India had to deal with three adversaries during Operation Sindoor, with Pakistan being the “front face” and China and Türkiye providing vital support to India’s western neighbour, Lieutenant General Rahul R. Singh, Deputy Chief of Army Staff, said on Friday (July 4, 2025).

Lt. Gen. Singh was addressing an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on “New Age Military Technologies”.

Shedding light on the lessons learnt during Operation Sindoor, Lt. Gen. Singh said the conflict emphasised the need for indigenisation of defence technology and a robust air-defence system, while stressing that the country must be prepared for the future.

Lt. Gen. Singh highlighted China’s ancient military essay of 36 Stratagems, which suggests killing the adversary with a “borrowed knife”, to explain China’s plan of causing harm to India through Pakistan. “China would rather use the neighbour to cause pain [to India] than getting involved in mudslinging on the northern border,” he said.

The officer revealed that China’s involvement extended beyond intelligence-sharing, with Pakistan heavily dependent on Chinese military hardware. “If you were to look at statistics in the last five years, 81% of the military hardware that Pakistan gets is from China. In the conflict, China was able to test its weapons against other weapons, so it is like a live lab available to them,” Lt. Gen. Singh said, further highlighting the “important role” played by Turkiye.

Lt. Gen. Singh said the air-defence system helped India during Operation Sindoor as there were “swarms of drones” from across the border. But he noted, “This time, our population centres were not quite addressed, but next time, we need to be prepared for that. We need a robust air-defence system.”

Operation Sindoor also showed the importance of a secure supply chain, he said. “The equipment that was supposed to be received in January has not been delivered yet. We still depend upon a lot of things from outside and if all that equipment were made available, the story may have been a little different,” said Lt. Gen. Singh.