Operation Sindoor: How Rafale Fighter Fleet Struck 200km Deep Without Entering Pakistan Airspace
Defence analysts believe the backbone of Operation Sindoor was the Rafale fighter fleet, armed with Beyond Visual Range missiles, particularly the homegrown Gandiva
India on Wednesday launched Operation Sindoor, a meticulously executed cross-border precision strike that penetrated nearly 200 kilometres inside Pakistani territory, targeting multiple terror launchpads without breaching Pakistani airspace.
The strike, confirmed by top defence sources on condition of anonymity, is India's direct retaliation for the brutal killing of 26 tourists in the deadly Pahalgam attack last month which was traced to cross-border terror groups with long-standing bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
What makes Operation Sindoor extraordinary is the operational depth: Indian forces struck as far as Bahawalpur in Pakistan's Punjab province, long believed to be the nerve centre of terror outfits like Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Bahawalpur lies approximately 200 kilometres from the border, a distance once considered inviolable without triggering international escalation.
Yet, India seems to have executed this strike entirely from its own territory, thanks to cutting-edge advancements in missile and aviation technology. Defence analysts believe the backbone of the operation was the Rafale fighter fleet, armed with Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles, particularly the French-made MBDA Scalp cruise missiles and the homegrown Gandiva.
The MBDA Scalp has a strike range of approximately 200 kilometres, enabling India to launch attacks from within its airspace with surgical precision. Even more formidable is Gandiva, the latest entrant in the BVR class. Developed indigenously, this missile boasts a range of 340 kilometres and is capable of hitting targets from an altitude of 20 kilometres, making it the longest-range BVR missile in the world, surpassing China's PL-15 (300 km) and the US' AIM-174 (240 km).
Nine terror hideouts, primarily in PoK and Bahawalpur, were targeted and destroyed in the strike, according to intelligence sources.
This strike signals a paradigm shift in India's counter-terror doctrine. Gone are the days of visible cross-border incursions or boots on the ground. Instead, modern warfare – driven by stealth jets, AI-assisted targeting, and long-range missiles – is reshaping how nations assert their security red lines.
'Operation Sindoor is not just retaliation; it is a declaration of a new strategic era," a senior defence analyst said, adding that the operation told the adversaries that distance was no longer a shield, and sanctuary was no longer safe.
First Published:
May 07, 2025, 10:32 IST
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PM Modi reiterated these points during his August 15 address from the Red more worrying for Pakistan's strategic community was the paralysis of its nuclear vectors - air and ground-launched nuclear weapons on May 10. Pakistan relies on Mirage III and F-16 fighter jets to drop nuclear gravity bombs and Wanshan series Transporter Erector Launchers (TELs) to carry its arsenal of nuclear-tipped Shaheen and Abdali aircraft need secure airfields located near nuclear storage sites. TELs are designed to be road-mobile and cross-country but also need the cover provided by fighter aircraft and air defence missiles. A 23-minute rampage by the IAF on May 10, 2025 saw steep-diving BrahMos missiles driving holes into Pakistani airfields, shattering hangars with parked aircraft inside them and blasting radars to blind the Pakistan Army's air defence Air Force Chief AP Singh revealed his missileers had shot down six PAF aircraft, including one AEW&C from a distance of over 300 km. On May 10, it didn't matter how many fighter squadrons the PAF had, the range of their air-to-air missiles or the training of its pilots. There was simply nothing the PAF or the Pakistan Army could do to stop India's BrahMos onslaught except pick up the DGMO's analysts like Lt General PR Shankar (retired) believe these shock IAF strikes rattled the rungs of Pakistan's nuclear ladder are among the main reasons Islamabad brought in the United States to mediate a the Pakistan army continues its 'all is well' bluster. At a public meeting on May 28 this year, Lt General Khalid Kidwai, adviser to the National Command Authority (NCA), said that Pakistan's nuclear weapons had deterred India from launching 'Cold Start', punitive military strikes. Kidwai, the longest-serving head of the Strategic Plans Division (SPD), which formulates nuclear strategy and handles weapons, clearly missed the point that Cold Start was only one of several options before the Indian political leadership. Post the May 22 massacre of Indian tourists at Pulwama, India's leadership chose the swiftest option available, offensive air power, to raise the costs of Pakistan's state sponsorship of nuclear bluster in Tampa was to reiterate Pakistan's NWET. The Pakistan Army is the world's only military to directly control nuclear weapons. It is undoubtedly back on the drawing board to rework their nuclear strategy to deter India. This policy is said to have begun after Pakistan detonated six nuclear weapons on May 28 and 30, 1998, in the Ras Koh hills of Balochistan's Chagai district. The nuclear blackmail continued for nearly three decades as the Pakistani deep state unleashed terror strikes across India's mainland, from the 2001 attack on India's Parliament to the attack on Mumbai in 2008, before hitting a dead-end in the unpredictable Munir walk his talk on nuclear weapons and resume nuke tests to bolster his army's sagging NWET strategy? 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Once the crisis passes, the reality of Pakistan being a 'dump truck filled with gravel' will soon be realised by its people when problems like inflation, unemployment, fuel shortages, and economic collapse, return to haunt Pakistani dictator who has imposed himself on the people without a mandate has realised this. Some look for a way out by eliminating competition. Munir, for instance, has worked hard to finish off the extremely popular Imran Khan, the only challenger to his leadership. Khan was unseated as Prime Minister in 2022 and has been in prison since 2023 under a battery of corruption Munir-Imran rivalry is the talk of Pakistan. Khan has accused Munir of trying to assassinate him in prison. Imran Khan remains enormously popular among the influential 9-million-strong Pakistani diaspora, with over 6,00,000 in the US alone, many of whom are beyond the reach of the Pakistan Army. 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He needs a legacy. A nuclear test might just be one of the unhappy consequences of that quest.(Sandeep Unnithan is an author and senior journalist. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Chakra Newz, a digital media platform)- Ends(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Tune InMust Watch
