India has used its Dassault Aviation Rafale fighters in combat for the first time, conducting stand-off strikes against terrorist sites in Pakistan under Operation Sindoor.
The night-time effort during 6-7 May saw strikes against “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan, as well as against Pakistan-occupied regions in Jammu and Kashmir, according to India’s defence ministry.
“Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature,” it says.
“No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution.”
In a subsequent briefing, the defence ministry said that India’s military hit 24 targets at nine locations, with “over 70” militants killed. The strikes were in response to an attack by Islamist terrorists on 22 April in India’s section of Kashmir, in which 26 civilians were killed. New Delhi alleges that the attackers had support from within Pakistan.
In a story for local news outlet NDTV, respected Indian defence journalist Shiv Aroor reports that the attack used India’s new stand-off capabilities, including MBDA SCALP-EG cruise missiles launched by Indian air force Rafales.
Other guided weapons used were Safran’s AASM Hammer guided munition and loitering munitions.
Pakistani officials, for their part, claimed that the attacks resulted in nine civilian deaths. Islamabad also claims to have shot down between two and five Indian aircraft. New Delhi has offered no comment on this.
Reports indicate that the weapons were launched from well within Indian airspace. If so, this would have helped Indian jets to avoid Pakistani air defences.
Should the situation escalate, it could see a face-off between two of the world’s most capable regional air forces, although both have shortfalls in key areas such as tankers and airborne early warning and control.
Still, both nations boast large combat fleets and well-trained pilots. FlightGlobal’s World Air Forces directory for 2025 shows that India has 616 combat aircraft, compared with 387 for Pakistan.
Both air forces feature a complex mix of combat assets, with India operating seven combat types and Pakistan five.
The mainstay of India’s combat fleet is its 260 Sukhoi Su-30MKIs. But the highest profile asset – particularly after Operation Sindoor – is the Rafale, of which India operates 36 following the completion of deliveries in 2022.
Other key types include the Dassault Mirage 2000H/I (44), RAC MiG-29 (65), MiG-21 Bison (36), and the Hindustan Aeronautics Tejas Mk1 (31).
Apart from the Rafales, there are questions about the quality of India’s fleet, with reports of sustainability issues, particularly for the Russian types.
For years there have been reports about sustainment issues for the Su-30MKI, with shortfalls of spare parts exacerbated by Russia’s war against Ukraine. The fleet also requires new electronic warfare capabilities – an increasingly urgent challenge given the evolving nature of war – but the programme to update the aircraft was only cleared in December 2024.
The MiG-21s are in the process of being phased out. The small Tejas fleet is of the baseline version of the locally-produced jet. It is far from clear if this will be among the first assets Indian leaders reach for in combat. Significant improvements to the type are due in the Mk1A, which is only due to arrive later this year.
The Mirages, which starred during India’s Kargil conflict against Pakistan in 1999, underwent an extensive upgrade programme in the 2010s to extend their combat usefulness. Cirium, an aviation analytics company, indicates that the average age of this fleet is 35.3 years.
Overall, Pakistan has done a significantly better job than India in upgrading its combat fleet, particularly given strong backing from its main international supporter – and regional rival of India – China.
The mainstay of Pakistan’s fleet are 138 Chengdu/Pakistan Aeronautical Complex JF-17s. As tensions rose following the 22 April terrorist attacks, Pakistan’s military released the first image of a JF-17 Block III armed with four Chinese-produced PL-15 beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles (BVRAAMs).
The PL-15 represents a step change in Chinese air-to-air weapons, with a reported range of 108-162nm (200-300km). If these numbers are true, the PL-15 can outrange Indian BVRAAMs such as the Rafale’s MBDA Meteor, or the R-77 and Astra Mk-1 carried by other Indian types.
In addition, Pakistan has 24 new Chengdu J-10Cs. The fighter – deemed as capable as advanced versions of the Lockheed Martin F-16 – is equipped with an active electronically scanned array radar and an improved cockpit compared with earlier J-10 variants. It also carries a broad array of weapons, including the PL-15.
The rest of Pakistan’s combat fleet is rounded out by F-16A/Cs, Chengdu F-7s, as well as obsolescent Mirage III/5s.
New Delhi’s very specific target selection suggests that it wants to degrade terrorist capabilities and send Pakistan a message about its precision strike capabilities. It is also clearly eager to avoid escalation and even states as much.
Nonetheless, Pakistan may well feel it needs to retaliate, potentially leading to a spiral of escalation.
Based on raw numbers, the Indian air force has an edge against the Pakistani air force, but Pakistan may have a qualitative advantage conferred by the J-10C and JF-17 fleets. In a war New Delhi would also need to set some aircraft aside to guard its northern flank against China; Pakistan would be able to throw its entire active fleet into the fray.
Moreover, China’s vast defence industrial capacity could offer strong logistics support to Pakistan in the form of spares and weapons. Moscow, preoccupied as it is in Ukraine, would be unlikely to greatly help New Delhi on the sustainment front. A high-intensity conflict could well see New Delhi leaning hard on Paris to support the small Mirage 2000 and Rafale fleets.
Given that both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers it is to be hoped that national leaders choose to de-escalate. Operation Sindoor has been a dramatic demonstration of Indian capabilities – if Pakistan’s shoot-down claims do not bear out – and its limited scope gives Islamabad a clear off-ramp.
Should Islamabad decide to strike back, however, the world could witness a high stakes battle between two of the region’s leading air forces.
