Exercise “Vijayee Bhava” begins today

[IndianTiger]

After Pakistan missile
test, India flexes muscle Apr 19, 2011, 11.48pm IST TNN [ Rajat Pandit ] NEW DELHI: Diplomatic re-
engagement may have begun
afresh but both sides are
keeping their powder dry.
The 1.13-million strong Indian
Army is honing its war- fighting machinery with a
major combat exercise,
codenamed “Vijayee Bhava'' (Be Victorious), in the
Thar desert to practice “high tempo'' operations to cut
across the border. Squeamish for long with
India's “pro-active conventional war strategy'',
or what is colloquially dubbed
the “cold start'' doctrine, Pakistan in turn test-fired a
new nuclear-capable ballistic
missile Hatf-IX on Tuesday. Given that Hatf-IX has a strike
range of only 60 km, it is
clearly intended for
brandishing as a “battlefield nuclear weapon'' to deter
Indian armoured forces from
launching rapid thrusts into its
territory. “Pakistan already has the long and medium range Shaheen
and Ghauri series of missiles,
acquired with help of China
and North Korea, to act as the
delivery mechanism for
strategic nuclear weapons,'' said a senior Indian official. “So, with this new missile, Islamabad seems to be
looking at tactical nuclear
deterrence against advancing
enemy formations. But it is
being foolhardy if it thinks
nuclear weapons are war- fighting weapons,'' he added. India, of course, has its own
nuclear and missile plans. It
may be steadfast about
adhering to a “no first-use'' of nuclear weapons but has
made it amply clear that a
nuclear retaliation to a first
strike will be “massive and designed to inflict
unacceptable damage''. The “Vijayee Bhava'' exercise, of course, is more
conventional in nature, even
though the combat
manoeuvres may be
simulated under “a NBC (nuclear, chemical, biological)
overhang''. The exercise, which will enter
its peak phase in early-May, is
being primarily conducted by
the armoured corps-intensive
2 Corps, considered to be the
most crucial of Army's three principal “strike'' formations tasked with virtually cutting
Pakistan into two during a
full-fledged war, said sources. Incidentally, the 2 Corps based
in Ambala is aptly called the
`Kharga Corps', taking its
name and formation sign
from the deadly scythe
wielded by Goddess Kali to vanquish enemies. “In 2009, the 2 Corps had conducted the `Hind Shakti'
exercise to fine-tune the pro-
active strategy, which is all
about mobilizing fast and
hitting hard at several border
points to catch the enemy unawares and gain
momentum,'' said a source. “The `Vijayee Bhava' exercise, which will also include
elements from other Western
Army Command (WAC)
formations like the Jalandhar-
based 11 Corps, will further
validate operational concepts,'' he added. With hundreds of tanks,
artillery guns and over 30,000
soldiers, the exercise geared
for “network-centric operations'' will see the
extensive use of satellite
imagery, helicopter-borne
surveillance systems, spy
drones and a wide array of
land-based radars to “achieve battlefield transparency''. As reported by TOI earlier,
after Operation Parakram in
2002 took almost a month to
reach D-Day readiness, India
has reorganized Army
formations all along the western front to enable a
more swift and powerful
offensive punch. It was under this overall plan
that the South-Western
Command (SWAC) was
created at Jaipur in 2005 as the
Army's sixth operational
command. With the Mathura- based 1 `Strike' Corps and
Bhatinda-based 10 `Pivot'
Corps under it, SWAC is
responsible for offensive
operations on the western
front in conjunction with the Western Army Command
(Chandimandir), which
controls the 2 `Strike' Corps. The Northern and Southern
Army Commands, with the
latter having the Bhopal-based
21 `Strike' Corps, at Udhampur
and Pune respectively, will of
course also play a crucial part in the event of a war but it
will be SWAC and WAC which
will assume the pivotal roles. Moreover, both the western
and southwestern commands
of IAF have also stepped up
coordination with the
different Army commands in
the western theatre to synergize efforts to build “an integrated and organic'' air-
land war-fighting machinery.

 

[SparklingCrescent]

I like the tittle. Quite a hook.

 

[rkjindal91]

And we were talking about sending Team India to Pak on PCB request...

