India
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IAF traces arc from Safed Sagar to Operation Sindoor
Times of India··20 Aug
A 20 August 2026 defence note compared the Indian Air Force in the 1999 Kargil campaign, Operation Safed Sagar, with Operation Sindoor in May 2025. In 1999, crews flew above 15,000 feet with limited precision weapons and orders not to cross the Line of Control. The Muntho Dhalo logistics strike was listed as decisive. Sindoor followed the Pahalgam attack.
Prism
What It Means For You
- If you are watching the new Operation Safed Sagar series, the defence note uses that 1999 campaign as the baseline for what the IAF says it can now do with stand-off weapons.
- Anyone comparing the two wars can note that in 1999 aircraft were ordered not to cross the Line of Control, while Sindoor strikes were described as reaching airbases inside Pakistan.
- If you follow the Bholari hangar pictures, NDTV reported a Su-30MKI-launched BrahMos strike on a structure believed to house a SAAB Erieye early-warning aircraft.
What's Happening
- Operation Sindoor began on the night of 6-7 May 2025 after the 22 April Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians, according to the companion analysis.
- The IAF said air-defence infrastructure at Lahore, Karachi, Sialkot, Chunian, Pasrur and Arifwala was degraded, and that Pakistan requested a ceasefire by the morning of 10 May.
- Equipment listed for 2025 includes Rafales with SCALP and Hammer, Su-30MKIs with BrahMos, and layered defences such as S-400, Akash and MRSAM.
What 1999 Left Unfinished For Later Campaigns
- Safed Sagar was the first large-scale use of Indian air power in Jammu and Kashmir since 1971; government clearance for limited air use came on 25 May 1999, more than three weeks after first reports.
- The 1999 campaign exposed shortages of guided munitions, gaps in joint planning and high-altitude profiles that had not been practised, the note said.
- A related piece said Sindoor used fewer than 50 air-delivered weapons in under 90 hours, with Army and Air Force working from a single joint plan from the first mission.
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