New Delhi: India had prepared for the possibility that Operation Sindoor could escalate beyond the initial strikes, including a plan to move past terrorist targets and hit Pakistan’s military infrastructure, according to Air Marshal (Retd) Nagesh Kapoor, who served as the vice chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) during the operation.
After that, we would have targeted their ‘value targets’,” he revealed.
Speaking at a podcast, he said the next stage would have involved missions aimed at suppressing or destroying Pakistan’s air defence systems, followed by strikes on selected military and strategic targets. Kapoor said the IAF had a defined “escalation ladder” in place in case Pakistan continued the confrontation. Explaining what he meant by value targets, the former vice chief said these would include assets whose destruction could cause enormous economic damage. We would destroy legitimate military targets that were directly powering their war-fighting machinery,” he said. Kapoor said the Indian position was that the operation could stop if Pakistan chose not to escalate further. The former IAF vice chief said the next stage would then have moved towards “value targets”, including assets that directly support Pakistan’s military capability.
“We were fully prepared for the escalation ladder. If they (Pakistan) did not stop, we would have undertaken SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) or DEAD (Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses) missions. “I mean we would target those assets that would cause heavy commercial losses. We would bomb their power plants and infrastructure. But the military had plans ready if the confrontation continued.
