On the eve of Operation Sindoor, the decisive military action launched against Pakistan on the intervening night of May 6–7 last year, defence experts and former military officers reflected on the operation and its lasting impact on India’s national security doctrine.
Many described it as more than just a military response, calling it a watershed moment that reshaped how India views escalation, deterrence, and cross-border threats.
Maj. Gen. Dhruv C Katoch (Retd.) pointed out that since Operation Sindoor, many changes have taken place, with the most important being the way India looks at terrorism and how it reacts to terrorist acts.
"I think a very clear message has been sent that there will be zero tolerance to any act of terror on Indian soil… The political change and the military alignment are very significant as we look back at what happened a year ago," news agency ANI quoted him as saying.
Maj. Gen. Katoch (Retd.) noted that the the message the operation conveyed was very clear, that there would be zero tolerance for terror.
"Since then, not one civilian has died in a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir to date… I think it gives pride to every soldier the way this operation was conducted by the man in uniform… The message that was conveyed was that India has the capacity, capability and the political will to execute any operation to defend its territorial integrity,” he was quoted as saying.
Austrian aerial warfare analyst and historian Tom Cooper observed that the winner in the conflict was very clear, and there is no other way to think one year later.
"India has had successful retaliation strikes on major terror camps inside Pakistan, which were considered outside of India's range...India has not only blocked Pakistan's efforts to retaliate, but also delivered very precise damage to Pakistani air defences and air bases....New Delhi has sent a clear message: we can hit whatever we want to hit in Pakistan, and you cannot stop us," ANI quoted him as saying.
He observed that with the operation, New Delhi proved that India was prepared for any escalation and remained confident that Pakistan could not cause any serious damage. According to him, this caused panic in Islamabad, prompting attempts to get the US involved.
Former Vice Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sujeet Pushpakar Dharkar, said Operation Sindoor marked a major technological and operational milestone. He noted that it was likely the first time in the region that long-range surface-to-air weapon systems had been employed in such a manner, and also among the first instances where loitering munitions were used at such scale. He told ANI "...it is probably a world record for the range at which this particular kill was achieved by a surface-to-air missile…we demonstrated that we can select an aim and maintain it very well through an entire conflict…”
Air Commodore Gaurav M Tripathi (retired), who also played a role during the operation, noted that in any future scenario, "combined air power" of the three services should be leveraged so that it can work cohesively against a "capable adversary."
"During (Operation) Sindoor, we saw a mass of drones used by Pakistan. Most of them were harmless, just to engage Indian weapons and munitions so that attack drones could come in later.
"But the enemy is smart. Next time, what they will send will be hardened drones, which will probably be more difficult to jam... have better navigation at the end, might not need GPS, (and) they might have electro-optical homing devices. And, they will probably collaborate as a swarm," Air Commodore Tripathi told news agency PTI.
He praised the S-400 and Akash weapon systems, BrahMos and other missiles, in securing the Indian skies and dealing a potent blow to the adversary, which also allowed Indian fighter jets to play their role.
"We used them (S-400 system) very offensively; we moved them around very frequently. We camouflaged them as well and used their decoy forms to deceive the adversary. This technique in military parlance is called camouflage, concealment and deception or CCD," he said.
Former Army officer Lt Gen Dushyant Singh (retd) said Operation Sindoor has demonstrated that "red lines have been pushed further" when it comes to counter-terrorism stance of India, and New Delhi is ready to "call the nuclear bluff of the adversary."
"One of the major military lessons from Op Sindoor is that we moved from strategic restraint to strategic proactiveness. We have to be prepared to respond in a very, very quick time, in case something like that happens next time," he told PTI.
Dinakar Peri, Fellow, security studies programme at Carnegie India, observed that "Op Sindoor was a watershed moment for India and the subcontinent in the way it established a military threshold, and the asymmetry between India and Pakistan."
"That said, it also holds several lessons for India to maintain that superiority in the next conflict. Pakistan, and by extension China, knows what the Indian military is capable of and, more importantly, what the limitations are. The next conflict or Op Sindoor 2.0 will not be like the last one," he said.