In the midst of two ongoing conflicts – Ukraine’s prolonged war of attrition and Israel’s intensive campaign in Gaza – the world has now witnessed a third theatre of modern military conflict: the India-Pakistan standoff with India’s Operation Sindoor. While brief in duration compared to the grinding wars of Eastern Europe and the Middle East, the significance of Sindoor lies in the speed, sophistication, and multi-domain nature of India’s military and political response. The lessons from this operation are both immediate and instructive, not just for India, but for militaries and policymakers across the globe.
Such a transformational campaign, even though short in duration, will probably be studied avidly to cull out relevant lessons over a longer period of time.
This essay attempts to distil only the early and most visible lessons from Operation Sindoor across different domains – strategic, operational, technological, and informational.
Strategic Clarity and Political Messaging
One of the standout features of Operation Sindoor was the clarity of political intent. In previous India-Pakistan confrontations, strategic ambiguity often marked India’s stance. This time, the messaging was unambiguous – Pakistan’s attempts to stoke cross-border terrorism through networked proxy groups, for the sake of regaining any of the space that it has lost, would meet a proportionate but decisive response from a spectrum of choice India retained.
Importantly, India managed escalation without triggering a full-blown war. Sindoor demonstrated an evolved doctrine of punitive deterrence, calibrated to avoid nuclear thresholds – a lesson that has relevance for other nuclear-armed dyads, such as North and South Korea.
Civil-military synergy (fusion) was another quiet success. Decision-making appeared swift, coordinated, and insulated from public hysteria. This stands in contrast to fragmented responses seen in other democracies under pressure.
The fortnight when Pakistan kept waiting for a response added to its dilemma, though some claim that it helped Islamabad prepare its counter-response. Clearly, the time lag helped with better decision-making, target-selection and calibration, all in our favour.
Operational Agility and Jointness
At the operational level, Sindoor demonstrated the Indian military’s growing ability to conduct integrated, cross-domain campaigns. While details remain classified, early reports suggest that air, ground, and special forces (in waiting) operated with tight coordination. The ability to strike key logistical hubs, training camps, and communication nodes on the Pakistani side – all without significant collateral damage – indicates an intelligence-rich and technologically proficient operation.
One lesson echoed from Ukraine is the value of speed and initiative. Indian forces reportedly acted within tight windows, leveraging precision munitions and real-time ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance). The tempo of the operation gave little time for adversarial adaptation – a principle long emphasised in Western military thought.
The Indian Army’s Air Defence arm (AAD), a comparatively low-profile entity in earlier matrices, displayed an attitude and capability far above its weight. Its integration with the Air Force was effective and calls for even closer networking in the future.
Technology, Drones, and Cyber Capabilities
Modern warfare increasingly hinges on technological superiority. Sindoor, like the Ukraine war, underlined the centrality and importance of drones, both for surveillance and kinetic effect. India’s investment in electronic warfare (EW) and cyber capabilities also appeared to bear fruit. Pakistani communications and some air defences appeared effectively degraded during the brief exchange, highlighting the non-kinetic layers of modern conflict.
For developing countries watching this unfold, the message is clear: asymmetric capability in the form of drones, jamming, and cyber sabotage can serve as force multipliers even in conventional battles.
Logistics, Communications and Resilience
Another key takeaway is logistics. As seen in Ukraine, no operation can succeed without secure and mobile supply chains. Sindoor revealed the short, high-intensity nature of the engagement and stressed the importance of pre-positioning and redundancy.
Some of these are lessons that advanced militaries have long internalised. For India, Sindoor validated some ongoing reforms, including for theatre commands and logistics flexibility. I do foresee a re-emergence of the ‘theatrisation versus jointness’ debate because the effectiveness of ‘jointness’ was felt quite remarkably, particularly in the field of air defence. Centralisation of resources, particularly in the air domain, was a distinct advantage.
Significance of Land and Maritime Warfare
This is the first time that India has responded in a conflict situation without placing its ground forces in their deployment areas. This is a huge departure from the past. So, is our obsession with defending each inch of territory now a thing of the past? The willingness to defend with a minimum and deterring the Pakistan land forces from undertaking any adventure has been a new normal. Yet, from the immediacy of imagery or perception, there should be no impression that land or maritime warfare has been diluted in our context. Every war has its own dynamics, and none can really predict the next one.
Battle of Perceptions
One of the defining aspects of any 21st-century conflict is the war for narratives. India’s handling of the information domain during Sindoor showed greater maturity than in past conflicts. Controlled information release, measured language from official spokespersons, and timely briefings ensured credibility. However, the media was shrill and with insufficiently corroborated information most times. It may have helped with the maintenance of national morale, but it also triggered negative sentiments at the time of the ceasefire. Official advisories to the media may be in order in the future.
By contrast, Pakistani attempts at disinformation were swiftly countered, both by Indian agencies and independent digital verification communities. This underlines a modern truth: winning the battle of perceptions is often as important as winning territory.
Like Ukraine’s use of social media and Gaza’s polarised visual narrative, India’s experience reiterates that strategic communication must now be woven into operations right from the outset. Perhaps a coordination authority at the national level is required.
Lessons from Ukraine and Gaza
Ukraine has taught the world about the power of resilience, decentralised command, and tech-driven defence. Gaza has revealed the brutal challenges of urban warfare, tunnels, and asymmetric resistance. Operation Sindoor, though different in scale and terrain, offers complementary insights.
It shows what a limited but effective conventional response can look like in a nuclear-shadowed environment. It demonstrates hybridisation and combining conventional force with information ops and cyber tools. Suspending the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 can be treated as an act of political warfare, contributing to hybrid war. Political warfare is defined as the use of political means to compel an opponent to do one’s will, often without overt use of military force. The treaty is one of the few examples of continued Indo-Pak cooperation despite hostilities. Tampering with it signalled India’s anger, something not attempted in the past. It introduced uncertainty into Pakistan’s planning and water security. It also helped demonstrate India’s political will and willingness to undertake risk.
For the global community, it is a reminder that modern conflict is no longer just about tanks and troops. It’s about tempo, technology, and trust – in your political leadership and your military.
What the World’s Militaries Can Learn
For advanced armies – whether in NATO, East Asia, or the Middle East – Operation Sindoor presents a case study in calibrated coercion. The challenge for large militaries today is to manage escalation while remaining credible. India walked that tightrope effectively.
For middle powers, the message is to invest in command integration, drone warfare, ISR capabilities, and domestic resilience. Even a short engagement can have profound diplomatic and security consequences.
Above all, Operation Sindoor reiterates that the military is the one lever of national power that must be precise, prepared, and aligned with the national narrative at all times.
This essay only scratches the surface of what Operation Sindoor means for India’s defence posture and for the study of modern warfare. As more operational details emerge, deeper analyses will follow – of battle readiness, inter-service coordination, and regional impact.
But the early lessons are clear: India has moved past reactive defence into a doctrine of assertive, restrained response. The world would do well to take note – because modern wars are evolving, and Sindoor may just be a glimpse of how future conflicts will unfold.
(The writer is a Member of the National Disaster Management Authority, Chancellor of the Central University of Kashmir, and Former GOC of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
