The role of Israeli drones in India and Pakistan's showdown

After a deadly militant attack in Indian-held Kashmir in late April, New Delhi and Islamabad have escalated far beyond the usual ‘limited war’ both nuclear powers have opted for in recent years.

During the most intense fighting in decades, which ended abruptly with a fragile ceasefire declared on Saturday, fighter jets, missiles, and drones were all used, with the latter marking a new phase in the rivalry.

Last Thursday, Pakistan’s military claimed it had downed 25 Israeli-made Indian drones over some of the country’s major cities, including Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Lahore.

India accused Pakistan on the same day of launching several waves of missile and drone attacks on its military bases in India and Indian-administered Kashmir, which it claimed were shot down by its air defence systems.

The use of drones came a day after what has been described as one of the longest and largest aerial dogfights in recent aviation history, when 125 Indian and Pakistani fighter jets battled for over an hour.

India has so far denied Pakistan’s claims of shooting down its jets, but if evidence emerges to support significant damage to India’s Air Force, it would represent an operational failure for New Delhi.

Why India switched to drone warfare

Zeeshan Shah, an analyst at FINRA in Washington, told The New Arab that the performance of Pakistan’s Chinese-made J-10 fighter jets and the use of PL-15 missiles by the Pakistan Air Force had “essentially cemented Pakistan’s air superiority during the first day of the conflict”.

To “prevent the loss of any further aircraft, and the potential of capturing pilots, India decided to use the Harop suicide drones from Israel for the rest of the conflict against Pakistan and not take further losses in the air”.

According to Lt Gen Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the Pakistani military spokesman, Indian drones were sent to nine locations, including bigger cities like Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Lahore.

The Israeli-made Harop drones are capable of flying up to 35,000 feet, beyond the range of most anti-aircraft guns. Manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries, they are loitering munitions that can also attack targets by crashing into them on command from the operator and destroying themselves in the process.

Immune to GNSS jamming, the Harop can overcome communication challenges and return to its base if a target is not engaged, as its radar signature is minimised.

In the first successful interception of this model globally, the Pakistani side claimed to have neutralised the drones by shooting them down once they attained a lower altitude, since they can transfer data and help locate missile defence systems.

Using a combination of electronic countermeasures and conventional weapons, Pakistan says it destroyed around 77 Harop drones.

“After five jets were downed, including three Rafaels, Indians got to know their electronic ids were being traced, and they hid the jets in hangers relying on Cold Start swamp drones doctrine, which would have been badly affected if Pakistan had not adapted the ‘hard kill’ with conventional weapons instead of using air defence batteries,” Naveed Ali Shaikh, a military relations analyst based in Islamabad, told TNA.

He said Pakistan has made its own drones and has drone-killer electronic guns as well, but in this conflict, “Pakistan has not used even 10 percent of its arsenal”.

In Shaikh’s opinion, drones have been effective in the Russia-Ukraine war, but the dynamics of warfare have changed since Pakistan’s last focused attack on India, and “drones would become irrelevant”.

Group Captain (Retd) Asif Wazir, a Pakistan Air Force veteran, told TNA that Israeli Harop loitering munitions were deployed to “target Pakistani air defence systems as India wanted to prevent further aerial attacks and achieve air superiority during a period of high tensions between the two nations”.

He added that some sources also mention the potential use of SkyStriker drones, manufactured by Israel’s Elbit Systems.

According to Wazir, India has integrated Harop drones into its arsenal since 2009, with over 100 units in service by 2025. The Indian Air Force is familiar with these systems, and they were renamed P-4 in India and developed for rapid deployment.

“The use of drones aligns with India’s evolving military doctrine, which emphasises unmanned systems for high-risk missions, especially in contested airspace,” Wazir added.

The use of Israeli-made drones demonstrates New Delhi’s strong defence ties with Tel Aviv and sends a message to Pakistan and China, Warzir added, but it could also complicate relations with other regional players like Iran.

He added that the rapid response of using drones “signalled to domestic Indian audiences that India is taking decisive action against perceived Pakistani aggression, bolstering the government’s image”.

Shah observed that drones are inexpensive and easier to maintain than fighter jets. “Used in mass numbers, they can potentially overwhelm another country’s air defence network (as seen in Ukraine), or force that country to activate its complete air defence network, leaving it vulnerable to attack from fighter jets,” he said.

Comparing Harop drones to the Turkish Bayraktar TB2, Shah said that the latter were used to great effect by Azerbaijan in the second Nagorno-Karabakh war against Armenia in 2020.

“The Harop drones are essentially suicide drones and are supposed to be used as such, as compared to the Bayraktar TB2, which is more of a traditional drone. Why India did not employ the Harops as suicide drones against Pakistan is an interesting question,” Shah added.

In his opinion, it is possible that “due to the close relationship between Pakistan and Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan may have provided some information to Pakistan which would allow them to neutralise the Harops”.

Transforming modern warfare, drones are having a notable impact on military strategy and battlefield dynamics. Even if used sparingly, they can worsen a given war situation due to the chaos they create and the element of uncertainty.

Sensing danger as soon as they were used, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had warned at the time that the drone strikes made a Pakistani response to India “increasingly certain”.

”The world doesn’t need another flashpoint where both sides possess nuclear weapons, and standoff air and drone attacks could easily lead to the use of heavier weapons,” Shuja Nawaz, a fellow at the Atlantic Council, said.

Sabena Siddiqui is a foreign affairs journalist, lawyer, and geopolitical analyst specialising in modern China, the Belt and Road Initiative, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Follow her on X: @sabena_siddiqi