INDIAN MISSILE DEFENSE BETTER THAN IRON DOME

More information on the three and a half day 'hostilities' between India and Pakistan is coming out. And yes the Brahmos missile (below) was fired - for the first time in battle. More reports are saying so.

If going by the numbers of missiles, drones and rockets fired by the enemy which did not hit any of their targets inside India then the performance of India's air defense systems has perhaps been better than the famed Israeli Iron Dome. 

Despite 26 Pakistani missiles launched at Indian targets (on May 9th 2025), including at New Delhi and at their airbases, neither Delhi nor a single Indian airbase was hit by a Pakistani missile.  All incoming missiles were shot down by the FIVE LAYERED Indian missile defense system. 

Then beginning at 1:44 AM on Saturday, 10th May the Indians retaliated with 24 missiles. This included up to 15 Brahmos, Mach 3 cruise missiles (the only cruise missiles in the world that can fly at Mach 3 and at just above coconut tree height) which were fired at 11 Pakistani airbases. This was the first ever firing of the Brahmos missiles in combat. And according to credible Indian Youtuber Amit Sengupta (video below) the Indians also scored FOUR hits on Pakistani nuclear weapons storage sites (versus hitting FOUR different sites).

The Brahmos are not bunker busters, because their warheads are relatively small 350 - 450 kg and the missile is not 'hardened' to penetrate underground bunkers. It is likely that the Brahmos struck the surface entry points to the underground storage tunnels thereby collapsing the entrances and putting the nuclear weapons out of reach (and possibly suffering fire damage).  Earlier reports said that two nuclear weapons storage sites were hit - one at Kirana Hills, Sarghoda and the other at Chagai Hills in Balochistan. If so each site was hit by (at least) TWO Brahmos missiles. Which is a lot of explosive power to hit one location at Mach 2 or Mach 3.

Here is a short video by Amit Sengupta which gives a quick breakdown of India's Akashteer mobile Command and Control Center which played an outsized role in defending their skies. This indigenous command and control system (C2) handled the entire instantaneous response that was needed to shoot down the incoming missiles. It is fully autonomous - meaning it needs no human input. So there was no such thing as getting the approval of the commanding officer, approval of the airforce general, approval of the defense minister, prime minister etc.  The radar detects the incoming projectile, calculates trajectory, CEP point of impact, flight time and instantly shoots off the appropriate counter missile. 

Another point to note is that the Indians used their own satellites in the sky to provide their own global positioning navigation for their aircraft and missiles. The indigenous NavIC (Navigation Indian Constellation) satellite system performed superbly - as good as or better than the American military GPS. 

 

If you have time on this Sunday here is another piece of indigenous Indian technology, a twin jet unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can fly a 300 km combat radius or 700 km no-return 'kamikaze' strike. It has a two hour, high speed flight time. Few countries in the world have jet engined drones in their inventories. This Indian drone carries two small-diameter glide bombs which can glide a further 100 km - according to the pilot/engineer. Which means this drone can release its payload 100 km away from the target and return home safely. This UAV weighs only TWO metric tonnes (versus 14 metric tonnes for the smallest Indian jet fighter the not so successful Tejas). At two metric tonnes and such a small size it is almost invisible to radar detection.

Do listen to the pilot/engineer who is talking. This man is more important than the UAV he is describing so precisely. The Indians have successfully developed massive scientific and engineering expertise (their human capital) who have built up the Indian defense industry. 

They cannot yet build a world class washing machine or world class motorcar. But they certainly have the capacity to do so if they focus their attention to do such things.

 

 The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.