Abstract
The four-day India–Pakistan conflict of May 2025 was the first on the subcontinent to be fought across air, land, sea, cyber, space, the electromagnetic spectrum and the information domain all at once, and the first in which drones were used in an offensive manner. This paper reconstructs the cross-domain dynamics of ‘Operation Sindoor’ from open records, separating what independent evidence supports from what either government has only claimed. It then examines the operational role of emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) in the conflict, the calibrated support Pakistan drew from China and other partners, and the likely character of the next confrontation. The central argument is that cross-domain operations and EDTs compress decision time while multiplying ambiguity, and that this combination erodes the signalling conventions on which South Asian crisis stability has rested thus far. An illustrative scenario traces how a non-kinetic incident could pass through automated sensors and dual-use command systems to strategic alert within five hours. The article closes with an assessment of nuclear risks arising from conventional–nuclear entanglement and changing alert postures, and with measures to restore time and clarity to crisis decision-making.
Keywords: Counter-UAS, Cross-Domain Deterrence, Emerging and Disruptive Technologies, Entanglement, Escalation, India–Pakistan, Nuclear Command and Control, Operation Sindoor, Strategic Signalling
