By Zohaib Ahmed | 1st September 2025
A real war is coming, and it will not remain confined to trenches or skies. Between Pakistan and India, the next conflict will be multi-dimensional—where military strikes converge with cyber disruption, psychological warfare, and economic destabilization. Assassinations of key figures, sabotage of critical infrastructure, and the weaponization of public perception will define its character. This will not be a short engagement; it will be a grinding contest of endurance where narratives, morale, and alliances may matter as much as battlefield gains. The war ahead is not merely a clash of armies—it is the collision of two national wills, fought across every visible and invisible front.
In this scenario, Pakistan’s strategy will not hinge solely on conventional parity with India’s larger military. Instead, it will leverage asymmetry, unpredictability, and resilience—turning India’s size into a vulnerability rather than a strength. Three layers will define Pakistan’s approach: kinetic response, hybrid disruption, and psychological dominance.
1. Kinetic Response: Fighting Smarter, Not Bigger
Pakistan’s Air Force remains its sharpest sword. With JF-17 Block III squadrons integrated with Chinese radar and missile technology, the skies will become contested, not dominated. Swarm drone tactics, precision-guided missile strikes, and stand-off weapon systems will ensure that Pakistani strikes target India’s command-and-control hubs, logistics nodes, and forward airbases rather than engaging in attritional dogfights. The Navy, though smaller, will focus on sea denial—deploying submarines and anti-ship cruise missiles to restrict Indian naval maneuvers in the Arabian Sea. On land, Pakistan will avoid full-frontal offensives; instead, it will employ mobile strike formations and armored thrusts to create temporary ruptures along critical sectors of the border, forcing India to overstretch its lines.
2. Hybrid Disruption: Expanding the Battlefield Beyond Borders
The war will not just be fought with tanks—it will be waged through wires, screens, and financial markets. Pakistan will prioritize cyber operations to disrupt India’s digital infrastructure, from power grids to stock exchanges. Economic sabotage, combined with selective targeting of supply chains, will weaken India’s long war sustainability. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus will activate networks designed to create political pressure within India itself—leveraging regional fault lines in Kashmir, Punjab, and the Northeast to drain New Delhi’s focus. A multi-front distraction is cheaper and more effective than a head-on collision.
3. Psychological Dominance: Winning the War of Minds
The most decisive front will be psychological. Pakistan’s narrative will frame itself as the defender of justice, sovereignty, and oppressed peoples—resonating not just domestically but globally. By weaponizing media, social platforms, and diplomatic channels, Pakistan will seek to isolate India internationally, portraying it as the aggressor. Assassinations of symbolic figures, covert strikes on high-value assets, and selective leaks of intelligence will foster uncertainty in Indian decision-making circles. When soldiers and citizens begin doubting the stability of their command, the war tilts without a tank moving forward.
4. The Long War Endgame: Endurance over Escalation
Pakistan’s greatest strength is strategic patience. Unlike India, which must sustain credibility as a regional hegemon, Pakistan needs only to survive, exhaust, and destabilize its adversary. By drawing India into a prolonged multi-front struggle—military, cyber, economic, and narrative—Pakistan ensures that the war becomes costly and unsustainable for New Delhi. The longer the conflict drags, the more international pressure will mount for de-escalation, giving Islamabad the political high ground.
Final Outlook
In the coming days, if war breaks out, Pakistan will not aim to defeat India conventionally—it will aim to outlast, outmaneuver, and outthink it. The battlefield will be everywhere: in the skies over Kashmir, in the depths of the Arabian Sea, in cyber networks linking stock markets, and in the hearts of populations deciding whether to rally or to resist. For Pakistan, the war is less about tanks crossing borders and more about reshaping perceptions, exhausting the adversary, and proving that survival itself is victory.
What Pakistan is Likely to Do in the Days and Months Ahead
The war is on pause. It is not over. In fact, it continues even now… and a quiet but decisive response is taking shape from Pakistan. From the lens of strategic czars, the trajectory is clear: Pakistan is preparing for a prolonged, multi-domain confrontation where surprise, mass, and persistence will matter more than singular battles. The next phase will not be marked by noise, but by relentless, calculated escalation.
