The Middle East conflict underscores a central truth that a military force built on depth, decentralisation, and endurance can impose costs that shape adversary behaviour
“The more you push, the stronger it becomes.” – Ali Khamenei
As ‘Operation Epic Fury’ enters into its next phase, it is incredible to see Iran withstand and keep fighting the combined military might of the United States and Israel. Nearly 900 strikes in the first 12 hours, the killing of their Supreme Leader, the decapitation of an entire military command structure, sustained bombing across 26 of its 31 provinces, yet Iran continues to launch missiles, threaten the Strait of Hormuz, activate proxies across multiple geographies, and shape the terms of the conflict. This is not merely a regional war, but a live demonstration of how a nation state has designed itself for resilience under extreme stress and against all odds. For India, facing a complex, multi-front threat environment, this conflict offers a strategic curriculum in real time.
Iran’s most consequential military achievement has been its ‘Mosaic Defence’ doctrine built around semi-autonomous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units with independent command and control, intelligence, weapons, and decision authority across all 31 provinces which survived the killing of its Supreme Leader without a pause in operations. India must accelerate the operationalisation of the Integrated Theatre Commands with pre-delegated combat authority that does not freeze when higher headquarters are degraded.
Modern warfare is increasingly characterised by the deliberate targeting of leadership to induce strategic paralysis. Iran elected a new Supreme Leader and continued military operations without operational discontinuity. The present command authority and military succession protocols in India must be stress-tested against such decapitation scenarios, with pre-delegated authorities at every level.
Even after a month of intense air campaign, IRGC has maintained operational cohesion throughout. As of April 1, 2026, IRGC launched 89 waves of strikes as part of ‘Operation True Promise 4’ against Israel and US bases implying that its command-and-control architecture is intact and adaptive. Sequenced strikes across time and geography indicate reliable communications and coordinated battle management.
The mix of saturation and precision strikes reflects effective and efficient intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability designed to overwhelm defences while hitting selected high-value targets. India must build a credible sustained multi-domain counter-strike capability, backed by resilient and decentralised command-and-control to impose continuous costs over time, not just a single punitive blow.
Iran built missile railways inside granite mountains at depths exceeding 500 metres. Sites struck repeatedly including one near Yazd hit four separate times continued delivering missiles to surface launchers via automated rail systems with multiple distributed blast-door exits. India’s critical assets remain largely surface based or semi-hardened. The Himalayas offer natural protection and cover which can be utilised to harden missile storage, forward air bases, ammunition depots and command centres.
By Day 5, Iran had fired over 500 ballistic missiles and 2,000 drones drawn from domestic stockpiles built over decades of forced self-reliance under sanctions. Our import dependency for critical munitions, missiles, precision-guided bombs, torpedoes is a critical vulnerability. Atmanirbhar Bharat in defence must shift from a procurement philosophy to a war-readiness imperative, with industrial-scale production of missiles, drones, loitering munitions, and guided weapons as a national security priority.
Iran reduced global oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz by 70% within 72 hours, using fast-attack craft, naval mines, shore-based anti-ship ballistic missiles, and drone swarms in an integrated area-denial envelope. India commands far more strategically significant maritime space. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands must be developed as our unsinkable forward maritime base, and a credible, layered Indian Ocean area-denial doctrine built around anti-ship missiles and autonomous maritime systems.
Thousands of Shahed drones costing tens of thousands of dollars each have forced the expenditure of interceptors costing millions per shot. India must build mass-production drone capability across surveillance, strike, loitering munition, and maritime denial roles, reversing cost-exchange ratios against any adversary attempting to sustain air operations over our territory.
Iran simultaneously conducted missile strikes, maritime denial, proxy warfare, cyber operations, and diplomatic pressure tying down US and Israeli attention and resources. Our own Defence Space Agency, Defence Cyber Agency, Special Operations Command and Theatre Commands must evolve as integrated, multi-domain warfighting entities.
Iran built its military for a long war with 90-day-plus reserves, distributed logistics, and provincial-level mobilisation capacity. Our war reserve holdings and civil-military industrial surge capacity must be benchmarked and expanded against sustained multi-front conflict scenarios, not merely short intense operations.
The Iran conflict underscores a central truth that a military force built on depth, decentralisation, and endurance can impose costs that shape adversary behaviour. India must build these capabilities in an integrated, sustained manner to establish credible, proactive deterrence against China. Beijing’s calculus hinges on perceived asymmetries in precision-strike depth, ISR over the Tibetan plateau, maritime reach, and India’s ability to sustain multi-front, high-intensity conflict. India must demonstrate the capability, capacity, and will to ensure that any adventurism across the Himalayas will be punished in a manner that no political objective can justify.
(Brigadier (Retd) Anil John Alfred Pereira is a veteran from Goa, who served the nation with distinction for 32 years.)
