Artillery, Missiles & Drones: How India’s Deep Strike Warfare Is Evolving

By 2025, deep strike has evolved from a platform-centric capability into a networked, multi-domain system integrating missiles, long-range artillery, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). This transformation compels militaries particularly continental powers such as India to rethink deterrence, manoeuvre, and escalation management. This paper examines the strategic implications of this convergence, situates it within Indian military doctrine, compares India’s challenges vis-à-vis China and Pakistan, and outlines a future trajectory for Indian deep-strike capabilities through 2035.

Deep Strike as a System-of-Systems

Traditional deep strike relied on a narrow set of instruments air power and ballistic or cruise missiles employed episodically and at high political cost. By contrast, contemporary deep strike is increasingly defined by persistent, layered, and scalable fires, enabled by the convergence of:

• Long-range precision artillery
• Ballistic and cruise missiles
• Armed drones, loitering munitions, and ISR UAVs

This convergence has expanded the battlespace, compressed operational depth, and lowered the threshold for long-range military action. For India, facing two nuclear-armed adversaries across distinct theatres, the implications are profound.

Conceptual Framework: Artillery–Missile–Drone Synergy; The Integrated Deep Strike Architecture

Modern deep strike operates through a sensor–decision–shooter loop, rather than linear kill chains.

Integrated Deep Strike Architecture

Each component performs a distinct but complementary role:

• Artillery imposes sustained pressure and area denial
• Missiles deliver time-sensitive and hardened-target effects
• Drones provide persistence, targeting, saturation, and cost asymmetry

Strategic Implications of Convergence – Redefinition of Battlefield Density and Scale

The convergence of long-range fires has effectively eliminated the concept of a “safe rear.” Tactical, operational, and strategic depths now overlap. Forces are compelled to disperse, harden, and remain mobile, reducing efficiency but increasing survivability.

Preservation of Freedom of Manoeuvre

Integrated deep strike degrades adversary movement corridors, logistics hubs, and force assembly areas before physical contact. This enables manoeuvre forces to operate with reduced friction, particularly in contested and constrained terrain such as mountains or deserts.

Attrition as a Strategic Tool

Unlike decisive battles of earlier eras, deep strike now supports continuous attritional campaigns, imposing cumulative costs over time rather than seeking immediate collapse. Drones and artillery are especially suited to this role.

Cost-Exchange Asymmetry

Low-cost drones and guided artillery rounds increasingly force adversaries to expend high-cost interceptors and defensive resources, favouring actors with robust industrial and replenishment capacity.

Alignment with Indian Strategic and Military Doctrine – Doctrinal Context

Indian doctrine traditionally emphasises:

• Deterrence by punishment and denial
• Limited war under nuclear overhang
• Escalation control and political signalling

The artillery–missile–drone mix aligns with these principles by offering:

• Graduated response options below major escalation thresholds
• Precision and reversibility
• Sustained pressure without large-scale mobilisation

Land Warfare Doctrine (Indian Army)

For the Indian Army, deep strike supports:

• Integrated Battle Groups (IBGs)
• Counter-concentration and counter-mobilisation operations
• Shaping operations prior to manoeuvre

Long-range artillery and drones are particularly relevant in high-altitude and infrastructure-sparse environments along the northern borders.

Jointness and Theatre Commands

The convergence reinforces the necessity of:

• Joint targeting processes
• Integrated theatre-level ISR and fire control
• Interoperable systems across services

Deep strike effectiveness increasingly depends on institutional integration, not merely technological acquisition.

Comparative Assessment: India vs China and Pakistan – India–China Dimension

Chinese Advantages:

• Greater depth of long-range rocket artillery
• Extensive ISR infrastructure
• High levels of integration between UAVs, rockets, and theatre commands

Indian Imperatives:

• Offset terrain disadvantages through drones and extended-range artillery
• Protect logistics and airbases in the hinterland
• Enhance survivability and mobility in mountainous terrain

In the Sino-Indian context, deep strike is less about decisive destruction and more about deterrence, signalling, and denial.

India–Pakistan Dimension

Pakistani Focus:

• Tactical and operational depth through missiles
• Increasing use of drones for surveillance and harassment
• Reliance on nuclear escalation thresholds

Indian Advantages:

• Greater conventional depth and resilience
• Superior ability to sustain attritional campaigns
• Broader escalation control options via non-kinetic and sub-conventional strikes

Here, deep strike serves as a tool of compellence and disruption, targeting logistics, launch platforms, and support infrastructure while managing escalation.

