Author Topic: Lack of will and power (Read 447 times)

B̲l̲i̲n̲g̲ · « **on:** June 04, 2011, 12:54:16 AM »

India can never hit a target like Dawood Ibrahim or Hafiz Mohammed Saeed inside Pakistan because it lacks the capabilities. It does not have human and technical intelligence (Humint) to monitor the movements of human targets, its military special forces are too fragmented to be effective and a risk-averse political leadership acts as a stumbling block to any such cross-border operation. It is possible that recent statements made by army chief General V.K. Singh and air force chief Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik were made out of sheer bravado with no foundation.
Consider what happened the last time such an operation was contemplated. On November 29, 2009, as the Taj Hotel in Mumbai was smouldering from the 26/11 terror attacks, the Cabinet Committee on Security was presented with the option of striking terror training camps in Pakistan.
The Indian Air Force advocated targeting Lashkar-e-Toiba's (let) training camps in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) using laser-guided bombs from Mirage 2000s or a commando raid on the let headquarters in Muridke, PoK, using Mi-35 helicopter gunships carrying special forces. The political leadership, however, eschewed a military response. That was the closest India ever came to an Operation Geronimo.
In the early 1980s, the Special Group was raised as the r&aw's equivalent to the cia's Special Activities Division and given a mandate for cross-border operations. The force is believed to have carried out a few classified missions before falling into disuse. However, most 'snatch and grab' operations have been restricted to borders in counter-terrorist operations in J&K and the Northeast.
"Cross-border military-intervention capabilities will have a deterrent value by raising the cost for rogue intelligence agencies like the isi that support terrorist strikes in India," says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retired), director of the army's think tank, the Centre for Land Warfare Studies. The possibility that such raids could be considered an act of war by Pakistan and thus trigger a conflict has hung heavy on the heads of the political leadership. "Our intelligence services are police-led and have no history of conducting intelligence-based military operations," says former r&aw official, Colonel RSN Singh (retired)
Operation Geronimo was a classic intelligence-driven military operation that involved years of human and technical intelligence gathering. Even so, US President Barack Obama gave it only a "55-45 chance" of finding Osama bin Laden in the compound at Abbottabad. "Trouble is that we lack real-time actionable intelligence on targets and their movement and secure communication and operational datalinks," says former air force chief Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major.
Says B. Raman, former additional secretary (r&aw), "The US success was possible by a dramatic improvement in the US Humint capability and by its spectacular covert action capability. We have neither. Our Humint is average. Our covert action capability has been non-existent since 1997 (when it was shut down by Prime Minister I.K. Gujral). We need to revamp both, urgently and visibly."
The US Navy SEALs that executed the Abbottabad operation report to Special Operations Command or socom, a unified multi-dimensional force that conducts global missions. India has over 30,000 special forces scattered among various armed forces and ministries. "We need an Indian socom reporting to the National Security Adviser to ensure a speedy response to a crisis," says Lt. General Prakash Chand Katoch, a former special forces officer. But with no direction on special operations, an Indian socom presently appears to be a remote possibility. n

Author Topic: Lack of will and power (Read 447 times)

B̲l̲i̲n̲g̲

Lack of will and power

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