Points made by Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman, former Chief of Air Staff, Pakistan Air Force (PAF), during a discussion on the India-Pakistan war fought between May 7 and May 10 (Before coming for the discussion, ACM Sohail Aman had interacted with senior PAF officials at Air HQ):
1. Air power is important because it enables the achievement of political objectives quickly and precisely, day or night, due to its reach.
2. Air power is no longer just a supporting arm to land forces but can also act independently to achieve strategic goals.
3. PAF was ready to turn the tables on Indian Air Force (IAF) despite being three times smaller.
4. PAF pilots trained hard to the extent that when it came to actual combat on May 7, they found their training was tougher than combating IAF. “Training gave us tougher time than the Indians.”
5. Where Indians fell short: a) They lacked awareness of how future wars will be fought. “They are at least 10 years behind if not more in this matter.” b) Unlike PAF, IAF assets aren’t linked to each other. c) They don’t train as well as PAF. d) Rafale was not used to its full potential.
6. IAF put up a good fight initially but everything unravelled quickly thereafter. Rafale pilots were supposed to get the whole battlespace picture right in front of them on their displays but PAF electronic warfare broke the datalink between the Rafales, disrupted communication and flow of information. This resulted in Rafale pilots not knowing where the rest of them were or contact each other or anyone on the ground.
7. PAF knew the exact position of every IAF aircraft in the air. This gave PAF an edge over IAF.
8. When Pakistan responded to the May 7 attack by India by launching their own attack IAF was missing in action. IAF was nowhere to be seen. (Even Chief of Defence Staff, Indian Defence Forces, admitted that after suffering losses on night of May 6-7 IAF grounded their aircraft for two days to rework tactics).
9. Pakistan armed forces attacked 34 bases of Indian armed forces.
10. Pakistan developed their own electronic and cyber warfare capabilities without any outside help. Link 17, which enables secure jam-resistant data and voice exchange between friendly aircraft, was developed inhouse.
11. For political objective to be achieved you need to have the right military strategy. The communication between Indian political elite and their military has been dismal, poor and because of this they haven’t been able to carry out the tasks assigned to them. IAF CoAS has admitted they need to have better communication.
12. Indians have learned the hard lesson that crossing border and attacking a neighbouring country has enormous costs and it can backfire.
13. When Rafale pilots returned from their mission, they found the runway lights were switched off because the decision loop was interrupted and the HQ couldn’t communicate with the field units because of cyber-attack/jamming, and no one on the ground knew they were coming in to land. After landing, when the pilots tried to call their parents, they found their mobile phones were jammed due to a cyber-attack.
14. Prepare for the next war, which will be different from the one just fought.
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Mansoor Ahmed Qureshi
@MansurQr
Airpower Unleashed
Ex-Air Chief Sohail Aman unpacks Pakistan’s air strategy & Operation Bunyanum Marsoos at Sanober Institute’s roundtable.17:12
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