A year after Operation Sindoor, India is on track to acquire and develop futuristic weapons

Maj. Gen. Atanu Pattanaik (retd)

A year has passed since India launched Operation Sindoor on 7 May 2025 as a retribution for the tragic Pahalgam massacre killing 26 people on 22 April 2025. The tragedy left countless homes in despair, survivors and relatives recall a shattered dream vacation and the enduring trauma of witnessing their loved ones killed at close range. While the families try to cope with their losses and rebuild their lives, the country and the military have the onerous task of a comprehensive reprisal of the circumstances leading to the massacre and our retaliation through Operation Sindoor with precision strikes deep within Pakistani territory targeting terrorist bases and military infrastructure.

Deep dives and reviews enable us to identify intelligence and security lapses that may have contributed to the tragedy and plug gaps while also throwing up ideas about whether the response was optimal or could have been more efficient and impactful. Operation Sindoor was a spectacular success, and any review shouldn’t give the impression of chaffing at the scale of that victory. Yet all military operations, successful or failures, have important lessons that contribute towards future optimisation of targeting and force application.

It is imperative to recall some events that occurred prior to Operation Sindoor which may have contributed towards and influenced its planning and execution. Two recent conflicts preceding Operation Sindoor and one after Operation Sindoor that is ongoing provide important information and insights into how modern wars will employ the growing spectrum of missiles, drones, and artillery. They are the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict of 2020, the Russia-Ukraine war since February 2022 and the currently frozen US-Iran war that erupted on 28 February 2026. Juxtaposed against these three conflicts, we can be proud to state that Operation Sindoor was the most spectacular, surgical and conclusive four-day operation with impactful outcomes.

The conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which began in late September 2020, concluded on 10 November 2020, and included the heavy use of missiles, drones, and rocket artillery. The 44-day war featured a diverse array of legacy and advanced air and missile strike and defence platforms. Drones of Russian, Turkish, Israeli, and indigenous Azerbaijani designs performed both reconnaissance missions to support artillery use and strike missions. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) a