As the clock struck midnight on 7 May 2025, India’s launched a punitive military action against Pakistan, for its alleged, yet unproven, hand in the Pahalgam incident. The attack looked formidable on paper: cutting edge jets, imported drones and a playbook full of precision strikes. However, as the fog cleared, the world witnessed what happens when a country relies on optics over training to try to win glory for itself. Once again, India’s obsession with acquiring Western hardware was exposed for what it was; a hollow substitute for operational readiness. The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on the other hand, emerged as a clear victor, having undertaken a smart, restrained and to-the-point air operation against the Indian incursion into Pakistani territory.
On this night, Indian Air Force (IAF) launched what appeared to be a theatrically timed aerial campaign code named ‘Operation Sindoor’. If reports are to be believed, it was planned to be a dazzling show of power, which only a Rafael-armed, flashy air force could muster. However, within hours that bravado turned into what can only be described as a billion-dollar catastrophe with reports of PAF having downed five Indian jets, including three Rafale, and one drone. Pakistan’s evidence-based claims were quickly vindicated when French official sources verified to international press that at least one Rafale was indeed missing in action, a first for this multimillion-dollar aircraft in aerial combat. The Pakistani statement has since been corroborated by Indian as well as western media sources.
A day later came the drone drama. Armed with Israeli-made kamikaze UAV’s such as Harop, India tried to turn Pakistan’s civilian airspace into a testing ground for its unmanned ambitions. With the exception of 1 or 2 drones which hit civilian areas in Lahore and Rawalpindi, majority were decidedly and promptly neutralised by the Pakistani Air Defence, with the efficacy of a nation used to decades of border provocations. The result: Indian drones neutralised, zero strategic impact and a trail of wreckage that further underlines the futility of the entire escapade.
However, nothing captures the irony of India’s hardware heavy verbosity quite like what happened on the Indian side of the border on the morning of 8 May 2025. On the very day the IAF was picking up the pieces of their unsuccessful military endeavours, a helicopter crash in Uttarakhand India claimed six lives. Though officially attributed to a technical failure, the incident brings into focus something that cannot be dismissed as fog-of-war or enemy fire: India’s chronic inability to keep its own machines in the air without mishap.
What all these episodes reveal is not just operational lapses; it is a structural flaw in India’s military machinery. Decades of treating defense procurements as a shopping spree has resulted in a military force armed to the teeth with latest gadgets and gizmos, but with little idea how to use them. While the IAF very proudly boasts of operating Rafales, SU-30s, Mig-29s and Mirage 2000s, however, each of them comes with their own logistical ecosystem, maintenance demands, and training curves. The outcome, one may ask, of having this vast array of Air Force jets with their own unique requirements: a fleet that looks formidable on paper but one which has repeatedly failed to deliver on ground. Several reports from India suggest that at any given time, less than half of India’s Rafales are combat ready. A glossy weapon is no good if it is grounded for lack of parts or because the technician trained on Soviet era jets is now expected to service a 4.5 generation French machinery.
On the other hand, we have Pakistan. A country which has, once again, demonstrated that capability is not something you can import; it must be cultivated. The events of 7 May, increasingly being regarded as the largest BVR aerial battle in modern history, aptly highlight the contrast between the two air forces. While IAF launched its jets with much fanfare, it was the PAF that displayed the composure and clarity expected of a modern fighting force. The PAF leadership has demonstrated a strategic clarity that continues to elude its Indian counterpart, knowing what to defend, how to defend it, and when to act decisively without over committing. This discipline, more than any superior technological gear, is what has tilted the balance in its favour during this latest crisis. It is important to mention here that this is not just a one-off success, it is a reaffirmation of a pattern. When Indian assets fell prey to overconfidence and under preparedness, PAF assets operated with the calm precision of a force which truly is ‘Second to None.’
President Modi had proclaimed in 2019 that if India had Rafale jets during the Balakot crisis, the result would have been different. However, on the first day of the conflict in 2025, the very same machinery failed to deliver, not due to any shortcomings in the machinery itself, but owing to the ineptitude of the pilot flying it. A clear lesson that emerges out of the present situation is that air power is not just about altitude or attitude. It is about aptitude. The sky does not care how expensive your aircraft is, only whether you can fly it, fix it and fight with it. On all three accounts, India has been unable to live up to the hype created by its own propaganda.
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