Mhow (Madhya Pradesh): “That night we were on song. We could have continued to strike, but that was not our aim. We had achieved our objectives,” Indian Air Force (IAF) chief Air Chief Marshal A P Singh said on Tuesday.
He was referring to the intervening night of May 9/10 when Indian Armed Forces launched a series of high-precision missile strikes on Pakistan Air Force bases, as part of Operation Sindoor.
India’s Chief of the Air Staff (CoAS) went on to say that the military had conveyed to the political leadership about Pakistan seeking to cease hostilities, and how escalation was avoided to prevent prolonging the conflict.
“The military conveyed to the political side that Pakistan wants to cease hostilities. People have been saying we should have hit Pakistan harder, but that would prolong the war,” ACM Singh said.
“The adversary thought its radars would be able to pick up our weapons. One part was that we were hitting Pakistan deep inside its territory, the second that they were not able to strike back,” he said.
The Air Chief had recently said how India destroyed six Pakistani Aircraft, including five fighter jets, during Operation Sindoor.
On Tuesday, ACM Singh was speaking to Lt Gen Raj Shukla (retd) at a fireside chat on the sidelines of Ran Samwad 2025.
He, however, cautioned against rushing into the creation of theatre commands, arguing that India must evolve its own structures instead of borrowing models from the US or China.
“For now, we don’t need any new structure at the lower level. Any joint structure is fine as long as the core competence of each service is retained. Let us have a joint planning and coordination centre in New Delhi. We plan centrally and execution of tasks is decentralised,” ACM Singh said.
“We cannot pick theatre command structures from the US or China. We have to think what we need here,” he added.
The Air Chief emphasised that jointness among the tri-services must not come at the cost of eroding individual strengths.
“If the directions are from there (a central planning and coordination hub), things will flow out. We don’t really need another structure at the moment. We can start with this, implement it, and see how it works. If other structures are required, we can think about them later,” he said.
Citing lessons from Operation Sindoor, the May 10 strikes on Pakistani air bases in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, the Air Chief underlined the primacy of air power in modern warfare.
The opening day of Ram Samwad 2025 brought together top commanders from the Army, Navy and Air Force to assess global conflicts and debate India’s preparedness for future wars. Defence minister Rajnath Singh will deliver his address on the second day of the tri-services meet.
