added.Referring to China’s military space program expanding from operating just 36 satellites in 2010 to over 1,000 by 2024, with over 360 of them dedicated to ISR (Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) missions, Air Marshal Dixit said Beijing’s creation of an independent aerospace force last year signals its recognition of space as the ultimate high ground in modern warfare.“Yet, even as we acknowledge these challenges, we must also celebrate our own remarkable achievements. Operation Sindoor demonstrated that indigenous innovation, when properly harnessed, can match and even exceed international benchmarks,” he said.Towards this end, he cited the success of the IAF’s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS), integrated with the Army’s AkashTeer system, in compressing the sensor-to-shooter timelines and ensuring effective air defence during Operation Sindoor. “Not a single Pakistani aircraft breached our airspace, while our precision strikes successfully degraded their air defence capabilities and aerial infrastructure,” he said.With weapons capable of striking targets hundreds of kilometers away with pinpoint accuracy, he said, “This new reality demands that we extend our surveillance envelope far beyond what previous generations could have even imagined.“We must detect, identify and track potential threats not when they approach our borders, but when they are still in their staging areas, airfields and bases, deep within an adversary’s territory. This existed as a concept even earlier but today we have the means to realise it,” he added.
