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Future war on two-and-a-half fronts? - India - The Times of India
NEW DELHI: India's worst-case scenario is a two-front war. Add the insurgencies in Kashmir and North-East, and rampant naxalism in other parts, and it becomes a complex two-and-a-half front situation.
Even as the top military brass undergoes a changeover, with Air Chief Marshal P V Naik becoming the new chairman of chiefs of staff committee on Tuesday and General V K Singh the new Army chief on Wednesday, the armed forces feel they have to be prepared to tackle any eventuality on either of the two fronts as well as asymmetrical warfare in the hinterland.
Towards this end, in addition to the western front with Pakistan, India is now also concentrating hard on the long-neglected eastern sector with China to swiftly build `capacities' and `capabilities' in tune with `threat perceptions'.
The armed forces certainly do not want war even on one front, leave alone two. But they have to factor in worst-case scenarios. Pakistan, for instance, remains a worry, especially with the ongoing over $10 billion US military assistance to it for the so-called `global war on terror', which ranges from new F-16 C/D Block 52 jets and refurbished P-3C maritime patrol aircraft to Harpoon and AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles.
"It's definitely a matter of concern for us. We have made it known (to US),'' said ACM Naik. But should India not leverage its mammoth $10.4-billion project to acquire 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), in which two of the six aviation majors in the fray are from US, to register its protest?
"There is no connection between the two at present. The MMRCA deal will be a fair and square one, with its field trials ending towards end-April,'' replied the IAF chief.
China, with its rapidly modernising 2.25-million People's Liberation Army, of course, is perceived to be the real long-term threat, even if India is reluctant to say so in as many words.
"Yes, we are upgrading the eastern theatre. But it's not country-specific...We are developing capabilities, which were long overdue there...I am glad,'' said ACM Naik.
Outgoing Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, in turn, also said while there was no possibility of a conflict with China as things stood now, `professional' armed forces had to `develop capabilities and infrastructure' to take care of all security challenges.
As was first reported by TOI last December, Army is already revising its five-year-old war doctrine to effectively deal with a possible `two-front war', with a new `proportionate focus towards the western and north-eastern fronts'.
Army has already begun to post officers for the two new infantry mountain divisions and one artillery brigade being raised for the eastern sector, primarily Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
The new divisions, with 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers, will be fully operational by 2012. Army, in fact, has infrastructure development plans worth Rs 11,652 crore for the eastern sector.
Similarly, IAF is upgrading airbases and helipads in North-East, which includes night-landing facilities, with Tezpur already getting the first lot of Sukhoi-30MKI fighters. "The aim is that the airfields should be able to support the most modern aircraft,'' said ACM Naik.
NEW DELHI: India's worst-case scenario is a two-front war. Add the insurgencies in Kashmir and North-East, and rampant naxalism in other parts, and it becomes a complex two-and-a-half front situation.
Even as the top military brass undergoes a changeover, with Air Chief Marshal P V Naik becoming the new chairman of chiefs of staff committee on Tuesday and General V K Singh the new Army chief on Wednesday, the armed forces feel they have to be prepared to tackle any eventuality on either of the two fronts as well as asymmetrical warfare in the hinterland.
Towards this end, in addition to the western front with Pakistan, India is now also concentrating hard on the long-neglected eastern sector with China to swiftly build `capacities' and `capabilities' in tune with `threat perceptions'.
The armed forces certainly do not want war even on one front, leave alone two. But they have to factor in worst-case scenarios. Pakistan, for instance, remains a worry, especially with the ongoing over $10 billion US military assistance to it for the so-called `global war on terror', which ranges from new F-16 C/D Block 52 jets and refurbished P-3C maritime patrol aircraft to Harpoon and AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles.
"It's definitely a matter of concern for us. We have made it known (to US),'' said ACM Naik. But should India not leverage its mammoth $10.4-billion project to acquire 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA), in which two of the six aviation majors in the fray are from US, to register its protest?
"There is no connection between the two at present. The MMRCA deal will be a fair and square one, with its field trials ending towards end-April,'' replied the IAF chief.
China, with its rapidly modernising 2.25-million People's Liberation Army, of course, is perceived to be the real long-term threat, even if India is reluctant to say so in as many words.
"Yes, we are upgrading the eastern theatre. But it's not country-specific...We are developing capabilities, which were long overdue there...I am glad,'' said ACM Naik.
Outgoing Army chief General Deepak Kapoor, in turn, also said while there was no possibility of a conflict with China as things stood now, `professional' armed forces had to `develop capabilities and infrastructure' to take care of all security challenges.
As was first reported by TOI last December, Army is already revising its five-year-old war doctrine to effectively deal with a possible `two-front war', with a new `proportionate focus towards the western and north-eastern fronts'.
Army has already begun to post officers for the two new infantry mountain divisions and one artillery brigade being raised for the eastern sector, primarily Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
The new divisions, with 1,260 officers and 35,011 soldiers, will be fully operational by 2012. Army, in fact, has infrastructure development plans worth Rs 11,652 crore for the eastern sector.
Similarly, IAF is upgrading airbases and helipads in North-East, which includes night-landing facilities, with Tezpur already getting the first lot of Sukhoi-30MKI fighters. "The aim is that the airfields should be able to support the most modern aircraft,'' said ACM Naik.