Implications for Coalition and Regional Stability

As deep strike becomes persistent and multi-layered:

• Crisis stability becomes more fragile
• Attribution and proportionality grow complex
• Continuous competition replaces episodic conflict

For India, this necessitates robust command discipline, political oversight, and escalation management frameworks.

Future Outlook: 2030–2035

Capability Trends

By 2035, Indian deep strike is likely to feature:

• Extended-range guided artillery and rockets
• Large inventories of loitering munitions
• AI-assisted targeting and battle damage assessment
• Greater autonomy in drone swarms (with human oversight)

Doctrinal Evolution

Expected shifts include:

• Deep strike as a standing peacetime deterrent posture
• Increased emphasis on resilience and counter-deep-strike defence
• Greater role of industry and logistics in strategic planning

Strategic Risk Management

India will need to balance:

• Operational effectiveness
• Escalation control
• Strategic messaging to adversaries and partners

The central challenge will be using deep strike persistently without normalising uncontrolled escalation.

Loitering Munitions and Mass Precision

Military drones are increasingly employed en masse as:

• Loitering munitions (one-way attack drones)
• Remote precision strike platforms
• Persistent reconnaissance-strike systems

Their key advantage lies in cost-exchange asymmetry:

• A drone costing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars can force an adversary to expend much more expensive air-defence interceptors
• Saturation attacks exploit detection gaps and reaction delays

This has been observed repeatedly in recent conflicts, particularly in Ukraine, where layered air defences are stressed by repeated drone waves rather than single high-value strikes.

Extended Range and Strategic Payloads

Several nations are now developing or fielding attack drones with:

• Ranges of 1,000–2,000 km
• Payloads up to ~250 kg
• Ability to target strategic depth assets, including:
  • Air bases
  • Fuel depots
  • Rail and logistics hubs
  • Command and control nodes

Ukraine Case Study

Ukraine’s reported FP-1 long-range strike drone (range ~1,600 km, payload ~120 kg) illustrates a major shift:

• Deep-strike effects traditionally requiring cruise missiles
• Achieved using simpler propulsion and navigation
• Designed for attrition, disruption, and psychological pressure

This model prioritises reach and volume over survivability, reshaping deep-strike economics.

High-End Armed UAV Competition

At the higher end of the spectrum, armed MALE/HALE drones compete on endurance, ISR quality, and strike integration:

• United States – MQ-9 Reaper
  • Long endurance
  • Precision-guided munitions
  • Strong sensor fusion and networked operations
• China – Wing Loong II
  • Comparable endurance and payload class
  • Export-oriented, increasingly integrated with Chinese ISR ecosystems
• Russia – Advanced strike UAVs
  • Focused on endurance and battlefield integration
  • Combined use with artillery and missiles for layered strike effects

These platforms blur the line between airpower and artillery, especially when used for persistent target hunting rather than one-off strikes.

Swarms, Saturation, and Air Defence Overload

One of the most disruptive developments is the emergence of:

• Drone swarms
• Coordinated saturation attacks
• Mixed profiles (slow, low, small radar signature)

These tactics:

• Exploit radar coverage gaps
• Overwhelm command-and-control capacity
• Force defenders into unfavourable cost-exchange ratios

Rather than destroying air defences outright, drones exhaust and distract them, allowing follow-on strikes by missiles or aircraft.

Strategic Implications (India-Relevant)

For India, these developments carry major implications across both borders:

Shift in Deep-Strike Doctrine

• Deep strike is no longer missile-exclusive
• Drones offer scalable escalation options
• Enables signalling, disruption, and denial without immediate high-intensity conflict

Border-Specific Relevance 

• Western front: Low-cost drone swarms challenge fixed air bases and logistics nodes
• Northern front: Long-range drones offset terrain limitations and reduce reliance on manned platforms at high altitude

Air Defence Evolution

• Traditional SAM-centric defence is insufficient alone
• Emphasis is shifting toward:
  • Layered detection
  • Soft-kill measures
  • Integrated counter-UAS networks

The Bigger Shift in Warfare

What makes drones transformative is not any single capability, but their systemic impact:

• They compress the sensor-to-shooter loop
• Democratise deep-strike access
• Reduce political and operational thresholds for long-range attack

In effect, drones are becoming the “artillery of strategic depth”—persistent, precise, and attritional.

Deep strike is no longer defined by who has the longest missile, but by who can sustain precision pressure at scale. Military drones—especially long-range and loitering variants—have redefined deterrence, escalation control, and battlefield economics.

