Kargil war secret: IAF used ‘jugaad’

[IND151]

The Indian Air Force’s best kept secret is out: Its stellar role in the Kargil victory 13 years ago had as much to do with its pilots and planes as that great Indian trick, jugaad.

Pilots flew real-time missions with hand-held GPS sets to home in on high-altitude targets, usually tiny contingents of Pakistanis occupying Indian positions. And its aces used hand-held video cameras to record bombing runs for post-op analysis back at the base.



The IAF’s “innovative use of airpower (was) one of the excellent features of the Kargil operations”, says a new study of the war by Benjamin Lambeth, an airpower historian, released on Thursday.

“A senior officer told me there was a word for these innovations -jugaad,” said Lambeth.

The challenge for the IAF in Kargil was unprecedented. No air force had ever been tasked to bomb targets at elevations of 14,000 to 18,000 ft, against a backdrop that made spotting impossible. To top it, there were instructions to not cross the LoC.

A serving IAF pilot, who did not want to be identified, said, “We did use hand-held commercial GPS units, except they were not really hand-held…They were fixed in front, in a bracket.”

So, what other jugaad did the IAF do?

Shooting up an avalanche, says Lambeth.

Pilots knew if you couldn’t bomb dispersed enemy soldiers, you could hit them with something they least expected: shooting on a mountain side triggered an avalanche. Snow came tumbling down, in a rushing sweep.

There is more. Kargil was just the start. Or was it?

http://idrw.org/?p=14360

 

[IND151]

good performance by IAF

 

[David James]

IAF rocks

lol whole India runs on jugaad

We should have patent of it.

 

[mautkimaut]

I have a conspiracy theory.. Did Indian Army trigger the avalanche which trapped over 100 Pak Soldiers ?

 

[rashtriya.rifles]

I have a conspiracy theory.. Did Indian Army trigger the avalanche which trapped over 100 Pak Soldiers ?

IA did use the avalanche to it's advantage in Kargil war but if you are talking of the recent siachen incident then wrong

 

[India defense]

Jugaad....still Pakistan lost war

 

[1nd1a]

This proves.....

Everything is fair in love and WAR

 

[IND151]

IAF rocks

lol whole India runs on jugaad

We should have patent of it.

lol whole India runs on jugaad

not true

We should have patent of it.

we cant. but we should promote this technique as a good problem management tool

who knows, it may become very reputed worldwide just like post WW2 era Japanese management techniques

ON TOPIC> salute to IAF,IA for their role in Kargil!

ON TOPIC

 

[Manas]

We kicked A$$. God is Great.

 

[Safriz]

An Indian general who commanded troops during 1999 Kargil war, on Sunday broke his 11-year silence to say that India actually lost the war in strategic terms.
Lieutenant-General (r) Kishan Pal, the then head of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, told a private channel that he did not speak because he was never convinced about this war. We did gain some tactical victories, we regained the territories, but lost 587 precious lives. I consider this loss of war because whatever we gained from the war has not been consolidated, either politically or diplomatically. It has not been consolidated militarily, he said, when was asked for his assessment of the conflict 11 years later.
Gen Pal was recently in a controversy involving the battle performance report of one of his juniors, Brigadier Devinder Singh. An armed forces tribunal has indicted Pal for showing bias against Brigadier Singh; former 70 infantry brigade commander, and belittled his achievements in the war besides falsifying accounts of battles during the Kargil operations.
Meanwhile, a Chandigarh-based former army major has also come out with a revelation that his inputs on Kargil ‘intrusion’, sent to his seniors as early as January-February 1999, were ignored and he was asked to stop sending such reports in writing.
Major Manish Bhatnagar, who participated in the Kargil war, said not only were his inputs ignored, later, when a full-scale conflict broke out, he was court martialled on another pretext and made to leave the army.
He said he had informed his senior officers about the heavy presence of hostile forces and had also apprised them of the large number of bunkers and occupation of vital points by them during his posting. Later, when the strength of intruders was found to be more than the perceptions of the top generals resulting in mass causalities of soldiers officers like me were persecuted to hide their wrongs, Bhatnagar said.

 

[Kloitra]

An Indian general who commanded troops during 1999 Kargil war, on Sunday broke his 11-year silence to say that India actually lost the war in strategic terms.
Lieutenant-General (r) Kishan Pal, the then head of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, told a private channel that he did not speak because he was never convinced about this war. We did gain some tactical victories, we regained the territories, but lost 587 precious lives. I consider this loss of war because whatever we gained from the war has not been consolidated, either politically or diplomatically. It has not been consolidated militarily, he said, when was asked for his assessment of the conflict 11 years later.

So what is your opinion about this? What else should India had gained?

As far as I am concerned, India regained all territories, Pakistan loosed face internationally. That is enough to be count as victory, isn't it? I think the Lt gen is just being greedy.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

So what is your opinion about this? What else should India had gained?

As far as I am concerned, India regained all territories, Pakistan loosed face internationally. That is enough to be count as victory, isn't it? I think the Lt gen is just being greedy.

No it didnt...

 

[INDIC]

No it didnt...

Point 5353, it was already explained by Indian government that point 5353 lies on LOC.

Its a worthless peak.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

Point 5353, it was already explained by Indian government that point 5353 lies on LOC.

Its a worthless peak.

It not just one peak but several like them and its the highest peak in the sec.

 

[EzioAltaïr]

An Indian general who commanded troops during 1999 Kargil war, on Sunday broke his 11-year silence to say that India actually lost the war in strategic terms.
Lieutenant-General (r) Kishan Pal, the then head of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, told a private channel that he did not speak because he was never convinced about this war. We did gain some tactical victories, we regained the territories, but lost 587 precious lives. I consider this loss of war because whatever we gained from the war has not been consolidated, either politically or diplomatically. It has not been consolidated militarily, he said, when was asked for his assessment of the conflict 11 years later.
Gen Pal was recently in a controversy involving the battle performance report of one of his juniors, Brigadier Devinder Singh. An armed forces tribunal has indicted Pal for showing bias against Brigadier Singh; former 70 infantry brigade commander, and belittled his achievements in the war besides falsifying accounts of battles during the Kargil operations.
Meanwhile, a Chandigarh-based former army major has also come out with a revelation that his inputs on Kargil ‘intrusion’, sent to his seniors as early as January-February 1999, were ignored and he was asked to stop sending such reports in writing.
Major Manish Bhatnagar, who participated in the Kargil war, said not only were his inputs ignored, later, when a full-scale conflict broke out, he was court martialled on another pretext and made to leave the army.
He said he had informed his senior officers about the heavy presence of hostile forces and had also apprised them of the large number of bunkers and occupation of vital points by them during his posting. Later, when the strength of intruders was found to be more than the perceptions of the top generals resulting in mass causalities of soldiers officers like me were persecuted to hide their wrongs, Bhatnagar said.

See, that's a matter of perspective. This man probably cares about his men as much as his mission, and considers the loss of too many men a loss of mission. The fact is, that Pakistan faced a lot more deaths, between 700 and 4000. So how is it, that a Pakistani considers the loss of 587 Indians a victory, but the loss of 700 or more a slight mishap?