New Delhi has approved one of its most consequential defence procurement packages of the decade, signalling a decisive shift in India’s military doctrine toward standoff precision, electronic resilience, and multi-domain integration amid intensifying security competition with Pakistan and China.
The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, cleared a wide-ranging acquisition programme valued at US$8.7 billion (approximately RM41.1 billion), blending air, land, and maritime capabilities into a single, coordinated operational framework.
“These decisions will help in enhancing the operational capabilities of our forces,” Singh said following the approval, underscoring that the focus of the package was not symbolic force expansion but survivable, credible deterrence in contested environments.
Lessons from Recent Confrontations Drive Recalibration
The approval comes at a moment when India’s airpower and strike doctrines are being reshaped by hard operational lessons drawn from recent regional confrontations, particularly the May 2025 India–Pakistan standoff, where the growing role of unmanned systems, electronic warfare, and layered air defence networks exposed vulnerabilities in legacy strike profiles.
Defence analysts note that the interaction between drones, radar denial, jamming, and surface-to-air missile systems demonstrated that survivability in modern conflict is increasingly defined by distance, autonomy, and resilience rather than platform strength alone.
“Future air combat will be decided by who can impose effects without entering contested airspace,” said a senior Indian defence official familiar with the DAC deliberations. “This package reflects that reality.”
SPICE-1000 at the Core of India’s Standoff Strategy
At the centre of the procurement lies the planned acquisition of approximately 1,000 SPICE-1000 precision-guided bomb kits from Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. The system significantly extends the Indian Air Force’s strike reach to 100–125 kilometres, allowing aircraft to engage defended targets while remaining outside modern surface-to-air missile engagement envelopes.
Weighing around 500 kilograms, the SPICE-1000 converts conventional unguided bombs into autonomous, glide-extended precision weapons. Unlike satellite-dependent munitions, the system relies on electro-optical and imaging-infrared scene-matching guidance, making it resistant to GPS jamming and spoofing.
By embedding jam-resistant, GPS-independent guidance at scale, India is acknowledging the centrality of the electromagnetic spectrum as a decisive battlespace — particularly against adversaries deploying Chinese-origin sensors and air defence systems optimised for electronic denial.
“This is about confidence under fire,” a former Indian Air Force commander said. “If your weapon can still find its target when satellites are denied and networks are disrupted, you retain escalation control.”
From Platform-Centric to Effects-Based Warfare
Beyond the SPICE-1000 kits, the DAC package integrates Astra Mk-II beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles, loitering munitions, lightweight radars, drone-detection systems, full-mission simulators, and networked command infrastructure. Upgrades to the Pinaka rocket system with long-range guided munitions further extend land-based precision strike depth.
Naval components, including bollard-pull tugs and secure software-defined radios, reinforce logistics, manoeuvrability, and communications resilience — areas increasingly recognised as critical enablers of combat power.
Taken together, the package signals that India is no longer pursuing isolated upgrades but is transitioning toward effects-based warfare, where precision, persistence, and survivability matter more than raw numbers or visible force posture.
“This is a coordinated transformation of joint warfighting architecture,” said a defence analyst at a New Delhi think tank. “It reduces operational seams that adversaries could exploit during escalation.”
Strategic Signalling to Pakistan and China
The procurement unfolds against the backdrop of sustained tensions along India’s western front with Pakistan and the northern frontier with China, where escalation management, response proportionality, and credible conventional deterrence have become tightly interlinked.
By prioritising standoff precision and autonomous strike, India is reinforcing a deterrence model built on certainty of effect rather than the threat of prolonged attritional campaigns.
“Precision is politically stabilising,” the analyst added. “It allows India to respond decisively while limiting collateral damage and escalation risks.”
Deepening India–Israel Defence Synergy
The SPICE-1000 deal further consolidates India’s strategic defence partnership with Israel, which has emerged as a key source of combat-proven, rapidly deployable technologies. Officials say the relationship increasingly extends beyond procurement to co-development, technology transfer, and industrial collaboration aligned with the Atmanirbhar Bharat self-reliance framework.
Israel’s experience in electronic warfare, autonomous guidance, and layered strike architectures closely mirrors India’s evolving threat perception, particularly in high-density sensor and missile environments.
“This partnership accelerates India’s transition from platform dependence to capability independence,” a senior defence official said.
A High-Cost, High-Confidence Decision
Financially, the US$8.7 billion approval places the package among India’s most significant defence investments in recent years, reflecting political willingness to absorb substantial fiscal costs to preserve strategic flexibility in a compressed crisis-decision environment.
The inclusion of advanced training systems ensures that technological investments translate into operational competence rather than symbolic capability.
In strategic terms, the DAC decision functions simultaneously as a military enhancement, a political signal, and an industrial policy instrument. It communicates India’s intent to remain a credible, precision-capable power in an increasingly volatile Indo-Pacific security landscape.
As one senior official put it, “This is not about preparing for yesterday’s wars. It’s about ensuring that India’s deterrence remains precise, survivable, and stabilising in the wars we hope never have to fight.”
