By the numbers, India’s military would be seen as superior to Pakistan’s in any conventional conflict.
The Indian defense budget is more than nine times Pakistan’s, according to this year’s edition of “The Military Balance,” an assessment of armed forces by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
That budget supports an active-duty Indian force of almost 1.5 million personnel, compared to 660,000 for Pakistan.
On the ground, India’s 1.2 million-strong army has 3,750 main battle tanks and more than 10,000 artillery pieces, while Pakistan’s tank force is only two-thirds of India’s and Islamabad has fewer than half of the artillery pieces in New Delhi’s arsenal.
At sea, the Indian navy’s advantage is overwhelming. It has two aircraft carriers, 12 guided-missile destroyers, 11 guided-missile frigates and 16 attack submarines.
Pakistan has no carriers and no guided-missile destroyers, with 11 smaller guided-missile frigates being the backbone of its naval fleet. It also has only half the number of subs that India fields.
Both air forces rely heavily on older Soviet-era aircraft, including MiG-21s in India and the Chinese equivalent – the J-7 – in Pakistan.
India has been investing in multirole French-made Rafale jets, with 36 now in service, according to “The Military Balance.”
Pakistan has added Chinese J-10 multirole jets, with more than 20 now in its fleet.
Though Pakistan still has dozens of US-made F-16 fighters, the backbone of its fleet has become the JF-17, a joint project with China that came online in the early 2000s. About 150 are in service.
Russian-made aircraft play a significant role in India’s air fleet, with more than 100 MiG-29 fighters in service with the air force and navy combined, plus over 260 Su-30 ground attack jets.
The rivals are closer in capabilities when it comes to nuclear forces, with around five dozen surface-to-surface launchers each, though Indian has longer-range ballistic missiles than Pakistan.
