While there is no doubt about the operational capability and effectiveness of the PA but the challenges it has had to face and overcome for the past two decades have been within its domestic purview and internal security related. The challenges and strategies developed are therefore related to terrorism and foes that favour irregular warfare. A case where nation states are slogging it out would be different.
In a war with an external force with similar institutions, strategies and overall ability are no doubt important but the variables in such a theatre are vastly different from what PA has been facing. Logistics and supply lines are couple of important ones. In present day battlegrounds they notoriously hard to maintain and economically prohibitive in terms of cost.
Won't equating one to the other be inaccurate or misleading?
im talking abt practical soldiering........battle hardness and as a result toughness both physically and mentally. Today Even a major ranked officer in PA has more battle exp then a General or COAS of IA.........He is today hardwired to face any challenge war can bring him to. The best examples are of that LOC violations since Gen Raheel Sharif's era till the recent ceasefire. The performance superiority, battle management both at strategic and specially at tactical level spoke for themselves. Which even earned praise of former IA officers and analysts like Pravin Swahney too.
The deadly accurate cross border raids of PA tactical teams which u though of BAT and SSG being involved in were actually done by our regular units and a new concept of LCBs (light commando battalions, which r completely different to Heavy Commando Brigades of SSG) which we came up with through our exp in fighting against gurella forces, Our sniper actions, (PA even didnt had snipers before 2011/12), deadly accurate artillery fire at yr border posts etc. Were a result of liberating 35000 sq km of our territory from them in only Gen Kyani's era alone......Later we liberated more territory. It had full Artillery, Airforce, ISR, Tanks, APCs, IFVs, infantry, logistics, infrastructure, everything just as in real war. Study our operations in detail to know what im talking abt from Op. Al Mizan to Op. Rah e Nijaat to Op. Zarb e Azb to Op. Rad ul Fasad etc etc. So our standards of excellence have gone up severely. These was full wartime Operations, not merely CI ops involving SpecOps/police backed by intel.
They were completely different to the small scale ops that yr IA is used to in IOK and in Red Corridor. They werent of small scale hit and run attacks. From where yr idea is stemming from.
Today our all 3 services r insync together and all fight as one giant unit. We developed integrated Battle management systems and systems to ensure that. The coordination we have b/w our services b/w our individual soldiers b/w our individual units and regiments as well as to corps to divisions is extra ordinary. And it shows in the battle field as well.
But then again, inorder to truly appreciate what i wrote u need to be on the same level of exp as us and have to higher yr standards to advanced levels. Which u dont get or know due to yr lack of experience. We here r no longer barracks forces, who do PT in the morning and spend rest of their day in gossiping and shinning their boots to impress their seniors or instructors.
Today when our instructors are in countries like UK, Russia, Turkey, China, Czech Rep. in addition to our usual allies in Middle East and Africa...... training their forces and sharing our battle exp directly to their forces and in case of UK sharing to their young cadets in their RMA Sandhurst and in their Royal Military Colleges......Then certainly we have achieved something inorder to share it.
An Achievement which was hard earned, in which we sacrificed 80K of our innocent civilians, 120 billion of our economy as well as the lives of our 50K troops. Has IA gone through such bitter exp? no it hasnt. Hence not at that level as us, hence the need for short term solutions like this Agnipath.
