SOURCE: AFI
India’s Operation Sindoor, a four-day military campaign from May 7 to May 10, 2025, targeting Pakistan Air Force (PAF) bases and terrorist infrastructure, has drawn significant attention from global defense analysts, particularly due to the debris of advanced weaponry used in the strikes. According to Chris Clary, an associate professor of political science at the University at Albany, State University of New York, who closely monitors India-Pakistan security dynamics, the remnants of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, French-origin SCALP-EG cruise missiles, and Israeli-made Harop loitering munitions recovered from the conflict are of immense interest to India’s strategic partners and adversaries, including China.
Launched in retaliation for a Pakistan-backed terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, 2025, which killed 26 civilians, Operation Sindoor saw the Indian Air Force (IAF) execute precision strikes on 11 of 13 major PAF airbases, including Nur Khan (Rawalpindi), Bholari (Sindh), Sargodha, and Jacobabad, as well as terrorist hubs in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
The IAF deployed a sophisticated mix of munitions, including approximately 15 BrahMos missiles, SCALP-EG cruise missiles, and Harop loitering munitions, alongside other precision-guided weapons like Crystal Maze and HAMMER. The operation crippled Pakistan’s air defense network, destroyed runways, hangars, and high-value assets like an airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, and forced the PAF to relocate surviving aircraft to rear bases.
Clary notes that the debris from these strikes, scattered across Pakistan and parts of India, offers a rare opportunity for technical intelligence (TECHINT) analysis. “The wreckage of BrahMos, SCALP-EG, and Harop systems provides a treasure trove of data on their performance in real combat conditions,” he told idrw.org. “This is of particular interest to China, which supplies much of Pakistan’s military hardware, as well as to India’s partners like the United States, France, and Israel, who seek to understand the efficacy of these systems against Chinese-origin defenses.”
Debris Analysis: What’s at Stake?
- BrahMos Supersonic Cruise Missile:
- The BrahMos, a joint India-Russia venture, is a Mach 2.8–3.0 cruise missile with a range of 450–800 km, known for its low-altitude flight profile and pinpoint accuracy. During Operation Sindoor, approximately 15 BrahMos missiles, launched from Su-30 MKI fighters and ground platforms, struck PAF bases, causing significant damage to runways, command centers, and radar sites.
- Debris from a BrahMos missile, including a booster section and nose cap marked with Russian designation “P-SK-310,” was recovered in Rajasthan, India, initially misidentified as a Pakistani HQ-9 interceptor. This suggests a possible malfunction or interception, though the missile’s successful strikes on targets like Bholari airbase, where satellite imagery revealed craters and collapsed structures, confirm its combat effectiveness.
- Clary highlights that China, a major arms supplier to Pakistan, is keenly interested in analyzing BrahMos debris to understand its electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM), stealth features, and terminal-phase lethality. Such insights could inform China’s development of countermeasures for its HQ-9B and HQ-16 air defense systems, which failed to intercept BrahMos missiles during the conflict.
- SCALP-EG Cruise Missile:
- The French-origin SCALP-EG, deployed by IAF Rafale fighters, is a subsonic, stealthy cruise missile with a range of over 560 km, designed for deep strikes against hardened targets. Its use in Operation Sindoor marked its combat debut in a state-on-state conflict, targeting terrorist camps in Muridke and Bahawalpur and PAF infrastructure.
- Debris from SCALP-EG missiles, though less documented than BrahMos, has been reported in Pakistan, particularly near strike sites in Punjab. Clary notes that the missile’s advanced guidance systems, including GPS/INS and terrain-referenced navigation, are of interest to China, which seeks to counter similar Western munitions. The SCALP’s ability to evade Pakistan’s Chinese-supplied YLC-8E and IBIS-150 radars underscores vulnerabilities in Beijing’s export-grade air defenses, prompting scrutiny from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
- France, as a strategic partner, may collaborate with India to analyze SCALP debris to refine its performance, while NATO allies could use this data to assess its effectiveness against Chinese-designed systems like the HQ-9.
- Harop Loitering Munitions:
- The Israeli-made Harop, a loitering munition with a 200 km range and six-hour endurance, was used extensively for suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) during Operation Sindoor. The IAF deployed Harops to neutralize Pakistani radar sites and HQ-9 batteries, exploiting their ability to home in on radio-frequency emissions and use electro-optical targeting for precision strikes.
- Pakistan claimed to have downed 25–77 Harop drones, with debris recovered in cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Rawalpindi. However, Indian sources assert that Harops successfully destroyed key targets, including a YLC-8E anti-stealth radar in Chunian and an HQ-9 battery in Lahore, highlighting their stealth and autonomous capabilities.
- Clary emphasizes that the Harop’s performance against Chinese-supplied air defenses is a focal point for Beijing, which aims to reverse-engineer its radar-homing technology and assess its resilience to electronic countermeasures. Israel, a key supplier, and the United States, which monitors Chinese military advancements, are equally interested in the debris to validate the Harop’s combat efficacy.
Clary notes that “China’s forensic interest in this debris mirrors its response to the 2022 accidental BrahMos launch, where Pakistan’s failure to intercept the missile prompted Beijing to seek technical details.” The 2025 conflict, however, provides a larger dataset, as the BrahMos’s combat deployment exposed weaknesses in Pakistan’s Comprehensive Layered Integrated Air Defence (CLIAD). This could accelerate China’s efforts to develop countermeasures for supersonic and stealthy munitions, critical for its territorial disputes in the South China Sea and Taiwan.
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