1. Air & Electronic Warfare Superiority
Pakistan understands that information dominance begins in the skies. Expect rapid movement on ZDK-03 AWACS refits, enabling very-long-range standoff electronic warfare, paired with Bombardier SOJ conversions with Turkish support. This is not a luxury—it is a necessity to deny India secure command and control. Pakistan’s doctrine will emphasize jamming, spoofing, and disorienting enemy air assets before kinetic engagements even occur.
2. Strategic Partnerships and Regional Depth
Islamabad will quietly transfer precision-guided munitions, ATGMs, Fatah-1 rockets, land-based C-802s, and YIHA-3 drones to regional partners. Infrastructure projects in Bangladesh will be dual-use, giving Pakistan not just a political ally but an operational staging ground. Turkey will be central to this build-up—fast-tracking TB-2 drones, Hisar air defense, and electronic warfare systems for deployment. Sri Lanka, too, will see flows of low-cost but high-impact systems such as FT-7s, ATGMs, and air defense assets, multiplying pressure points against India.
3. Naval and Undersea Pressure
Pakistan’s Navy, though smaller, will leverage stealth and denial. X-Craft submarines will be operationalized, with acquisitions from China or Turkey (STM500 class) already under discussion. Beyond combat, persistent orbital ISR will track India’s aircraft carrier INS Vikrant—not because it is an immediate threat, but as a symbol of punishment readiness. Maritime denial will remain central: forcing India to defend high-value assets, stretching its resources thin.
4. Building for Mass Saturation Strikes
Pre-staging of materiel for 1–2 full strike rounds, each triple the size of the last operation, is already a priority. Pakistan is preparing tens of thousands of MLRS units, thousands of ballistic missiles, and over 100,000 drones/loitering munitions for saturation warfare. The doctrine here is clear: mass is victory. Attrition will be imposed not through one decisive blow but through relentless, layered volleys that paralyze Indian logistics and command systems.
5. Exploiting Deployment Gaps & Logistics
India’s army is massive but slow. Pakistan will capitalize on this lag through swarm drone strikes targeting logistics hubs, bridges, depots, and rail nodes. The objective is not just to destroy, but to disrupt—forcing India to burn time and resources on securing its rear while frontline momentum falters.
6. Cyber and Information Warfare
Pakistan’s cyber capabilities, already demonstrated in recent operations, will be scaled by 10×. With over 1.5 million websites and critical nodes hit previously, the next round will push deeper into operational technology—power grids, telecom switches, and transport systems. Parallel to this will be information operations across every front: from diaspora-led campaigns in the West to diplomatic blitzes in multilateral forums. Pakistan will also declare RAW-linked attacks acts of war and move to label RSS as a terrorist organization, drawing moral contrast internationally.
7. Diplomacy as a Force Multiplier
Pakistan will escalate diplomatic activities at a pace rarely seen. Figures like Hina Rabbani Khar, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, General Kidwai, Maleeha Lodhi, and Senator Mushahid Hussain will spearhead global campaigns highlighting Kashmir, Khalistan, and the plight of India’s minorities. International relief campaigns will dovetail with strategic messaging: Pakistan as the responsible actor, India as the reckless aggressor. Simultaneously, Pakistan will move closer to Russia on energy and dual-use industries, reassert leverage in Afghanistan, and strengthen ties with China to present a united front against Indian expansionism.
8. The Always-On War
This conflict is no longer about set-piece battles; it is about constant, multi-front pressure. Pakistan will keep India guessing, stretching its resources across borders, seas, cyberspace, and global opinion. The doctrine is not of quick victory but of relentless endurance—a war of minds, economies, and legitimacy. Every act, overt or covert, will chip away at India’s image, forcing it into overreach and global isolation.
Are India and Pakistan Preparing for a Naval Face-Off?
A real war is coming, and if recent signals are any measure, the naval front will no longer remain a silent spectator. Both Islamabad and New Delhi are recalibrating their maritime doctrines—aware that the seas could define escalation in the next conflict.
From the czar’s vantage point, three dynamics stand out.
India’s Projection vs. Pakistan’s Denial
India’s naval posture is built on blue-water ambition. Aircraft carriers like INS Vikrant symbolize its desire to project power beyond the subcontinent. Destroyers, nuclear submarines, and long-range patrols give New Delhi reach deep into the Indian Ocean and beyond.
