Indian Navy bottled up Pakistan air force to Makran coast during Operation Sindoor
Navy began testing and refining its tactics and procedures at sea by conducting multiple weapon firings in the Arabian Sea within 96 hours of the April 22 terrorist attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam | Sanjay Ahlawat
A prowling aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy along with its formidable fleet of escort warships patrolled the northern Arabian Sea in a manner that the Pakistani air force aircraft stationed in the country’s south were kept bottled up in the Makran coast and couldn’t operate in the maritime airspace.
The reason was simple: the carrier battle group (CBG) had a formidable array of MiG-29 naval fighter aircraft.
Briefing journalist on Monday at the National Media Centre in New Delhi, Vice Admiral A.N. Pramod, Director General Naval Operation (DGNO), said, “In the current standoff, the presence of our aircraft carrier with large number of MiG-29K fighters and Air Borne Early Warning helicopters prevented any suspicious or hostile aircraft to close the carrier battle group within several hundred km.”
“Our powerful CBG, with formidable offensive capability, was able to operate with impunity and maintained an uncontested presence in the area of operations.”
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“Effectively, it compelled the Pakistani air elements to remain bottled up close to the Makaran coast denying any opportunity to be a threat in maritime space,” the vice admiral added.
The navy has been Pakistan's weak spot in its military matrix while the army and the air force have a disproportionately important presence in the pecking order.
In a show of strength and capability, the Navy began testing and refining its tactics and procedures at sea by conducting multiple weapon firings in the Arabian Sea within 96 hours of the April 22 terrorist attack in Kashmir’s Pahalgam where 26 civilians were brutally gunned down by Pakistan-backed terrorists.
Since then, the Indian Navy remained forward deployed in the northern Arabian Sea in a dissuasive and deterrent posture, with full readiness and capacity to strike select targets at sea, and on land, including Karachi.
Under Operation Sindoor, launched by the Indian military on May 7 against terror infrastructure and hubs in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir and deep inside Pakistan, all three services—the army, navy and the air force—were mobilised with lightning speed.
Defence