How Middle East War Has Become A Combat Lab For India's Military Planners

India is watching the ongoing Gulf War with more than routine geopolitical interest. The conflict has effectively arrived at its doorstep. The sinking of an Iranian naval vessel on March 4 underscored how the Indian Ocean region is no longer insulated from the spillover effects of major power confrontations.

For Indian defence planners, however, the war is not just a security concern. It is also unfolding as a real-time laboratory where modern weapon systems are being tested in live combat. Many of the platforms now in action are being validated under operational stress, while others are exposing limitations that were not apparent during peacetime evaluations.

India has a direct stake in the lessons emerging from this conflict. Its military inventory is among the most diverse in the world, drawing from Russian, American, French, Israeli and indigenous systems. As a result, almost every dimension of the war offers insights relevant to Indian force planning and procurement.

Air Power: Lessons From The Skies

The air war is among the most instructive aspects of the conflict.

Stealth aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II and the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor are flying operational missions, offering rare insight into how low-observable aircraft perform in heavily contested airspace.

India's frontline fighter, the Dassault Rafale, is widely regarded as a powerful fourth-generation-plus aircraft. However, it is not a stealth aircraft and has long been viewed as an interim capability before the development of India's planned fifth-generation fighter programme, the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA).

For heavier strike missions, India relies heavily on the Sukhoi Su-30MKI, which broadly corresponds in role to the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle. However, American platforms have seen significant advances in sensor fusion and electronic warfare through successive upgrade cycles.

A more notable gap lies in the strategic bomber category. The conflict has seen long-range strike missions carried out by aircraft such as the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit and the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, both capable of delivering massive conventional payloads deep inside defended territory. India currently operates no comparable heavy bomber platform and has no active programme to acquire one.

The Drone Battlefield
If the air war is instructive, the drone war is transformative.

Following the lessons of the Russia-Ukraine War, the Gulf conflict has further reinforced the central role of unmanned systems in modern warfare.

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper has once again demonstrated the effectiveness of combining persistent surveillance with precision strike capabilities. India has ordered 31 units of the MQ-9B SeaGuardian and MQ-9B SkyGuardian variants, although deliveries have yet to begin.

Equally significant has been the proliferation of low-cost one-way attack drones inspired by the Shahed-136 design. Swarms of inexpensive drones overwhelming sophisticated air-defence systems have become a defining feature of the conflict.

India fields the Israeli-origin IAI Harop, a more capable system in several respects, but it is available in comparatively smaller numbers. While indigenous drone and loitering munition programmes are progressing, the scale and urgency highlighted by the Gulf conflict have not yet been fully reflected in India's pace of induction.

Missile Warfare And India's Capabilities
Missile warfare has been another key dimension of the conflict, offering several points of comparison with Indian capabilities.

India's BrahMos, which travels at around Mach 2.8, stands out in the category of high-speed cruise missiles. In contrast, the AGM-158 JASSM used by US bombers is subsonic but designed for stealth penetration.

India has also developed the Rudram-1, intended to target enemy radar systems. The system provides the Indian Air Force with a suppression-of-enemy-air-defences capability comparable in function to the AGM-88 HARM.

In the ballistic missile domain, India's Agni missile family is widely regarded as more survivable due to its canisterised and road-mobile launch configuration when compared with Iranian systems such as the Shahab missile and the Ghadr missile.

Future comparisons are also likely between India's Shaurya missile and Iran's Fattah missile.

The Air Defence Battle

For Indian analysts, perhaps the most valuable lessons are emerging from the air and missile defence battle.

Israel's layered defence network, comprising the Iron Dome, David's Sling and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD), is being evaluated against real-world threats, including rockets, drones and ballistic missiles.

India is developing a similar layered approach. The Akashteer integrates systems such as the Akash-NG into a unified architecture.

At the long-range tier, India operates the S-400 Triumf, while its indigenous ballistic missile defence effort includes systems such as the Prithvi Air Defence and the Advanced Air Defence.

Another emerging dimension is directed-energy defence. Israel's Iron Beam has demonstrated the ability to intercept drones, rockets and missiles at significantly lower cost compared to conventional interceptors.

India is pursuing a similar concept through the Surya Directed Energy Weapon being developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). The proposed 300 kW system is expected to achieve a range of up to 20 kilometres and could potentially neutralise drones, missiles and other aerial threats almost instantaneously.

Naval Power And The Submarine Gap
The conflict has also highlighted the role of carrier-based aviation.

American carriers such as the USS Nimitz and USS Gerald R. Ford are sustaining air operations at a scale far greater than what India's INS Vikramaditya and INS Vikrant can currently support.

India's carriers use a ski-jump STOBAR configuration, which limits aircraft take-off weight compared with catapult-assisted launch systems used on American carriers.

However, the more critical naval capability gap lies underwater. The US Navy's Virginia-class submarine is conducting covert operations across the theatre.

India currently has no operational indigenous nuclear-powered attack submarines and relies on leasing nuclear submarines primarily for training purposes. In a future conflict in the Indian Ocean, the absence of an operational SSN fleet could become a significant strategic limitation.

Integration Will Decide The Future
The overarching lesson from the Gulf conflict is that battlefield success depends less on individual weapon systems and more on how effectively they are integrated.

India possesses genuine strengths in areas such as missile technology, warship construction, drones and select advanced capabilities. However, several gaps remain evident. These include the absence of an operational fifth-generation fighter, a relatively small fleet of tankers and airborne early-warning aircraft, delayed drone induction and the long development timeline for nuclear-powered attack submarines.