Pakistan, by contrast, has no interest in global projection. Its navy is a littoral denial force, focused on securing sea lines of communication and deterring strikes against Karachi and Gwadar. With over 95% of Pakistan’s trade moving by sea, the navy’s role is not symbolic—it is existential. Submarines armed with cruise missiles remain its sharpest tool.
Lessons From the Past
The naval domain has historically delivered surprise. In 1965, Pakistan struck Dwarka, forcing India to divert assets. In 1971, India’s naval offensives crippled Karachi but Pakistan’s PNS Hangor delivered one of the most decisive submarine kills in South Asian history, sinking INS Khukri.
These lessons endure: Pakistan cannot match India ship-for-ship, but it can impose asymmetry at sea. Stealth, subsurface warfare, and precision strikes create disproportionate costs for India’s high-value assets.
The Next Conflict – Scenarios Ahead
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Indian Gambit: Use the Navy early, striking Karachi’s ports, radar, and naval aviation hubs. This would escalate rapidly, drawing Pakistan’s retaliatory strike doctrine into play. Any attempt to blockade Pakistan’s sea trade would be treated as a direct economic strangulation—akin to an existential threat.
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Pakistani Counter: Exploit submarine warfare, electronic warfare at sea, and long-range cruise missiles. INS Vikrant and other surface combatants would be continuously shadowed by ISR and drones, with Pakistan ready to target them not for tactical advantage but for strategic punishment.
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Regional Multipliers: Turkish and Chinese cooperation in training, tech transfers, and ISR integration will give Pakistan more resilience than in 1971. Exercises like AMAN already embed the navy into a multinational security architecture, complicating India’s freedom of action.
In New Delhi, astrology is not merely entertainment—it seeps into political calculations, military calendars, and even the timing of operations. “Operation Sindoor” itself, launched on 7 May 2025, was aligned with what Indian astrologers deemed an auspicious planetary configuration. The choice of tithi and nakshatra was not accidental—it was deliberate, echoing a long tradition of mixing martial ambition with celestial guidance. The Indian media, too, amplified the narrative, suggesting fate had aligned in India’s favor.
But from a strategist’s perspective, wars are not won on charts of Venus and Rahu—they are shaped by preparation, alliances, and credible deterrence. And it is here that Pakistan, despite being outspent and outnumbered in naval tonnage and aircraft squadrons, has quietly positioned itself to offset India’s numerical advantage.
September looms as a potential flashpoint. With Saturn and Mars entering opposition—a period India’s astrologers have already flagged—New Delhi may again be tempted to script action, perhaps to test Pakistan’s naval and coastal defenses, or to launch calibrated strikes across the Line of Control. Indian planners will view this as symbolic: to prove “strategic dominance” under planetary alignment. 9th September is a possible date, but dates can shift.
Pakistan, however, will not fight by India’s script. The response will be asymmetric, precise, and layered across domains. Submarines with Babur-3 cruise missiles already provide a stealth deterrent in the Arabian Sea. Drone and swarm tactics, honed with Chinese and Turkish support, can target Indian naval platforms without requiring parity in aircraft carriers. Simultaneously, cyber disruption of India’s financial and energy infrastructure can paralyze war momentum without a single shot fired at sea.
Psychological operations will play a decisive role. Where India will tout destiny, Pakistan will counter with credibility—showcasing battlefield footage, highlighting Indian missteps, and rallying domestic morale under a banner of defense rather than aggression. The message to the international community will be clear: India may chase the stars, but Pakistan is grounded in hard realities of deterrence and survival.
In short, if India chooses September as its window of action, Pakistan’s planners see not celestial destiny, but a predictable opening for calibrated counter-moves. Where India leans on astrology, Pakistan leans on strategy. And in modern warfare—strategy trumps stars.
Final Word
A real war is coming, and Pakistan is not preparing to meet it with mere parity. Instead, it is preparing to bend the battlefield itself—to turn size into weakness, speed into confusion, and narratives into weapons sharper than missiles. The war is paused, but not over. Pakistan’s response will not always be loud. But it will be relentless. The winning streak will continue.
India’s navy may project strength, but it is also a high-value liability in a Pakistan confrontation. Carriers and destroyers are symbols—visible, predictable, and vulnerable to saturation strikes and subsurface ambushes. Pakistan’s doctrine will not seek parity; it will seek denial. Every kilometer of Arabian Sea near Karachi is defended not by numbers, but by a mindset: turn India’s power projection into its greatest weakness.
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