Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Capability Development & Sustenance), Lt Gen Rahul R Singh on Friday said China was providing all possible support to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.

Speaking at an event 'New Age Military Technologies' organised by FICCI,  Singh said, "China is able to test its weapons against other weapons, so its like a live lab available to them. Turkey also played an important role in providing the type of support it did... When DGMO-level talks were on, Pakistan had the live updates of our important vectors, from China... We need a robust air defence system..."

He said air defence and how it panned out during the entire operation was important. "This time, our population centres were not quite addressed, but next time, we need to be prepared for that..Pakistan was in the front. China was providing all possible support. 81% of the military hardware with Pakistan is Chinese," Singh said.

According to Singh, there are a few lessons from Operation Sindoor. "The strategic messaging by leadership was unambiguous... There is no scope of absorbing the pain the way we did a few years ago... The planning and selection of targets was based on a lot of data that was collected using technology and human intelligence. So a total of 21 targets were actually identified, out of which nine targets we thought would be prudent to engage... It was only the final day or the final hour that the decision was taken that these nine targets would be engaged. A considered decision was taken that it will be tri-services approach to send the right message that we indeed are an integrated force...., " he said.

According to Singh, an important consideration was that India should always be at the top of the escalation ladder. "When we reach a military objective, we should try and put a stop to it... War is easy to initiate, but it's very difficult to control. So I would say that was a very masterly stroke that was played to stop the war at an appropriate time...," he said.