Inside India's SEAD mission: How 'dummy aircraft' was used to lure Pakistan radars before precision strikes

The precision strikes by India against key Pakistani air bases during the recent military stand-off involved the use of "dummy pilotless aircraft" disguised as real fighter jet to hoodwink Pakistan's China-supplied air defence systems.

Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) missions, using decoy aircraft, to confuse, saturate, and exhaust enemy air defence systems, is an integral part of modern warfare and India too appears to have made use of the tactic to target Pakistan's airbases. SEAD missions typically aim to neutralise threats from enemy air defences and allow friendly aircraft to operate safely. SEAD can be achieved either by physically destroying the defence systems or by electronic warfare techniques that jam or deceive enemy radars and communications.

According to news agency ANI, when Pakistan's radars and defence network were activated to bring down the decoy aircraft which mimicked an actual aircraft, India launched its loitering munitions high to target the command and control systems of the country. Pakistan's HQ-9 air defence missile system launchers and radars which were mobilised to thwart the Indian attacks were detected by India.

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India used long-range missile systems to launch the likes of BrahMos and SCALP missiles. BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles appear to have caused the most destruction to Pakistani airfields.

Indian Air Force fired around 15 BrahMos missiles to target the Pakistani air force base to disrupt their ability to launch aircraft and other operations, ANI quoted defence sources as saying.

“This was the first time the BrahMos missile system was used in an active conflict...Its performance exceeded expectations, delivering high-precision strikes that crippled key Pakistani air assets and defence networks,” sources told ANI.

Defence