War in West Asia: Lessons for India’s Air Defence

As the conflict between Israel and Iran, with the United States backing Israeli operations, enters its third week, the war is no longer being seen as a short punitive campaign. Instead, it is shaping into a wider regional confrontation with significant implications for energy security and military strategy, particularly for major Asian consumers such as India, China and Japan.

In a conversation with BharatShakti Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale, former Director General of Air Defence, Lt Gen V. K. Saxena, said the conflict is offering stark lessons about modern air and missile warfare, especially the vulnerabilities of traditional air-defence systems when confronted by stealth aircraft, high-speed missiles and mass drone attacks.

When Air Defence Meets Stealth

At the outset of the conflict, Iran’s extensive air-defence network was expected to pose a serious challenge to American and Israeli air power. Tehran fields a layered structure of radars, guns and missile interceptors of Russian, Chinese and indigenous origin.

Gen Saxena cautioned against the assumption that Iran’s air defence is weak.

“If somebody asks whether Iran has poor air defence, I would say no. They have substantial capabilities. But these have been subdued by factors such as stealth aircraft and superior intelligence.”

According to him, any air defence architecture rests on three pillars -sensors, shooters, and battle management systems. Sensors detect incoming threats, shooters engage them, while the command-and-control network coordinates the response.

Iran’s radar network includes long-range sensors capable of detecting targets hundreds of kilometres beyond its borders. Its ground-based defences range from anti-aircraft guns and short-range missiles to long-range systems comparable to the Russian S-300.

Yet the system struggled against stealth aircraft such as the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.

“The radar cross-section of these aircraft is extremely small,” Gen Saxena explained. “Conventional radars simply cannot detect them easily. That is where the advantage lies.”

He added that superior intelligence and surveillance also played a decisive role. Pre-emptive strikes reportedly destroyed hundreds of Iranian launchers before they could be deployed.

“This shows the importance of intelligence dominance. If your launchers are destroyed before they even fire, your air defence is already degraded.”

Iran’s Missile and Drone Counterstrike

While Iran’s air defences struggled to blunt air strikes, Tehran has demonstrated resilience through offensive missile and drone attacks targeting US bases across West Asia.

Gen Saxena said Iran’s real strength lies not in its air force, which relies largely on ageing aircraft, but in its vast missile inventory.

“Their strike power lies in ballistic missiles and drones. That is where their deterrence comes from.”

Iran fields a range of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles capable of travelling at speeds between Mach 3 and Mach 12, some with manoeuvrable re-entry vehicles designed to evade interception.

These missiles have targeted American installations across the region, exposing the limits of even sophisticated air-defence systems.

“Even the best air defence in the world cannot stop everything,” Gen Saxena said. “Some missiles will get through.”

The Cost Asymmetry of Drone Warfare

Another defining feature of the war has been the extensive use of inexpensive loitering munitions such as the Shahed-136 loitering munition.

Iran has deployed large numbers of these kamikaze drones alongside missiles to saturate defences.

“This is where the cost asymmetry becomes stark,” Gen Saxena noted. “You are using a drone costing about $30,000 to force the defender to fire interceptor missiles costing millions.”

For example, interceptors used by systems like the Patriot missile system or the Iron Dome air defence system are vastly more expensive than the drones they attempt to destroy.

“In air defence warfare, the side that wins the cost ratio – the cost of attack versus cost of interception – will eventually have the advantage.”

Iran is believed to possess tens of thousands of drones and the capacity to produce hundreds more each month, allowing sustained pressure on adversaries.

What India Should Learn

For India, the war underscores the need to build a robust, multi-layered air defence architecture.

Gen Saxena said New Delhi is already moving in the right direction by building concentric layers of protection, from guns and man-portable air-defence systems to quick-reaction surface-to-air missiles, medium-range interceptors and ballistic missile defence.

“Our decision-makers are aware that air defence has to be built from the ground up.”

However, he stressed that the challenge now extends beyond missiles.

Drone warfare, he said, will dominate future battlefields.

“In the tactical battle area, hundreds or even thousands of drones will operate simultaneously, both offensive and defensive.”

India, therefore, needs integrated counter-drone grids combining detection, electronic warfare and kinetic interception.

“You need situational awareness, hard-kill and soft-kill capabilities, and proper command and control. Without that, drone swarms can overwhelm any defence.”

A Preview of Future Wars

The conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia together underline a broader transformation in warfare: the dominance of drones, missiles and information superiority.

For India, the lesson is clear.

Air defence can no longer rely solely on conventional systems. It must integrate intelligence, stealth detection, missile interception and counter-drone capabilities into a unified network.

As Gen Saxena put it:

“If we do not build both air-defence strength and offensive strike capability, we risk repeating the vulnerabilities we are seeing today.”

Team BharatShakti