India’s boisterous 24-hour cable news outlets and social media channels were filled this weekend with post-mortems over what many felt was a disappointing performance by the Indian military in the ongoing conflict with Pakistan.
Most debates centered on the effectiveness of India’s military hardware — particularly how many French-made Rafale jets may have been hit and the accuracy of Russian-made S-400 surface-to-air missiles.
However, Pravin Sawhney, a leading national security expert and former senior Indian military officer, argued that India was outmatched not by conventional weapons, but by Pakistan’s use of Chinese-made information warfare systems.
With over 80% of its military hardware sourced from China, Pakistan has developed a tightly integrated defense ecosystem. According to Sawhney, this includes the Beidou satellite system — China’s version of the U.S.-made GPS — which gave Pakistan round-the-clock battlefield visibility and enhanced missile targeting capabilities.
He emphasized that Pakistan’s advantage lies in the seamless integration — or “data linking” — between its Chinese-sourced systems. India, by contrast, faces limitations in interoperability due to its mix of U.S., Russian, and domestically produced technologies.
