IA is refining the CSD; this time the term CSD is missing. Its like CSD v1.1 in the form of a new doctrine.
You might notice a few interesting things like for instance; IA IBG's strength is between a brigade and a division. This is for the reason that a conventional PA Brigade could get overwhelmed, being smaller in numbers, 3 fighting Regiments against 5 or 6 Fighting regiments. If PA puts a Division to stop it, then PA cannot use that Division in an offensive or defensive plan anywhere else, so the division will get engaged here for the rest of the war, this is a good method to dilute PA formations.
How to go about it ?
Considering that IA IBG's will be a mix of armor and mech infantry, PA can put a defensive anti-tank Brigade or an Independent Armour Brigade Group to counter it, however, this further means that the PA Corps HQ commanding that IABG has now engaged a very formidable asset into war and if all other formations under that Corps HQ are Infantry Divisions then the Corps HQ has become short of armor assets early-on in the war.
Basically, IA has strength in numbers for MBT, IFV, Artillery etc and this is a good way to exploit PA's weakness in numbers. As an example, IA commits 150 MBT and PA commits 100 MBT. If IA attacks in 5 different sectors, thats 750 IA MBT vs 500 PA MBT. So at the first day of battle, 500 PA MBT are already in war for defence, while the main attack by IA has yet to come. PA MBT reserves are extremely less as compared to IA's MBT reserves. Now if PA commits its best and modern 500 MBT's on the first day of war for defence purposes, the chances of an offensive later in war into India with modern MBT's become very less. Ofcourse PA cannot send only infantry to counter IA combined arms IBG. PA may also need to commit gunships/UCAV's early on in the war, which PA would have kept in reserve usually to stop a larger IA armored thrust later on in the war.
Next, the units under command of IBG can be extracted from few different formations, and since IBG itself forms a new formation on its own, so now a new Ad-Hoc formation suddenly shows up on battlefield which can cause confusion for PA. It would be hard to analyse on the spot which units have been shuffled to form an IBG and how much strength/units do the rest of the formations have left under their command now.
Also, even though the IBG will be smaller than a Division but it will be commanded by an officer (Major Gen, 2-Star) who is supposed to command a Division. Now, this relates to an educated guess that the formations under command of an IBG can swell up to a Division strength at some point, and for this task a Brigadier might not be suitable.
Another point is mentioning gunships in IBG's, so far India has used Mi-24 and converted Mi-17's into gunships, but now with the induction of AH-64's, the scenario will look very different and has chances to tilt in India's favour. To protect the IBG's and gunship's IA will call in IAF support and the integration between three services has been mentioned which means PAF will be on the defensive also. All this happening, when the main attack has not even started.
Now, one of many ways for PA to go about is to prepare a Division under every Corps HQ deployed next to the border, with enough strength in troops, MBT, APC, Artillery, SAM's and Gunships/UCAV's to counter or absorb an IBG attack in its respective sector. Then prepare another division under same Corps HQ which simultaneously penetrates inside India on a slightly different axis in the same region. The third division of that Corps HQ remains as reserve. This is however not possible in every theatre of war since some Corps HQ have only two divisions. If executed properly, this not only offsets IA IBG's thrust but leaves a gap for PA to ingress and hold enemy territory. Such an offensive will have higher success rate because majority of IA armor, mechanised infantry and other forces would be used in the IBG attack, and the forces left behind in that sector would mostly be infantry formations, probably in defensive posture.
Another way for countering IBG is to get more mobile; which means greater use of aviation assets forming air assault units with-in PA. Such Units can quickly reinforce threatened sectors and also flank the IBG from any side or try to cut them off completely from the rear. These airborne or air assault forces can show up anywhere with very little reaction time for the enemy.
The use of NASR is always there, but its also good to stay on top of the enemy using conventional methods which the enemy is not expecting.
