Pakistan’s Military Modernisation and Its Implications for India – orfonline.org

Pakistan’s Military Modernisation and Its Implications for India  orfonline.org

Pakistan’s military modernisation and growing defence cooperation with China are reshaping the strategic balance in South Asia. Pakistan’s military, while projecting India as an existential threat, has consistently attempted to minimise its existing ‘force asymmetry’ with the Indian armed forces. Despite limited fiscal space, Islamabad’s military modernisation has accelerated in the last five or six years through a combination of foreign assistance, focused acquisitions, and indigenous production. These efforts include capability development of mechanised forces, procurement of Air Defence Systems, acquisition of next-generation fighter aircraft, augmentation of missile inventory, and induction of several modern naval platforms. This brief analyses the modernisation efforts of Pakistan’s armed forces, highlighting some of its key acquisitions and its development of modern weapon systems.

While the ‘capability gap’ between both the militaries still remains substantial, India must closely monitor these developments, especially Pakistan’s growing reliance on Chinese-origin systems, and ensure that the operational capabilities of Indian armed forces are adequately strengthened to address the evolving threat landscape. Sushil Tanwar, “Pakistan’s Military Modernisation and Its Implications for India,” ORF Issue Brief No. 895, Observer Research Foundation, September 2026. Technology is rapidly ushering in a revolution in military affairs worldwide, and Pakistan is no exception to this development. Since the beginning of this decade, there has been an increase in modernisation efforts and technological advancement of the