Don’t overlook the role of the Indian Navy in Operation Sindoor, New Delhi’s response last month for a terrorist attack from Pakistani territory.
Yes, the Indian air force and army undertook all the kinetic action. But the navy’s simultaneous move to sea kept the Pakistan Navy in or close to port and helped dissuade Islamabad from escalating. The navy also demonstrated an ability for rapid mobilisation.
On 22 April, Pakistan-sponsored terror groups carried out an attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir that left 26 civilians dead. India launched Operation Sindoor in response on 7 May. The Indian army and air force carried out 24 precision strikes against nine identified targets, according to the Indian government—including training camps, logistics nodes and command centres—in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and deeper in Pakistani territory. Pakistan responded with a mix of retaliatory artillery and air strikes, prompting a broadened Indian campaign targeting key Pakistani military installations. According to the Indian Ministry of Defence, the operation aimed to dismantle cross-border terror launchpads and deter future aggression.
The navy had already shifted to a high-alert posture within 96 hours of the terrorist attack, making submarines, frontline surface combatants, maritime patrol aircraft and its aircraft carrier ready for sea. The ships, submarines and aircraft then conducted tactical exercises in the Arabian Sea. Director General of Naval Operations Vice Admiral A N Pramod emphasised that these exercises were ‘not routine drills but mission-critical validations’.
The navy’s posture was evidently aimed in part at deterring a move by Pakistani ships into the Arabian Sea. Pakistan’s naval forces maintained a largely defensive posture, with most vessels remaining close to Karachi or within Pakistan’s littoral waters.
In this respect, Operation Sindoor was different to earlier confrontations between India and Pakistan at Uri in 2016 and Pulwama in 2019, in which India’s military responses were limited to land and air operations.
A foundation of this naval operation was India’s sea surveillance architecture. Since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, New Delhi has invested heavily in fusing coastal radar networks with satellite surveillance, naval intelligence and airborne maritime assets. The resulting integrated picture would have provided near real-time intelligence on Pakistan Navy movements along the Sindh and Makran coasts, reducing risk of surprise and providing India with decisive informational superiority.
Operation Sindoor was not just a military action; it also sent messages. To Pakistan, it signalled that India would impose punitive costs not just on non-state actors but also on military facilities that harboured terrorists. To regional and global stakeholders, it demonstrated India’s ability to employ conventional force below the threshold of full-scale war, maintaining strategic restraint.
Signalling also came from the navy, which could have been thrown into the action against the Pakistan Navy. Most threateningly, it might have struck the port and fuel facilities at Karachi, possibly causing great economic damage. This latent ability helped persuade Pakistan not to further escalate.
The navy’s involvement in this operation was limited. But India’s political and military leadership deployed naval forces in a land-centric conflict not just to go through the motions of giving the navy something to do. Though not firing a shot, the Indian Navy contributed substantially to deterring escalation.