Bigger, better, deadlier: Why the air strike is more lethal than the surgical strike

New Delhi, Feb 26: The Indian Air Force struck at three locations to destroy terrorist camps in a bid to avenge the Pulwama attack.

The most significant aspect of this strike was that the IAF struck deep inside Pakistan territory at Balakote, which is at Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. The other two locations to hit were Muzaffarabad and Chakothi, which are in Pakistan occupied Kashmir.

Officials say that this hit is much bigger than the surgical strikes that were carried out on in the aftermath of the Uri attack. The surgical strike was carried out near the Line of Control at Kupwara and Poonch.

However this falls under an air strike and is much bigger than the surgical strike as it hit camps deep inside Pakistan territory. More importantly this is the first time after the 1971 Indo-Pak war that an Indian fighter aircraft has entered Pakistani airspace. No Indian aircraft entered Pakistani air space during the Kargil war of 1999, it may be recalled.

In comparison to the surgical strike, this hit is much bigger in terms of the payload of weapons dropped. Laser guided bombs of up to 1,000 kilograms were dropped. This technology was first used in the Kargil war.

Experts also say that this could one of the most daring strikes by the IAF considering it was done at a time when Pakistan was on a state of very high alert.