Cognitive Dominance in Air Power Employment: From Machines to Minds
In contemporary air warfare, there is a silent battle that begins long before the first missile is fired: the battle of the mind. The Indo-Pakistan conflict of 2025 reaffirmed this truth. In that short but decisive engagement, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) demonstrated that in modern warfare, victory is no longer about airframes destroyed but in the mastery of cognition, which is the ability to think faster, act smarter and control perception under stress. To make victory second nature, institutionalisation of cognitive gains through AI, cross-domain integration and leadership development is paramount for modern air forces.
