How India Learned to Strike First—Without Starting a War

New Delhi: The evolution of India’s defence posture over the past decade marks one of the most consequential strategic shifts since the country’s independence. From the 2016 Surgical Strikes to Operation Sindoor in 2025, New Delhi has steadily moved away from a doctrine of restraint—long shaped by nuclear deterrence, diplomatic caution, and international pressure—toward a calibrated but assertive framework of deterrence by punishment. This transformation reflects not just changes in military capability, but a fundamental rethinking of how India responds to cross-border terrorism, state sponsorship of non-state actors, and the limits of strategic patience.

What has emerged is a new “normal” in Indian security thinking: terrorism will no longer be absorbed or managed diplomatically alone; it will be answered decisively, proportionately, and increasingly through technology-driven, non-contact warfare.

Breaking the Threshold: The 2016 Surgical Strikes

The first visible rupture in India’s traditional approach came in September 2016, following the terrorist attack on an Indian Army base in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, that killed 19 soldiers. For decades, similar attacks had triggered diplomatic protests and restraint, driven by fears of escalation with nuclear-armed Pakistan. Uri proved to be a turning point.

On the night of September 28–29, Indian Army Para Special Forces crossed the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to carry out what New Delhi officially termed “surgical strikes.” The operation targeted multiple terrorist launch pads used by groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), eliminating militants and destroying infrastructure before Indian troops withdrew.

This was unprecedented in modern Indian military history. While covert cross-LoC actions had occurred earlier, this was the first openly acknowledged offensive operation since the 1971 war. The strikes were tightly calibrated—no Pakistani military installations were targeted, territory was not held, and escalation was consciously avoided. Precision, speed, and deniability were replaced with clarity and signalling.

Strategically, the message was unmistakable: Pakistan’s reliance on nuclear deterrence would no longer guarantee immunity for sponsoring terrorism. Politically, the operation reflected a decisive shift under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, signalling that India would no longer passively absorb attacks. Domestically, it reshaped public expectations of national security. Internationally, despite Pakistan’s denial of damage, the lack of major escalation effectively normalized limited cross-border retaliation.

The 2016 Surgical Strikes thus shattered a psychological threshold, establishing a new red line and redefining India’s willingness to use force below the nuclear threshold.

Escalation Across Domains: The 2019 Balakot Airstrike

The next inflection point came after the February 14, 2019, Pulwama attack, where a JeM suicide bomber killed 40 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). This time, India chose a response that went beyond ground operations near the LoC.

In the early hours of February 26, Indian Air Force Mirage 2000 aircraft crossed into Pakistani airspace and struck a JeM training facility in Balakot, located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa—deep inside Pakistan’s mainland. Armed with Israeli-origin Spice 2000 precision-guided munitions, the jets delivered stand-off strikes without engaging Pakistani military targets.

Balakot marked a doctrinal leap. It expanded India’s response options from land-based raids to air power, and from contested border zones to Pakistan’s strategic depth. The operation underscored advances in intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR), precision munitions, and mission planning. Crucially, it demonstrated India’s readiness to strike terrorist infrastructure wherever it existed, not just along the LoC.

Pakistan’s retaliatory air action the following day led to aerial combat and the downing of an Indian MiG-21, with its pilot briefly captured. While the tactical outcomes were debated, the strategic message endured: India had crossed another threshold without triggering all-out war. Nuclear deterrence, once seen as an absolute constraint, was now being managed rather than feared.

Balakot also accelerated India’s defence modernization. It reinforced the need for advanced fighter aircraft, electronic warfare, air defence systems, and integrated tri-service coordination—factors that would shape India’s military investments in the years that followed.

Operation Sindoor (2025): The Era of Non-Contact Warfare

If 2016 broke the ground threshold and 2019 expanded the air domain, Operation Sindoor in May 2025 fundamentally transformed the character of India’s military responses.

The trigger was the April 22, 2025, terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, where Pakistan-backed militants killed 26 civilians, including tourists reportedly targeted on religious lines. The brutality of the attack—and its symbolic targeting of India’s internal security and social fabric—provoked a response that was unprecedented in scale, depth, and technological sophistication.

On May 7, India launched Operation Sindoor with coordinated missile and air strikes on nine major terrorist infrastructure sites across Pakistan-administered Kashmir and Punjab province. These included long-standing headquarters and training hubs of LeT in Muridke, JeM in Bahawalpur, and Hizbul Mujahideen in Muzaffarabad.

Over the next four to five days, as Pakistan retaliated, the conflict expanded. Indian forces struck select Pakistani military facilities, engaged in air defence and counter-drone operations, and deployed loitering munitions and unmanned systems. Yet notably, no Indian ground troops crossed the border.

Operation Sindoor became South Asia’s first predominantly non-contact conflict. The battlespace shifted to missiles, drones, precision-guided munitions, electronic warfare, and real-time ISR. This minimized risk to personnel while maximizing strategic impact—an approach informed by lessons from recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Several features distinguished Sindoor from earlier operations:

• Tri-service integration: The Army, Navy, and Air Force operated in close coordination, expanding conventional options under the nuclear threshold while adhering to India’s “no first use” nuclear doctrine.

• Depth and scale: These were the deepest Indian strikes inside Pakistan since 1971, including targets in Punjab—raising both economic and operational costs for Islamabad.

• Technological edge: Indigenous and imported systems—from air defence networks to precision missiles and drones—demonstrated India’s growing self-reliance and battlefield awareness.

• Strategic clarity: India made no distinction between terrorist groups and their state sponsors, explicitly rejecting nuclear blackmail as a shield for proxy warfare.

Prime Minister Modi described Operation Sindoor as a “new normal” in India’s response to terrorism, while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh framed it as the logical culmination of the 2016 and 2019 actions. The brief conflict ended with a ceasefire on May 10, but its implications endure.

A Broader Transformation in Strategy and Capability

Taken together, these operations chart India’s steady evolution from strategic restraint to proactive deterrence. Terrorism is no longer treated as a low-intensity nuisance, but as an act of war inviting punitive consequences. India has deliberately expanded the conventional space under the nuclear overhang, giving policymakers multiple response options short of full-scale conflict.

This shift has been underpinned by sustained capability building: investment in precision weapons, drones, air defence, special forces, and ISR; acquisitions such as Rafale fighters and advanced missile systems; and a push for indigenous production under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative. Institutional reforms—including the creation of the Chief of Defence Staff and movement toward theatre commands—have strengthened jointness and operational integration.

Equally important has been strategic communication. India has grown more adept at shaping domestic consensus and international narratives, framing its actions as defensive, proportionate, and aimed at countering terrorism rather than provoking war.

A New Deterrence Equation

From the surgical precision of 2016, through the air power assertion of 2019, to the multi-domain, technology-driven dominance of 2025, India’s defence posture has undergone a decisive transformation. Operation Sindoor cements a doctrine where cross-border terrorism invites swift, calibrated, and increasingly disproportionate costs.

In a volatile neighbourhood marked by enduring rivalries and nuclear risks, India has signalled that restraint no longer means inaction—and that deterrence, when backed by capability and resolve, can be enforced without crossing the threshold into catastrophe.