Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan on Friday said that Operation Sindoor, India’s direct military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack is still underway and that the Indian military must maintain the highest level of operational readiness at all times.
CDS Anil Chauhan emphasised that “information, technology and scholar warriors” will play an important role in the future and said there were no runners-up in war and any military must always be alert and operationally ready.
“Our preparedness level has to be very high — 24X7, 365 days,” he said, at a seminar organised by the Centre for Air Power Studies.
India launched Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 and struck terror and military installations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) following the Pahalgam terror strike.
Between the launch of the operation in the early hours of May 7 and until a ceasefire was reached on the evening of May 10, Indian forces struck nine terror camps, eliminating at least 100 terrorists, and the Indian Air Force conducted precision strikes on 13 Pakistani airbases and military sites.
The government has consistently maintained that Operation Sindoor is a continuation of India’s evolving counter-terror doctrine.
In June, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said Operation Sindoor was the natural progression of the 2016 surgical strikes and the 2019 Balakot airstrikes in Pakistan, and it was conducted in a manner that forced Islamabad to ask for a ceasefire, articulating India’s firm resolve against terror.
In his address, Chauhan stressed that “information, technology and scholar warriors” will play an important role in the future.
He highlighted the role of scholar warriors in modern warfare and described a scholar warrior as “a military professional who combines intellectual depth and combat skills, who possesses strong academic knowledge and practical military expertise that enable him to analyse complex situations and address diverse challenges to meet military aims and objectives.”
He also underlined the need for decision-makers who can operate across domains seamlessly, linking strategic objectives with executable actions. Intellectual clarity and deep strategic understanding, he said, are essential for shaping favourable outcomes in future conflicts.
Touching on the operational aspects of Operation Sindoor, General Chauhan revealed that Pakistan employed unarmed drones and loitering munitions on May 10, but failed to inflict any damage. Most of these threats, he said, were neutralised using a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic measures.
Chauhan had earlier said the operation showed why locally developed unmanned aerial systems and counter-UAS “built for our terrain and our needs are crucial,” stressing India cannot rely on imported niche technology.
“Dependence of foreign technologies weakens our preparedness, limits our ability to scale up production and results in a shortfall of critical spares for sustenance and round-the-clock availability,” he had said.