India’s BrahMos cruise missile emerged as the defining weapon of Operation Sindoor, delivering a level of speed, accuracy and devastation that left Pakistan’s military command stunned. In a lightning series of precision strikes carried out by the Indian Air Force, between 15 and 19 BrahMos missiles were launched from Su-30MKI fighter jets. Within a span of barely 20 minutes, the missiles tore through layers of Pakistani air defence and destroyed or incapacitated as many as 11 Pakistan Air Force bases. Indian officials later described the strike package as the most successful cruise-missile operation in the country’s military history.
The shock was even more evident in Pakistan’s public statements. At a summit in Azerbaijan, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif admitted that Islamabad’s planned counter-offensive scheduled for May 10 collapsed almost immediately after BrahMos missiles struck critical military nodes, including the highly strategic Rawalpindi airport. The speed and precision of the attack left Pakistan without the time or capacity to mobilise an organised response. The admission was extraordinarily rare, given Pakistan’s traditional reluctance to publicly acknowledge vulnerabilities.
Further details of the chaos came from former Pakistani minister Rana Sanaullah. He disclosed that PAF personnel received just 30 to 45 seconds of warning before BrahMos slammed into the Nur Khan airbase. He openly asked how Pakistan would have reacted “if it had been nuclear,” reflecting the internal fear triggered in Islamabad’s strategic circles. The statement underscored a broader reality: Pakistan’s air-defence network, long believed to be robust, appeared deeply exposed when confronted by a Mach-3, terrain-hugging missile.
For India, the operation marked the first true combat deployment of BrahMos, a joint India-Russia development often regarded as one of the most advanced cruise missiles in the world. In operational conditions, it performed even better than its clinical test-range results. Its blistering speed, ability to manoeuvre during terminal stages, and near-zero circular error probability have now been demonstrated under wartime pressure.
Yet the BrahMos triumph has brought a more sobering strategic conversation to the forefront. The missile’s unmatched capability comes with an equally unmatched price tag. Each unit costs between USD 2.7 million and 4 million—nearly double the cost of American Tomahawk or Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, despite those systems offering far longer ranges. With India currently producing only 50 to 100 BrahMos missiles annually, even after the upcoming expansion in Uttar Pradesh, the country does not possess the inventory required for sustained, high-intensity warfare.
This shortage is glaring when contrasted with Ukraine’s approach. Kyiv’s Flamingo cruise missile may be slower and technologically inferior, but it has a 3,000-kilometre reach and can be mass-produced, around seven per day. Its real strength lies in saturation: overwhelming the enemy through volume rather than relying solely on premium-grade precision weapons.
This comparison has triggered renewed calls within Indian defence circles for a dual-layered missile doctrine. BrahMos, with its surgical precision, should remain India’s elite “scalpel” for crippling high-value targets. But alongside it, India needs a cheaper, long-range, mass-produced cruise missile that functions as the “hammer”—a weapon that can be deployed in large salvos to saturate, confuse and exhaust enemy air defences.
Operation Sindoor has reaffirmed BrahMos as one of India’s most potent deterrent instruments. But modern warfare is not shaped by brilliance alone; it is shaped by quantity, sustainability and the ability to fight prolonged battles. As India looks ahead, the challenge will be to complement the extraordinary success of BrahMos with volume-based, cost-effective missile systems that can meet the demands of a long war, not just a short, devastating strike.
