Why India is better prepared to fight off air raids than Pakistan

When India was signing a $5.4-bn contract to buy S-400 systems — air defence missiles — from Russia in 2018, the US had threatened the country with sanctions under an Act that sought to prevent countries from buying Russian weapons or Iranian oil. “The government takes sovereign decisions based on threat perceptions, operational and technical aspects to keep the armed forces in a state of readiness to meet the entire spectrum of security challenges,” junior defence minister Subhash Bhamre had told the Lok Sabha later. Late night on May 9, the S-400 Triumf — called Sudarshan Chakra by the Indian Air Force — was at the forefront of countering Pakistan’s aerial attempts to attack Indian military bases and civilian areas. “The threats were neutralised … through kinetic and non-kinetic (jamming) actions. There were no losses,” an officer said. Earlier in the day, India destroyed the air defence system in Lahore and targeted Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur and an area near Karachi, among other sites. How the air defence systems compareIndia’s air defence weapons range from the formidable Russian-origin S-400 ‘Triumf’ surface-to-air missile system, which can detect and destroy hostile strategic bombers, jets, spy planes, missiles and drones at a range of 380km, to the shoulder-fired Igla-S missiles that have an interception range of 6km. And this multi-layered air defence system, with a mix of Russian and Israeli surface-to-air missile systems and the indigenous Akash, is considered much better than that of Pakistan, which largely relies on Chinese systems.Under the contract inked with Russia in 2018, the Indian Air Force has deployed the first three S-400 squadrons in northwest and east India to deal with both China and Pakistan.The S-400 radars can track hundreds of targets simultaneously. Delivery of the remaining two S-400 squadrons, however, has been hugely delayed to 2026-27 due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.Meanwhile, the mainstay of Pakistan are Chinese-supplied HQ-9 air defence missile batteries and radars, which have a range of 120km in the base variant that extends to 300km in the latest one. The HQ-9 is based on the Soviet-era S-300.It had turned to China’s HQ-9 series of long-range surface-to air missiles (comparable to Russian S-300/400 systems) in the late 2010s. In 2021, the Pakistani military reportedly inducted the HQ-9/P long-range SAM (with ~125 km range). And by 2022, the Pakistan air force had also deployed the newer HQ-9BE variant (with extended 250+ km range). Pakistan also has the French-origin Spada anti-aircraft system with a 20-25km range for defence of air bases and other important facilities, among other systems.But the Indian system has the edge. “The S-400, which has four kinds of missiles to intercept targets at ranges of 120, 200, 250 and 380km, by far outclasses the HQ-9. It is crucial to our air defence coverage and is fully plugged into IAF’s integrated air command and control system (IACCS),” an officer said.The fully-automated IACCS network, which combines a wide array of sensors and weapons, is now progressively also integrating military radars with civilian ones. “With the new Akashteer system, data from IAF and Army radars are fused to provide a unified, real-time air picture, which is available to all IAF and Army air defence centres,” another officer said. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); India is also expanding its home-grown arsenal India is also developing its own long-range surface-to-air missile (LR-SAM) system under the ambitious Project Kusha. With an interception range of around 350km, this air defence system should be ready by 2028-29, as reported by TOI earlier.Army, Navy and Air Force have all inducted the potent Barak-8 medium range surface-to-air missile (MR-SAM) systems, with an over 70km range, jointly developed with Israel. Army and IAF have also inducted in large numbers the indigenous Akash air defence missile systems, with an interception range of 25km, which is now also being exported to other countries.Indian armed forces also have a variety of shorter-range air defence weapons. They include the older Russian Igla-1M (5km), OSA-AK-M (10km) and Pechora missiles and upgraded L-70 anti-aircraft guns (3.5km). The newer ones are Israeli low-level Spyder quick reaction anti-aircraft missiles (15km range) and Russian man-portable Igla-S (6km) systems. DRDO is also testing the indigenous very shortrange air defence system (VSHORADS) missiles, which have a range of up to 6km.With inputs from agenciesLead image from video posted by Additional Directorate General of Public Information, IHQ of MoD (Army) on X