Net-Centric or the network-centric approach toward warfighting was adopted by the Indian Air Force in 2010 with the induction of the Air Force Network (AFNET). It was revolutionary and formed the basis of IACCS.
India controlled its airspace and protected its military bases and strategic assets through an integrated network of air defence systems during ‘Operation Sindoor’ when hundreds of Pakistani drones, missiles and rockets were launched to target Indian military assets and civilian infrastructure. The aerial threats were identified, tracked and neutralised by India’s integrated air defence systems.
India’s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) played a pivotal role in defending the skies. An automated system integrates data from forces to combat aerial threats.
India controlled its airspace and protected its military bases and strategic assets through an integrated network of air defence systems during ‘Operation Sindoor’ when hundreds of Pakistani drones, missiles and rockets were launched to target Indian military assets and civilian infrastructure. The aerial threats were identified, tracked and neutralised by India’s integrated air defence systems.
India’s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS) played a pivotal role in defending the skies. An automated system integrates data from forces to combat aerial threats.
India’s integrated air defence system – which includes AD systems of the Army, Navy and the Air Force – was brought together by the Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS). Air Marshal Bharti said IACCS accorded us a “net-centric operational capability, which is vital to modern-day warfighting.”
Net-Centric or the network-centric approach toward warfighting was adopted by the Indian Air Force in 2010 with the induction of the Air Force Network (AFNET). It was revolutionary and formed the basis of IACCS. Before this, India had been using the troposcatter communication system, where the Earth’s topography was used to relay radio waves for communication. AFNET replaced the system of the 1950s, revolutionising the approach to warfare.
Defence Minister AK Antony inaugurated the AFNET system in 2010.
Then Defence Minister AK Antony inaugurated the network on September 14, 2010. Outlining the two-fold aim of the ‘Network for Spectrum’ approach of the government – to facilitate the growth of national tele-density on the one hand, and ensure modernisation of defence communications with the state-of-the-art communication infrastructure, the network will have the potential to support net-centric operations, Mr Antony had said.
The AFNET network was tested during a practice interception of simulated enemy targets by a pair of MiG-29 fighter jets airborne from an airbase in the Punjab and neutralizing targets in the western sector was played out live on the giant screens at the Air Force auditorium, when the ministers and senior officers were present during the inauguration.
“The recent deployments of AFNET, IACCS and other systems have put the IAF at the forefront of NCW-enabled nations. This quantum leap in the field of Communication & Information Technology will help field units train and develop tactics, techniques and procedures to realise the full benefits of network-enabled capabilities,” Air Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal Pradeep Vasant Naik had said.
IACCS – The Central Nervous System Of Air Space Management
Air Marshal AK Bharti, the Director General of Air Operations, credited the efforts of the personnel of the three forces and the Border Security Force in guarding the skies and the layered air defence system, which is controlled by India’s Integrated Air Command and Control System (IACCS).
“Our battle-proven systems have stood the test of time, and take them head-on. Another highlight has been the stellar performance of the indigenous air defence system, the Akash system. Putting together and operationalising the potent AD environment has been possible only because of budgetary and policy support from the government of India in the last decade,” Air Marshal Bharti said.
The drones Pak fired at India on the night of May 8, 2025, included the Turkey-made Asisguard SONGAR and the Bayraktar TB2, an unmanned combat aerial vehicle.
During India and Pakistan’s 100-hour-war in May 2025, Islamabad fired a barrage of drones and missiles at enemy military installations and civilian populations.
The biggest wave was late May 8 and early May 9; between 300 and 400 drones, and over a dozen missiles attacked 36 towns or cities from Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir to Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, spanning nearly 1,300 km along the Line of Control and the international border.
A vast majority of these were shot down, and those that weren’t were neutralised, i.e., electronically disabled, thanks to India’s ‘Iron Dome’, – the Integrated counter-Unmanned Aerial System, or C-UAS.
