DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA: South Asia witnessed tremendous alterations in its military balance in May 2025. In Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos, the Pakistan Air Force did not gain control of the skies based on superiority in fighter numbers. They gained it through information sharing, coordination, and one aircraft that was overlooked by all analysts the SAAB-2000 Erieye AEW&C.
The SAAB-2000 Erieye Airborne Early Warning and Control system is now referred to by defence experts as the unseen backbone of the operations. The aircraft made in Sweden had the responsibility of directing the most complicated mission that had ever been undertaken in the South Asian airspace.
It has no weapons. But it may have done better than any fighter aircraft used in the mission.
Flying above the visual reach of radars on the ground, the plane continuously monitored the disputed area of airspace. The plane provided live target data, location of threats, and coordination of flights directly to the J-10C and JF-17 Thunder pilots of the Pakistan Air Force while they were flying. The pilots did not have to depend on their onboard instruments only.
Thus, single sorties are changed into coordinated attacks that function as a networked strike force against which the other side finds it difficult to defend and anticipate.
Network-Centric Warfare Makes Its Case
The concept of network-centric warfare is nothing new to Pakistan, where it has been adopted for more than a decade. For the PAF, the SAAB-2000 Erieye AEW&C was no mere spy plane but the brain of the system, connecting all missile, electronic warfare, air defence, and air superiority units into a unified fighting machine.
In the course of the “Bunyan-Um-Marsoos” operation, that investment certainly proved itself to be very wise indeed. BVR attacks, which have traditionally been dependent on time and situational awareness, were conducted with such precision that even military analysts watching the situation could hardly believe their eyes.
The Erieye’s active electronically scanned array radar provided PAF controllers with a unique understanding of what was going on in the airspace over a distance of several hundred kilometers.
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A Different Air Picture for India
Whereas Pakistan had a system based on SAAB-2000 Erieye AEW&C for their coordination, India’s strategy reportedly did not match this real-time integration capability at an equally rapid pace. Military experts highlight the fact that although India had similar battle management capability with the aircraft, the coordination advantage shown by Pakistan was not nullified.
The difference between the potential power of the platform and its control in networked battlespace is what makes up modern air combat. Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos proved this point beyond doubt.
A Message for the Region
This mission sent a strong message to all air forces of South Asia that, today, sensors and command and control systems matter far more in battle results than numbers of planes.
The SAAB-2000 Erieye AEW&C system of Pakistan has raised a routine air combat to a sophisticated battle management exercise. The repercussions for regional defence policymakers are grave, urgent, and costly to counteract.
