Modernizing Pakistan’s Airbases After Operation Sindoor
OpinionBuilding Resilience Against Future Attacks
By Major (R) Haroon Rasheed, Defense and Strategic Analyst specializing in South Asian military dynamics, deterrence strategy, and defense modernization, and a member of the Research and Evaluation Cell for Advancing Basic Amenities.
He is a former Pakistan Army officer with experience and research interests spanning military affairs, strategic studies, geopolitics, national security, conflict history, and regional security dynamics. He is also associated with research and social-development activities. He is a builder, developer, and philanthropist running many madrassas and schools throughout Pakistan.
The Lessons of May 2025
Operation Sindoor and the four-day military confrontation between Pakistan and India in May 2025 provided important lessons about the changing character of modern warfare.
Beyond the competing claims of victory, the confrontation highlighted the growing importance of precision-strike weapons, integrated air defense, and the vulnerability of fixed military infrastructure.
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On 10 May, the fourth day of the confrontation, India launched attacks against Pakistani military installations, including airbases. Subsequent satellite imagery documented damage at several locations. Pakistan’s air defenses reportedly intercepted most incoming threats, while other attacks demonstrated that even protected installations can sustain damage.
The lesson for Pakistan is clear: defending an airbase is no longer simply a matter of intercepting incoming missiles. The country must also ensure that its air force can continue operating when critical infrastructure is damaged.
The real measure of airbase security is not whether an enemy can inflict damage but whether that damage can prevent the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) from fulfilling its mission.
Three Strategic Challenges
Pakistan faces three interconnected challenges in preparing its air force for future conflicts.
First, it must continue improving its precision-strike capabilities to maintain a credible deterrent.
Second, it needs an increasingly effective, integrated air-defence network capable of detecting, tracking, and intercepting a range of incoming threats.
Third, and equally important, it must modernize its airbases to withstand attacks and recover quickly.
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The third challenge deserves particular attention because it concerns the survival and continuity of air operations after an attack has penetrated the defensive shield.
Weapons such as the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and the French-made SCALP-EG air-launched cruise missile illustrate the evolving precision-strike threat. Although BrahMos is not a hypersonic missile, modern stand-off weapons of different types can place substantial pressure on fixed military installations.
An adversary does not necessarily need to destroy an entire airbase. Disabling a runway or disrupting essential support infrastructure could temporarily complicate operations at a critical moment.
The Costly Options: New and Underground Airbases
One solution is to construct additional airbases farther from potential adversaries. Another is to develop underground aircraft facilities and extensively hardened infrastructure.
Both approaches can contribute to national defense, but they require significant investment, lengthy construction programmes, and specialized engineering. New locations also need suitable access, logistics, maintenance facilities, and supporting infrastructure.
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Pakistan cannot rely exclusively on these expensive options. It needs practical improvements that can strengthen existing installations while longer-term modernization continues.
The Economical Answer: Runway Redundancy
One promising approach is to develop additional operating surfaces at suitable existing airbases.
The principle is straightforward: an airbase should not depend entirely on a single runway when its geography and engineering conditions permit other usable options.
Where feasible, additional runways and appropriately designed operating surfaces could help reduce dependence on one point of failure. If one runway becomes unavailable, another certified and serviceable surface could provide an alternative subject to operational conditions.
However, a taxiway can not automatically be treated as a runway. Its dimensions, pavement strength, clearance, markings, lighting, and other technical characteristics must meet the applicable aviation requirements before it can safely support aircraft operations.
The objective is, therefore, not simply to construct multiple strips of concrete. It is to develop properly engineered redundancy that contributes to operational continuity.
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This approach should be accompanied by rapid runway-repair capabilities, trained engineering teams, suitable repair materials, and exercises that assess how quickly damaged infrastructure can be restored.
Beyond Runways: A Resilient Airbase Network
Runway redundancy alone will not solve every vulnerability. Aircraft, fuel, maintenance equipment, communications, and command facilities also require protection and continuity planning.
Pakistan should progressively strengthen aircraft shelters, improve the protection of essential infrastructure, maintain backup communications, and reduce unnecessary concentration of critical support functions.
Suitable alternate airfields can also contribute to operational resilience. In combination with improved surveillance, integrated air defense, and electronic protection, these measures would make it more difficult for an adversary to achieve lasting operational disruption through attacks on a limited number of installations.
Saudi Arabia and other countries with major air installations offer useful examples for comparative study. Specific layouts, including claims about the number of usable runways or taxiways at individual bases, should nevertheless be verified before being presented as established facts.
A Phased Program for Pakistan
Pakistan should begin with a comprehensive assessment of existing airbase infrastructure to identify vulnerabilities and opportunities for cost-effective improvements.
The initial priorities should include better runway-repair capacity, backup systems, protective infrastructure, and the evaluation of suitable alternative operating surfaces. Subsequent investment can address additional runways, hardened facilities, and underground infrastructure wherever strategic requirements justify the expense.
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This phased approach would allow Pakistan to strengthen existing assets without waiting for the completion of entirely new airbases.
Conclusion: Keep the Air Force Flying
No airbase can be made completely invulnerable to every conceivable attack. Nor can any air-defence system guarantee that every incoming weapon will be intercepted.
Pakistan must, therefore, move beyond the idea of protecting individual installations and focus on preserving the operational capability of its air force as a whole.
Additional operating surfaces, where technically feasible, offer one potential component of a broader and more economical modernization strategy. Combined with stronger air defense, hardened facilities, dispersed support functions, and rapid infrastructure repair, they could help ensure that damage to one part of the system does not translate into prolonged disruption of the entire force.
The strategic objective must be simple: Pakistan’s airbases should be built and modernized not merely to survive an attack but to enable the Pakistan Air Force to continue operating despite it.
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By Major (R) Haroon Rasheed Defense and Strategic Analyst specializing in South Asian military dynamics, deterrence strategy, and defense modernization, and a member of the Research and Evaluation Cell for Advancing Basic Amenities.
He is a former Pakistan Army officer with experience and research interests spanning military affairs, strategic studies, geopolitics, national security, conflict history, and regional security dynamics. He is also associated with research and social-development activities. He is a builder and developer and philanthropist running many madrassas and schools throughout Pakistan.
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