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India successfully used the S-400 defence system to neutralise 15 missiles launched by Pakistan towards Indian cities. Subsequently, Israeli HARPY drones targeted Pakistani air defence radars.
New Delhi:
The Russian-made S-400 defence system was used to neutralise the 15 missiles Pakistan fired at Indian cities late last night and early this morning, and Israeli HARPY drones were then deployed to disable Pak air defence radars, including one in Lahore, sources said Thursday.
Sources told news agency ANI the Air Force fired the S-400 system at ‘moving targets’ heading towards India last night, and that these targets were successfully neutralised.
India then deployed HARPY drones to disable Pak air defence radars, sources said.
Earlier today the government said Pakistani forces had targeted military installations in 15 cities in the northern and western parts of the country – including Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Gujarat.
These attempts were negated and, in return, Pak air defence systems were disabled.
READ | India Neutralises Pak Missiles At 15 Cities, Destroys Air Defence System
Debris from the destroyed drones and missiles is being collected, the government also said, and will add to the volume of evidence supporting India’s charges that Pakistan supports cross-border terrorism targeting India, whether by financial funding or military training.
Attempts by Pak to target Indian military facilities come a day after Operation Sindoor – India’s armed response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly civilians.
READ | 100 Terrorists Killed, Rajnath Singh Tells All-Party Meet On Op Sindoor
Nine terror bases in Pak and Pak-occupied Kashmir were destroyed and over 100 terrorists were killed, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told opposition leaders at a briefing this morning.
HARPY Drones
The HARPY is designed to attack radar systems and is optimised to operate in a ‘suppression of enemy air defences’, or SEAD, role. It carries a high-explosive warhead and has a special radar that can autonomously seek and strike radiation-emitting, high-value targets.
Specifically, it can track and eliminate targets within a designated area; it does this by locating frequencies and then strike from almost any direction, whether shallow or steep dive profiles.
The HARPY operates in deep-strike, day-or-night missions for up to nine hours.
S-400 Missile Defence System
The S-400 defence system, dubbed by India as ‘Sudharshan Chakra’, can track inbound missiles from 600km away and can intercept these targets within a 400-km range.
India and Russia had signed a deal worth Rs 35,000 crore for five squadrons of the S-400, of which three have been delivered and the other two are expected by 2026.
READ | All About S-400 Defence System India Used To Neutralise Pak Missiles
All three that have been delivered have been operationalised by the Air Force; these have been deployed along the Pak and China borders. Delivery of the final two squadrons has been hindered by Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine, sources had said last year.
With input from agencies
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