Washington, July 31 (NationPress) Highlighting the remarkable achievements of India's Operation Sindoor, leading defense analysts in the United States have indicated that Washington could benefit from New Delhi's success and adapt certain aspects of its defense manufacturing practices for its own requirements.

In their comprehensive study for the Small Wars Journal (SWJ) titled 'India's Wake-Up Call: Why US Defense Reform Must Match the Speed of Modern War', prominent American defense expert John Spencer and Vincent Viola, the former Chairman and CEO of the New York Mercantile Exchange and an alumnus of the 101st Airborne Division, referred to India as “a master of the physics of lethality”, from which the United States could learn significantly.

In their assessment, the pair argued that the United States urgently requires a comprehensive renovation of its defense reforms. The conflicts of today, as well as the more ferocious ones anticipated in the future, they asserted, will not be won by those who are slow, cumbersome, or bogged down by bureaucracy, but by those who can think swiftly, build efficiently, and engage intelligently — and most importantly, by those who master the physics of lethality demanded on the modern battlefield.

“India just proved what that looks like,” they stated.

Spencer, who chairs urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, and Viola characterized India as a “compelling model”, detailing how the ‘Make in India’ initiative initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 became a transformative force in enhancing India's defense sector, with substantial investments yielding results a decade later during Operation Sindoor.

“Operation Sindoor was more than a rapid and accurate military reaction to another cross-border terrorist incident. It represented a strategic turning point. Within just four days, India utilized domestic systems to strike fortified targets across the border with precision, speed, and overwhelming impact. No US systems. No foreign supply chains. Just BrahMos missiles, Akashteer air defense units, and loitering munitions designed or assembled in the country,” the analysts wrote in their SWJ article.

“India's remarkable success demonstrated something more enduring than mere airpower. It validated a national defense doctrine founded on robust domestic industrial capability. Most crucially, it sent a clear message to its strategic rival. Pakistan — a Chinese ally in armament, alignment, and doctrine — was completely outmatched. Its Chinese-manufactured air defense systems failed to stop, detect, or deter India's precise strikes. In Sindoor, India not only triumphed but showcased overwhelming military superiority against a Chinese-supported adversary,” they added.

Emphasizing the success of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles, AI-integrated air defense control Akashteer system, drones, and long-range autonomous loitering munitions during Operation Sindoor, the analysts noted that these systems were not mere prototypes but were operational, tested, and validated in a real combat scenario.

In the skies over Pakistan, India not only achieved dominance but also redefined regional deterrence, the duo asserted.

“India has already increased its domestic sourcing in defense capital procurement from 30 percent to 65 percent, aiming for 90 percent by the end of the decade. It raised capital investments for domestic production from $6 billion in 2019-2020 to nearly $20 billion in 2023-24. It permitted up to 74 percent FDI in defense, attracting foreign partners while enhancing indigenous capabilities. India didn't merely discuss reform; it executed it. And it emerged victorious,” they expressed.

Encouraging the US to not only rejuvenate its defense industrial capacity but also master the physics of lethality at scale, speed, and sustainability, the experts advocated for the establishment of permanent, deployable learning teams — designed not to extract lessons from media reports, but to gather them directly from the battlefield.

“These teams must operate in the field, embedded in evolving historical contexts: in urban combat zones, in drone laboratories, and in decentralized logistics centers. From Ukraine to India, battlefield realities are being documented in real-time. The US must capture these insights not passively, but through intentional collection, analysis, and integration into its own systems — with one objective in mind: making the US defense ecosystem the most effective, adaptable, and dominant in the world,” the leading urban warfare experts concluded.