Artillery Modernisation: Extending Reach and Precision

Evolution of Indian Artillery

The Indian Army is actively upgrading its artillery firepower to deliver long-range, high-volume and precise deep strikes:

• Pinaka Rocket Systems
  India has recently operationalised additional regiments of the Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launcher, significantly bolstering its rocket artillery footprint. These systems can saturate targets dozens of kilometres away and are modular, networked, and digitally controlled.

• Extended-Range Capabilities

Development efforts are underway to extend Pinaka’s range to up to ~120 km and beyond, a move that pushes Indian rocket artillery into a true “deep strike” category beyond traditional tube artillery ranges.

• Modern Howitzers

Advanced artillery platforms like ATAGS howitzers can fire high-precision 155mm shells around 48 km in range with rapid firing and automated systems to support “shoot and scoot” tactics.  

Strategic significance: This modernization enhances India’s ability to strike infrastructure, concentrations and logistics deep inside an adversary’s tactical depth — crucial along both the 

LAC (China) and western border (Pakistan) – Drones: Eyes, Precision, and Deep Penetration

Surveillance & Targeting Revolution

Drones are central to the artillery revolution because accurate long-range fire requires precise, real-time targeting data:

• Dedicated UAV Units: The Indian Army is raising specialized drone units and rapidly inducting surveillance and strike drones to provide battlefield intelligence and target acquisition for weapon systems.

• Indigenous Platforms Like Rudrastra:

Indigenous VTOL UAVs such as Rudrastra are designed for deep penetration into enemy territory with real-time surveillance and precision strike capability — effectively serving as both sensor and shooter. 

• Networked Sensor-to-Shooter Architecture:

Emerging doctrines look to integrate drones directly with artillery and missile units — enabling on-demand targeting, rapid engagement and reduced sensor-to-shooter delays. Specialized units (e.g., Shaktibaan and Divyastra batteries) will fuse loitering munitions, swarm drones and RPAS with artillery formations. 

Drones give Indian artillery eyes beyond the frontline, enabling effective strikes at long distances with more accurate fire correction and reduced collateral damage.

Drone-Launched Munitions & Precision Strike

UAVs as Launch Platforms

India has tested missile launches from drones, adding another layer to deep strike options:

• DRDO’s ULPGM-V3 UAV-Launched Missile:

Successful tests have demonstrated that drones can launch precision-guided missiles from the air — effectively combining UAV mobility with missile lethality.  

Loitering Munitions / Kamikaze Drones

• India has recently agreed a large deal for kamikaze (suicide) drones, enhancing strike power at ranges and in scenarios where conventional artillery or aircraft may be constrained.  

Strategic edge: UAV-based strike systems blur the line between artillery, missiles and air power — allowing highly mobile, precision deep engagements with fewer logistical constraints.

Operation Sindoor (2025)

• In Operation Sindoor, India demonstrated the integrated use of precision missiles (e.g., SCALP, HAMMER) and loitering drones to strike terror targets with precision while minimizing collateral damage.  

This reflects a real shift toward joint sensor and shooter integration — combining aircraft, drones, missiles, and likely future networked artillery strike.

Strategic Implications for India

Multi-Domain Synergy

India’s future battlefield posture is trending toward cross-domain fusion — intelligence from drones feeds artillery and missile units in real time, enabling rapid deep fires across land and air domains.

• Faster and more accurate target acquisition
• Reduced reliance on manned aircraft for deep strike
• Enhanced deterrence through unpredictable, long-range options

China Front: High-Altitude Challenges

Long ranges matter especially along the India-China LAC, where terrain restricts movement. Artillery with extended reach and airborne drones provide:

• Enhanced reach in mountainous terrain
• Persistent surveillance where ground lines are concealed
• Ability to strike supply lines and infrastructure deep behind enemy positions

Western Border Tensions

Past engagements, including drone incursions and related countermeasures, underscore the importance of Artillery-drone coordination for counter-battery and precision strikes, Counter-drone defense integrated with air defense networks  

Countermeasures & Balance

With drones playing a major offensive role, India is also investing in counter-drone systems — including micro-missile-based neutralisers and advanced laser systems to protect its forces.  

Conclusion

India’s long-range artillery and drone revolution is not just about reaching farther — it’s about fusing sensors (drones), shooters (artillery & missiles), and C4ISR networks for rapid, precise, and adaptive deep strikes. These capabilities:

• Strengthen deterrence on multiple borders
• Provide options beyond traditional firepower
• Enhance situational awareness and battlefield dominance

The convergence of artillery, missiles, and drones has transformed deep strike into a central pillar of modern warfare. For India, this evolution aligns closely with doctrinal preferences for calibrated force, deterrence stability, and joint operations. However, realising its full potential will depend less on individual platforms and more on integration, resilience, and strategic discipline.