 

[TOPGUN]

Keep flexing the muscle make sure to let the air out lolz ...

 

[rkjindal91]

How come Hatf, a rocket with 60 KM range be termed as Nuclear capable ''BALLISTIC MISSILE''??

 

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

poor quality article. first of all there is hardly any evidence to suggest that indian army exercise and pak missile tests are interlinked or carried out in response of one another.

i beleive these were independent of each other. i think the author of the article was just trying to improve TRPs of his article.

 

[rajusri]

What childish headline and news? Indian media is behaving like kid.

 

[Ghareeb_Da_Baal]

How come Hatf, a rocket with 60 KM range be termed as Nuclear capable ''BALLISTIC MISSILE''??

Thats is for us to know and the aggressors to find out!

 

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

Don't try to act like a retard... You are wise enough to understand this.

next time refrain from personal attack. consider it as a advice.

 

[rockstarIN]

Its a TOI... article lol as expected.

 

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

Don't try to threaten me... You may be a full member... But the ur post was childish... So next time plz keep ur advice to ur self...

i am not threatening u and i m merely advising u not to attack any member directly by using words as retard. as far as quality of my post is concerned u r free to have u r opinion.

 

[angeldemon_007]

I am happy that this time it will be keeping in view the NBC attack and also the full fledged network centric warfare will also be under scanner...Its really an important wargame...

 

[Swati Shukla]

poor quality article. first of all there is hardly any evidence to suggest that indian army exercise and pak missile tests are interlinked or carried out in response of one another.

i beleive these were independent of each other. i think the author of the article was just trying to improve TRPs of his article.

Where is it written that it is in response to pakistani test?? please get out of your habit to bash anything and everything coming out of indian media.

 

[GUNS-N- ROSES]

Where is it written that it is in response to pakistani test?? please get out of your habit to bash anything and everything coming out of indian media.

ok. The first line of the article states " after pakistan missile test, india flexes muscle". This conveys an impression to reader that indian exercise is in response to pakistan missile test. but that is not the case. Exercises of such magnitude require months of planning and coordination and to think that such an exercise would coincide with missile test is not right.


secondly pakistani missile with range of 60 Kms is intended to be used as "battlefield nuclear weapon" and is specifically designed to counter indian cold start doctrine. i think the author is not aware of the ground realities in indo-pak conflict. Nuclear weapons by nature can never be "tactical" or "battlefield". nuclear weapons have strategic dimensions and even if one side uses a sub kiloteon tactical battle field weapon, the other side will surely launch a full scale nuclear attack on that country. hence, in my opinion the article is crap.

lastly i stand by my comment. indian media is crap wen it comes to reporting on strategic and defence affairs.

u r free to disagree.

 

[Qasibr]

"Muscle flexing"... for some reason the spincter muscle come to mind. Seriously though.

I don't think the article understood the point of the Hatf IX/NASR missile. India comes up with this "cold start" doctrine that is centered around the notion of capturing territory rapidly. Interesting in theory, failed in practice many times. All their deployments take alot more time than Pakistan's, even China's deployments in '62. They conducted war games to demonstrate this concept a year ago, but again failed to deploy rapidly - Pakistan staged it's own war games and was able to mobilize before the Indos.

And to further demonstrate flaws in that philosophy, the Hatf IX/NASR missile is designed that can rapidly deploy and rain tactical nukes(fruits of the plutonium nuke programme bearing fruit - miniature specialized nukes) on any invading army before they get any far. The missile has a short range, a very fast close-in speed(solid fuel rockets), that can close in and deliver crippling damage very very rapidly - from a safe distance behind a SAM umbrella.

So - when looking at things that make their cold start doctrine technically unfeasible, what your army is going to do is to wargame the concept "really hard" and hope the theatrics look neat? Terrible waste for money, but it's good. Don't have anywhere else where this money could have been better spent, like on the dept that comes up with military doctrines to fund something that technically one-ups Pakistan or on the few hundred million people living below the poverty line, like sub-Saharan Africa.

The article is *hardKORR* though, listing divisions and regiments sounds so baad and tough. They should get Salman Khan to star in it.

Edit: They should read about the missile and it's technical specs sometime
Pakistan Military Review: Hatf IX NASR Multi Tube Ballistic Missile System