Rajnath Singh Flags 5D Security Threat at Defence Conclave

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh addressed a Defence Conclave in New Delhi on 15 October 2026, where he placed Operation Sindoor, the Balakot airstrikes and the surgical strikes in one line of thinking. These, he said, marked the country moving away from protesting against terrorism through diplomacy alone and towards striking at the places where terror is planned. He warned that a fresh attack traced to Pakistan would draw a sharper answer than before, and said India's preference for dialogue must never be read as an inability to fight.

The 5D threat and a newer kind of terrorism

The Minister described the security climate as hybrid, high-tech and hyper warfare, and set out a 5D Security Threat: disinformation, destabilisation, disruption, deception and destruction. Terrorism, he noted, no longer travels only through organised outfits. Lone-wolf attackers and what he called white-collar terrorism make a radicalised person far harder for agencies to spot in time. He cited the case of a co-pilot who is alleged to have tried to bring down a passenger aircraft, and praised Captain Smit Machhar, who put his own life at risk and prevented a major attack. Since 2014, he added, the shelf life of most terrorists has shrunk to under a year.

From hard power to smart power

Shri Rajnath Singh asked for a smart power approach that joins precision-guided weapons and loitering munitions to cheaper arms, and human intelligence to artificial intelligence, so that costly systems sit alongside agile low-cost technology.

The figures on self-reliance

He said 75 per cent of the modernisation budget is set aside for Indian industry, that more than 500 companies are now in defence manufacturing and over 16,000 MSMEs feed the chain, and that 159 of the 175 ammunition variants in service are made at home, above 90 per cent self-reliance. The iDEX, iDEX Prime and ADITI schemes had engaged 676 start-ups and innovators and 551 contracts by March 2026, with the start-up base growing from a few dozen in 2018 to more than 2,000. India sells bulletproof jackets to over 100 countries and was the fourth nation to set a national standard for them.