ISLAMABAD: A new analysis by Australian airpower expert Dr Peter Layton hasdemolished Indian claims of successfully repelling a Pakistani drone andmissile offensive, revealing that India expended an astonishing 750surface-to-air missiles and over 1,000 anti-aircraft gun rounds against amixed swarm of only 300-400 Pakistani drones.
The report highlights that Pakistan deliberately employed slow-moving decoydrones, including low-cost quadcopters, to saturate and confuse Indianradar networks, forcing the Indian Air Defence command to fire expensivemissiles at low-value targets and rapidly deplete stockpiles.
Once Indian interceptors were largely exhausted, Pakistan launchedconcentrated barrages of Fatah-I and Fatah-II guided multiple-launch rocketsystems, achieving significant penetration against key militaryinstallations.
Indian Army Colonel Sophia Qureshi, in a subsequently deleted social mediastatement, acknowledged damage to at least four forward air bases in Jammuand Kashmir and several radar and command nodes in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
The episode has raised serious questions about the operational readinessand cost-effectiveness of India’s multi-layered air defence architecture,particularly the much-publicised S-400 system which reportedlyunderperformed against low-observable and swarm threats.
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Defence analysts note that the engagement validates Pakistan’s evolvingconcept of using inexpensive drone swarms as force multipliers toneutralise technologically superior adversaries through attrition anddeception.
Source:www.griffithasiainstitute.griffith.edu.au/peter-layton-airpower-analysis-2025″>https://www.griffithasiainstitute.griffith.edu.au/peter-layton-airpower-analysis-2025
