May 8, 2025 – 22:50 IST – The Ghost in the Sky

Location: Forward S-400 battery, Punjab–Rajasthan sector. The 91N6E “Big Bird” radar hums, its sweeping gaze probing deep into hostile skies. Suddenly, a distinct signature appears — a PAF Saab 2000 Erieye AEW&C, orbiting casually over Dinga, Punjab, some 314 km away. Altitude: ~9 km. Speed: ~600 kph. Group Captain Animesh Patni, the battery commander, instantly knows what this means: Pakistan’s eyes in the sky have just walked into India’s kill box.

22:52 IST – The Kill Order

In the IAF’s Air Defence Command room, urgency grips the air. The Saab 2000 isn’t just an aircraft — it is the nerve centre of Pakistan’s air operations, a flying radar hub directing fighters and sniffing Indian skies.

Decision: Neutralise at once. The authorisation comes in. The target is now marked as a “High Priority Kill.”

22:54 IST – Arming the Sword

On the launcher, the 40N6 missile awakens.

Range: 400 km.

Speed: Mach 12.

Warhead: 143 kg of fragmentation fury.

The Grave Stone radar begins whispering firing solutions. The Saab’s orbit is steady, oblivious. Inside the battery, every heartbeat synchronises with the countdown.

22:56 IST – The Lock

The Grave Stone radar clamps onto the Saab like a predator. Data streams paint a lethal trajectory. The passive sensors confirm the Saab’s Erieye radar emissions, screaming like a beacon in the night.

Pakistan’s “all-seeing eye” has just been blinded by its glare.

22:58 IST – The Launch

With a deafening roar, the 40N6 leaps skyward. In seconds it vanishes into the black night. Its acceleration is monstrous, its speed otherworldly — Mach 12, a streak of vengeance.

The launcher recoils back into silence, ready to move before enemy counterfire can even be conceived.

22:59:30 IST – Death in the Dark

High above the Punjab plains, the missile is in mid-course, receiving constant corrections.

Inside the Saab 2000 cockpit, maybe — just maybe — a warning light blinks. But there is no time. The aircraft is too slow, too heavy, too vulnerable. Escape is impossible.

23:00 IST – Obliteration

The 40N6 closes in. At 314 km from the firing site, it kisses its prey.

The sky erupts—a colossal fireball tears across the heavens. The Erieye shatters into incandescent fragments, raining down over Dinga. Citizens on the ground record the spectacle — a brief sunrise in the midnight sky. In less than 2 minutes from launch, Pakistan has lost its most prized airborne jewel.

23:02 IST – The Phantom Moves

Even before the debris hits the soil, the S-400 battery is relocating. Its road-mobile launchers snake through the night, vanishing like ghosts. In Delhi, IAF command intercepts frantic PAF radio chatter: “Erieye lost… no contact… mayday…” Confirmation is instantaneous. Kill achieved.

The Aftermath

Pakistan’s command-and-control hub in the skies is gone.

One of its few Erieye AEW&Cs — reduced to ashes in 70 seconds.

With another strike on the ground at Bholari by a BrahMos earlier that night, Pakistan’s airborne radar net collapses.

Its fighters are now blind, flying into the void.

The Significance

🔺 Longest surface-to-air missile kill in world combat history.

🔺 Proof of India’s A2/AD dominance — any Pakistani aircraft near the border is now in mortal danger.

🔺 A showcase of why India braved US sanctions threats to acquire the S-400.

🔺 A warning that with Project Kusha and possibly S-500 Prometheus on the horizon, the shield over Indian skies is turning impenetrable. On May 8, 2025, India didn’t just shoot down an aircraft.

It burned a hole in Pakistan’s strategic heart, sending a thunderous message:

 “No enemy shall look into India’s skies and live to tell the tale.”

Wing Commander BS Sudarshan is a former Indian Air Force pilot with over 12,000 flying hours. He participated in Operation Pawan and Operation Cactus before he transitioned to civil aviation. A passionate writer, he has authored six books, including "Hasiru Hampe", appreciated by S L Bhyrappa, and the latest "Evergreen Hampi". He is a regular contributor to the Verandah Club.