NEW DELHI, August 28. /TASS/. Russian-made S-400 air defense missile systems played a decisive role in India’s Sindoor military operation conducted in May 2025 to eliminate terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan, retired Air Marshal Jeetendra Mishra, former commander of the Indian Western Air Command, told the ANI news agency.
"During the hostilities, the S-400 air defense systems played a decisive role by preventing Pakistani fighter jets from getting within 200 km of the Indian border," the military official said. Islamabad used space-based reconnaissance and a variety of other channels to try to detect the S-400s, including by deploying sleeper agents in India to get information on their whereabouts. "These efforts were fruitless. During the conflict, the S-400 missiles drastically limited the operations of the Pakistan Air Force," Mishra emphasized.
During the conflict, Indian forces destroyed several ground-based radar stations and command posts of the Pakistani Armed Forces. The S-400 shot down a Pakistani long-range airborne warning and control system aircraft — the missile was launched at it from a distance of 314 km, marking the longest-range use of air defense systems in military history, he added.
