Why did India launch a barrage of Brahmos to strike Pakistan’s military installations after they had “successfully” targeted the “terrorist camps” and that Operation Sindoor was a such great success for them. Why such a big reaction after 2 days of a successful operation? Your whole point of “India showed restraint from a position of strength” is void. The whole point of operation sindoor was to target “terrorrists” only and not Pakistan Military yet they did. Why?? What happened in those 2 days? I’ll tell you why. PAF gave you the spanking of your life which you will not forget so easily. After being caught off guard and losing face in the air, you didn’t want to risk another direct fight. Instead firing long range missiles from a safe distance just to save face and show some kind of strength after getting pushed back.
How is that a position of strenght.
There is much more to it. You missed out few of those. It was not as plain and simple as deduced by you.
When India launched Sindoor on 7th May, it lost few fighters. You are bang on correct in this regard. But wrong after that and have got the sequence of events a little mixed up.
After launching strikes and even after loosing aircraft, Indian DGMO wanted to talk to Pak DGMO and offer no more escalation. The premise - We attacked few non-military targets and that has been achieved and we don’t seek any more escalation. Did this offer work? NO.
Pakistan inspite of shooting down few fighters and having a huge narrative advantage gave a response, “At time and place of our choosing”.
Knowing that things would escalate further, BOTH sides got into drone warfare on 08-09 May. AIM- To neutralise each other’s eyes and ears, meaning radars etc for any further operations.
Then Pakistan announced BuM on 9th night.
How did BuM go? Did it really give any thing big to talk about? Nothing. Nada.
Why did India launch standoff weapons from long range? Because the threat of PL-15 was a very strong threat. You are right.
Dear, there is no bravado in getting into the firing range of PL-15. In a war you plan to achieve your aim with minimal losses. You choose your weapons accordingly.
That is what India did and pummelled your bases from north to south, with precision and engaged limited number of targets at each base that was attacked. To show its capability to strike deep, strike at will and strike with accuracy. All the points were driven home without any doubt and ample evidence. Why limited number of targets? To keep it non-escalatory. Imagine if too much damage was caused and too many lives lost. Other side would be forced to escalate.
Did BuM achieve any results to boast about? Not to an analyst who talks with evidence. Nothing to show except tall claims and talk.
Considering that Pak had the option of ceasefire on 7th but decided to not take it and launch BuM, which turned out to be a dud, what did Pakistan gain after 7th May? The first day when it had already done wonderful from own perspective. Indian fighters destroyed without loosing any military assets. It was very very good optics.
Very few people are ready to discuss and talk about that.