16 May 2025 By Admin .
War isn’t what it used to be. Instead of soldiers fighting in trenches or tanks rolling across fields, battles now involve drones buzzing overhead, hackers attacking computer systems, and invisible tools that block communication. Countries like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Ukraine, India, and Pakistan are showing how these technologies are changing the way wars are fought these days. Let’s explore how.
In 2020, Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over a region called Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan surprised everyone by using small, affordable drones to defeat Armenia’s expensive military equipment. Armenia relied on big air defence systems, like the S-300, designed to stop missiles and jets. But these systems couldn’t detect small drones flying close to the ground.
Azerbaijan also used a clever trick. They sent old-fashioned planes (Soviet-era biplanes) into the sky as decoys. When Armenia turned on their radars to track these planes, Azerbaijan’s drones quickly located the radars and destroyed them. It was like using a distraction to find and hit the enemy’s weak spots.
This war proved that smart, low-cost technology can beat traditional, expensive weapons. Many countries took note and started investing in drones.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, few thought Ukraine could hold out. But Ukraine used clever ideas and everyday technology to fight back. For example:
Even ordinary people helped. One farmer famously caught a Russian drone with a net! Meanwhile, Russian troops made mistakes, like using basic walkie-talkies without encryption. Ukrainian forces listened in, learned Russian plans, and targeted their positions.
Ukraine’s ability to adapt quickly—using cheap tools and creative tactics—showed that determination and innovation can challenge even a powerful military.
By 2025, India and Pakistan took hybrid warfare to a new level. When tensions flared, Pakistan mixed airstrikes with cyberattacks, claiming to knock out 70% of India’s power grid. India hit back by bombing airbases with precision missiles. Both sides flooded social media with viral videos, some real, some fake, to sway global opinion. Hackers even crashed India’s defence websites for 19 hours straight, turning complaint forms into digital wastelands.
Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb Ahmed told a key press briefing that the Indian forces initially tried to gain superiority through air campaign, but when Pakistani air defences pushed back their fighter jets, India adopted a new strategy and started firing drones and later Brahmos missiles. But Pakistani cyber and electronic warfare systems paralyzed most of their weapons on the way.
The Brahmos, which is considered one of the fastest cruise missiles in the world, usually flies at sub-supersonic speeds to avoid radar and dodge enemy defence systems. This is called ‘fire and forget’ in India. But Pakistan taught it a ‘memorable lesson’ that challenged this very principle.
Pakistani experts diverted these missiles from their path by disrupting the GPS system with “Soft Kill Induced GPS Errors.” That is, the missile took off, but its mind was blown, it couldn’t figure out where to go.
Air Vice Marshal Aurangzeb revealed that as soon as the Brahmos missile entered Pakistani territory, Pakistani systems confused its satellite communications and GPS navigation with “jamming” and “spoofing.” As a result, some missiles strayed from their target and fell in uninhabited areas, while many were destroyed in flight. Social media praise for Pakistani citizens who shot down drone with Rangers.
According to experts, all this was possible under a strong and integrated electronic warfare doctrine. According to retired Air Vice Marshal Nasirul Haq Wynne, Pakistan has been working on the concept of ‘centralized electronic warfare’ for over a decade, which integrates cyber warfare, jamming, spoofing and integrated air defence.
When electronic warfare platforms are brought together and integrated with cyber warfare, it is called ‘cyber-electronic integration’.
He told the BBC that the Pakistan Air Force has ground-based electronic warfare platforms, airborne early warning and control systems and advanced jamming systems on the JF-17 Block 3, which together create a transparent but impenetrable defensive barrier that psychologically breaks down Indian weapons.
According to Nasirul Haq, the most critical moment is when the missile is in the “mid-course” phase, that is, moving towards the target, but has not yet reached the final terminal phase. Meanwhile, Pakistani systems confuse or mislead it by disrupting its guidance signals. As a result, it goes into self-destruct mode or gets lost somewhere. This is why many Brahmos missiles could not reach the target despite their ‘self-awareness’.
This was not a battle of conventional guns. This was a war in which instead of destroying the enemy’s weapons, their intelligence and insight were taken away. Pakistan showed the world that the modern battlefield is not just about rocket launchers and missile launchers, but a combination of cyber, space, GPS, electronics and spectrum where intelligence is the greatest weapon.
The Pakistani Air Force confused the enemy’s most advanced weapons within their own systems and diverted them from the path, as if an enemy were pushed into a dark tunnel where he could neither recognize himself nor his target. This 'soft total' victory has clearly shown that Pakistani defence is not only steel-based but also, by the grace of Allah Almighty, equipped with the edge of intelligence.
Today's wars are not fought only with guns or bombs, there is also fierce competition in the electronic field. A silent weapon that can blind the enemy's entire radar system is called: Radar Jamming.
But the question is that what is radar jamming? How does it work? And is it also used by countries like Pakistan? Let's know in simple words.
Radar jamming is a technical process in which false signals or noise are sent to the enemy's radar system so that it cannot recognize the real target or perceives it in the wrong place.
Like someone shining a bright light into your eyes, you can't see anything clearly. Radar jamming creates a similar kind of "digital blindness". Two main methods of jamming:
The enemy radar is given so much noise that it loses the signal of the real aircraft.
A signal is sent to the radar that shows the fake position of the aircraft.
Modern fighter jets like JF-17 Thunder, J-10C, F-16 are equipped with jamming systems to evade enemy air defence systems (like S-400 or S-300) used in drone missions, covert air attacks, and air strikes. Pakistan has also made progress in electronic warfare. Some of the aircrafts use Chinese and Turkish-made jammer pods that can neutralize enemy radar systems.
On February 27, 2019, Pakistani aircraft successfully completed a mission by entering enemy territory and evading radar, and this was made possible by jamming and flying at low altitudes.
Radar jamming is a silent but powerful weapon in today's wars. It deprives the enemy of the ability to see and makes its own aircraft safer.
The lesson? Tech flips the rules. Cheap drones can cripple million-dollar systems. A farmer with a net can down a military drone. Hacking can shut down a city as fast as a missile. Countries stuck relying on old-school weapons and rigid strategies are like dinosaurs in a laser fight. The winners will be those who stay quick, mix drones with cyberattacks, and control the invisible battlefield, the airwaves and the internet.
