The brief military conflict between the two nuclear-armed countries in South Asia will be studied to understand how conventional warfare would be fought between two countries without going atomic on each other.
While the world has been fixated on fighter jets and dogfights, the real takeaway has been the advent of Electronic Warfare on both sides, in terms of jammers and passive sensors, which played a crucial role in the military confrontation.
Pakistan’s passive sensors and jammers have been suspected to be behind the loss of Indian fighter jets. After the fighter jets on both sides stopped flying, the missile and drone warfare took over, and both countries tried to hoodwink each other’s systems through tactics related to these sensors and jammers.
Indian ground forces closer to the border have confirmed to the EurAsian Times that they experienced strong jamming emanating from Pakistan during the conflict.
In the past few years, Electronic Warfare has been a crucial pillar of the Pakistan Air Force’s (PAF) modernization. Till Balakot strikes in 2019, Pakistan had assumed that its nuclear weapons would prevent military strikes by India, as it could lead to escalation.
But India undertook the strikes, ignoring the nuclear umbrella.
The PAF’s modernization plans for this decade are driven by three key factors: Pakistan’s experience from Operation Balakot against India in 2019, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War, and the increasing availability of advanced military technology from key partners such as China and Turkey.
The PAF is believed to have inducted at least one passive sensor ERA VERA-E from the Czech Republic. The Czech passive surveillance system is likely to have been integrated into their Saab 2000 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft.
Before the four days of military confrontation with India, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) operated 11 AEW&C. Out of these, at least two have been reported to be hit by Indian military attacks.
This system allows the PAF to detect and track airborne emitters using time difference of arrival (TDOA) technology. It operates in the frequency range of 1-18 GHz and can simultaneously track multiple targets. Its ability to track targets based on their electromagnetic emissions without actively emitting radar signals has earned it the moniker of ‘silent listener’.
The passive sensors only listen, while radar systems send out signals that are reflected off the object, making them easier to locate.
The system is reportedly capable of feeding data into surface-to-air missiles or informing an active radar to be turned on for limited periods, thereby avoiding detection of its position or electronic signature.
If the adversary chooses to use RF Jammers, then the system can pinpoint the source. It can locate the launch pads of loitering munitions and missiles, without giving up its position.
The system remains hidden in plain sight, usually on cell phone towers or atop high buildings. In the present-day world, it is next to impossible for aircraft or vessels not to emit some RF signals. All aircraft these days have data link systems and use them to relay over-the-horizon information sharing and networking.
The VERA-E’s passive detection helps in triangulating the location of any target without emitting its own radar signals. The new version of the system, called VERA NG, is capable of triangulating signal emitters to 400 kilometers and possibly beyond.
These signals can include radars, data links, and identification, friend or foe (IFF) transponders, meaning even stealth aircraft like F-35 are detectable.
According to the company, located in a small city in the capital of the Czech Republic, Prague, even if there are 200 targets in the air, the system can identify each aircraft and send the information to a command-and-control system. If the country’s database is good enough, it can even determine the tail number of the aircraft.
Pakistan is also developing its own ‘passive radar’. The specifications of the passive radar are not clear. Media reports indicate that the known system can geo-locate targets based on their radar frequency (RF) emissions at ranges of over 400 km and track up to 200 targets simultaneously.
India, at the moment, does not have a comparable system.
The two countries had deployed advanced jamming systems along the border to deny each other’s military aircraft.
The Indian jammer system has been able to interfere with multiple satellite-based navigation systems including Global Positioning System (GPS) (US), GLONASS (Russia), and Beidou (China) used by Pakistan military aircraft.
Pakistan, in turn, also regularly does GPS interference and spoofing in the border regions. Earlier this year, the Indian government reported that as many as 465 GPS interference and spoofing incidents had occurred in the border region, primarily in the Amritsar and Jammu areas, between November 2023 and February 2025.
GPS spoofing and jamming refers to attempts to manipulate a user’s navigation system by giving false signals.
In 2024, reports came out that PAF was augmenting its EA/ECM fleet with at least one new airborne stand-off jamming aircraft (ASOJ). The new ASOJ was to use the Bombardier Global Express 6000 as its platform, and Turkey was to help in integrating the Aselsan HAVASOJ suite with the aircraft.
The reports expected the number of ASOJs in PAF to rise in sync with the increase in the number of fighter jets.
The Aselsan HAVASOJ is equipped for three core electronic warfare (EW) missions: radar jamming, communications jamming, and electronic intelligence (ELINT).
For radar jamming, the HAVASOJ uses transceivers to jam enemy radars by recording their transmission frequencies and re-transmitting them using the same signal. The HAVASOJ is equipped with digital radar frequency memory (DRFM) systems to help achieve this capability.
In the ELINT role, the HAVASOJ would monitor an area for all enemy radar and communications transmissions. It will record that information in a ‘threat library,’ which would later feed electronic countermeasures (ECM) tasks, namely radar and communications jamming.
However, the PAF has yet to finalize the Aselsan HAVASOJ. There may still be an opportunity for other vendors to enter the fray. According to the report, it is also possible that the PAF is exploring a customized version of the HAVASOJ that is equipped for only one or two of the EW roles.
The stand-off jamming aircraft flies outside the Missile Engagement Zone of the adversary’s missiles. By jamming the adversaries’ air defence radars, it creates a penetration corridor for friendly aircraft. Its main role is to provide large area suppression to deny the overall picture to the enemy.
The decision to convert came after the PAF realized the power of Electronic Warfare from Operation Swift Retort in 2019.
During the mission, the PAF deployed a large force comprising multirole fighters, attack fighters, and several special mission aircraft, including the Falcon DA-20 EW aircraft and the Saab 2000-based Erieye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.