From the debris of the shot-down projectiles, a new plotline emerged – a nexus between Pakistan and Turkey, and Azerbaijan, all of which share an increasingly robust economic and military relationship, not to mention their common Islamic heritage.
The ‘Three Brothers’
Historically each has supported the other; after the Soviet Union fell Turkey and Pak were quick to recognise Azerbaijan, and Turkey and Pak have a growing symbiotic military relationship, one underscored by each side’s reluctance to depend on either the West or China.
And oil-rich Azerbaijan has quietly become a leading source of aid and investment for Pak; in February 2025, for example, Baku committed $2 billion in infrastructure, energy, and mining.
The ‘Three Brothers’ – Turkey, Pakistan, and Azerbaijan. Photo Credit: Google Maps
Baku and Islamabad also struck weapons deals, and the latter was reportedly backed by the former and Ankara during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war involving Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Incidentally, India has emerged as a supporter of Armenia.
In 2024 Delhi became Yerevan’s largest defence supplier after a $2 billion deal that included sale of the indigenously developed Akash missile system that kept the Turkish-made Pak drones at bay.
In the latest India-Pakistan stand-off, there were no ultimatums, no red buttons.
Yet the cycle of military retaliation, veiled signals and swift international mediation quietly evoked the region’s most dangerous shadow. The crisis didn’t spiral towards nuclear war, but it was a reminder of how quickly tensions here can summon that spectre.
Even scientists have modelled how easily things could unravel. A 2019 study by a global team of scientists opened with a nightmare scenario where a terroristattack on India’s parliament in 2025 triggers a nuclear exchange with Pakistan.
Six years later, a real-world stand-off – though contained by a US-brokered ceasefire on Saturday – stoked fears of a full-blown conflict. It also revived uneasy memories of how fragile stability in the region can be.
As the crisis escalated, Pakistan sent “dual signals” – retaliating militarily while announcing a National Command Authority (NCA) meeting, a calculated reminder of its nuclear capability. The NCA oversees control and potential use of the country’s nuclear arsenal. Whether this move was symbolic, strategic or a genuine alert, we may never know. It also came just as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly stepped in to defuse the spiral.
President Trump said the US didn’t just broker a ceasefire – it averted a “nuclear conflict”. On Monday, in an address to the nation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “[There] is no tolerance for nuclear blackmail; India will not be intimidated by nuclear threats.
“Any terrorist safe haven operating under this pretext will face precise and decisive strikes,” Modi added.
India and Pakistan each possess about 170 nuclear weapons, according to the think-tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). As of January 2024, Sipri estimated there were 12,121 nuclear warheads worldwide. Of these, about 9,585 were held in military stockpiles, with 3,904 actively deployed – 60 more than the previous year. The US and Russia together account for more than 8,000 nuclear weapons.
The bulk of both India’s and Pakistan’s deployed arsenals lies in their land-based missile forces, though both are developing nuclear triads capable of delivering warheads by land, air and sea, according to Christopher Clary, a security affairs expert at the University at Albany in the US.
“India likely has a larger air leg (aircraft capable of delivering nuclear weapons) than Pakistan. While we know the least of Pakistan’s naval leg, it is reasonable to assess that India’s naval leg is more advanced and more capable than Pakistan’s sea-based nuclear force,” he told the BBC.
One reason, Mr Clary said, is that Pakistan has invested nowhere near the “time or money” that India has in building a nuclear-powered submarine, giving India a “clear qualitative” edge in naval nuclear capability.
Since testing nuclear weapons in 1998, Pakistan has never formally declared an official nuclear doctrine.
India, by contrast, adopted a no-first-use policy following its own 1998 tests. But this stance has shown signs of softening. In 2003, India reserved the right to use nuclear weapons in response to chemical or biological attacks – effectively allowing for first use under certain conditions.
Further ambiguity emerged in 2016, when then–defence minister Manohar Parrikar suggested India shouldn’t feel “bound” by the policy, raising questions about its long-term credibility. (Parrikar clarified that this was his own opinion.)
