India's Readiness in War

[BATMAN]

India PM Expresses Concern on India's Readiness in War
By Willard Payne
http://newsblaze.com/story/20070707172757payn.nb/newsblaze/OPINIONS/Opinions.html

India PM Singh Calls on Defence Industry to End Production Delays of Advanced Weaponry in "An Uncertain International Security Environment"
Night Watch: DELHI - In an address to Indian scientists, India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged them to avoid further delays in the development of advanced weaponry.

He was speaking, in Delhi, to the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), and stated they should work closely with Indian industry and the country's armed forces to modernize the nation's defence capabilities "vital for the national interests in an uncertain international security environment. Causing delays at the stage of production mean that our armed forces are deprived of timely deliveries which often compel the government to look for external procurement to fill emerging gaps in our inventories."

Singh was not addressing a new problem. Scandals connected to India's Defense Ministry and weapons industry are more than a decade old and forced the resignation of former India Defense Minister George Fernandes.

That is one of the reasons why I believe the fourth war between Pakistan/India, since their independence in 1947, will be by far Pakistan's best, because Islamabad has avoided massive corruption in its weapons industry. Regular readers of crossfirewar.com know one of my most important themes is the enormous impact of corruption when any nation is faced with a very real crisis instead of one of their own creation. [WEBINDIA]

On Oct. 7, 2006, crossfirewar.com reported an investigation by India's private news channel NDTV on this very same issue. Indian scientists had been accused for years of delaying completion of India's own anti-aircraft missile and, through their influence in India's Defense Ministry, were able to prevent India from purchasing missiles from abroad, including from Russia, India's most important strategic ally and the source of India's most advanced weapons systems. Consequently, the anti-aircraft missiles guarding India's most important military bases and industrial facilities are Russian made missiles that have become quite old and are no longer dependable.

In the meantime, the Prime Minister was not exaggerating when he spoke of "an uncertain international security environment". It became more uncertain and more of a threat to India when in November, Beijing's Ambassador to Delhi stated quite publicly northeast India, Arunachal Pradesh, is Chinese territory. The province is the same area China invaded India in 1962 and because of China's successes in the month long fighting, which extended south into Assam state on the Bay of Bengal, Delhi had to fire its Defense Minister.

As a follow up to the Chinese Ambassador's claim, Beijing had ground forces maneuvers with Pakistan last December just west of Kashmir. Riyadh also conducted ground forces maneuvers with Pakistan in the eastern Punjab the same month. The House of Saud had also purchased from China, in the mid-1980s, 50-60 intermediate range CSS-2 ballistic missiles, which possess a range of 2,500 miles (4,000 km). They can reach the entire Indian subcontinent. This past week Saudi Arabia King Abdullah visited Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and I suspect they compared launch schedules. Tehran's ballistic missile Shahab program, developed with massive assistance from Beijing, is within range of at least the northern third of India. In February, Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf presented Tehran with his offensive "Action Plan."

Islamabad has never had this amount of support before and General Musharraf knows precisely how to use it. He is a veteran of two of the wars against India, 1965 and 1971. Musharraf planned the Kargil Probe in 1999 caught Delhi by surprise to the extent where a Deutsche Bank study had to admit India did not respond adequately to the attack because Dehli had neglected its conventional forces for the sake of India's nuclear and ballistic missile program.

Military analysts have stated, especially since 1998, after both countries tested nuclear bombs against each other, that Pakistan's missile programs did seem to be more advanced and better managed. India won the first three wars easily and it was no surprise since diplomats and international affairs analysts all knew India had an enormous advantage militarily, with more of a military-industrial base, a larger economy and population.

However, I suspect with those three easy victories, complacency began to become more of an influence within India's leadership and they therefore became more insulated, out of touch with reality. India is surrounded by enemies and not just countries on India's border. It is no secret, which governments are waiting to join the fourth war on the Indian subcontinent since World War II, which makes South Asia one of the major theatres in World War III.

According to Indian Army Intelligence, the Islamic fighters infiltrating through Pakistan and Bangladesh have been ordered to lay low until late summer and conduct an "intense" terror attack. If that attack is successful then Delhi will have no choice but to implement its "hot pursuit" policy and respond by attacking the militant bases in both countries. And that would make what is still a low-level fourth war, begun in 1989, into a (f)allout war and I cannot think of any ally willing to deploy ground forces anywhere in India, with the possible exception of Japan due to their need to retain access to markets here and Tokyo's opposition to Beijing. But Delhi may have to stand alone in this one.

 

[blitz]

Eh, just looking at open source capabilities of the armed forces of both nations, across the board, even with all its corruption, India will absolutely dominate Pakistan in any conventional conflict. Instead of making assumption on this article, go compare the arsenal of IA IN and IAF with PA PN and PAF. Its a different league.

 

[BATMAN]

Instead of making assumption on this article, go compare the arsenal of IA IN and IAF with PA PN and PAF. Its a different league.

Where have I made assumtions or its just late night awakening effect on you.
As far I know any fourth war will not be of conventional arsnel, therefore your numbers are of no good.

 

[blitz]

"As far I know any fourth war will not be of conventional arsnel, therefore your numbers are of no good."

Says who ? Kargil is the counter example. Yes the 4th war CAN be nuclear, but there is no certainty that it WILL be nuclear. You see there are certain ways to avoid reaching the nuclear threshold, even in times of open hostilities. The next war will not be fought to grab huge chunks of land, but to achieve a set objective. In which case, India can use its overwhelming conventional superiority to achieve it quickly, with minimum pain and loss of face to Pakistan, and thus avoid a nuclear confrontation. Trust me, as macho as dictators sound, they are the least likely to engage in a war where their personnel safety is not guaranteed. They have just too much power and luxury to blow it away.

Plus, there are other uses of having a good military, like enticing an economically weaker rival into an arms race resulting in its ruin. Then there is an even more comprehensive outlook towards arms buildup, where they are not meant to be used, but to be showcased, as a symbol of military and scientific prowess. Its a good bargaining chip in business and political negotiations, attracting investments, etc etc.

 

[intruder]

Where have I made assumtions or its just late night awakening effect on you.
As far I know any fourth war will not be of conventional arsnel, therefore your numbers are of no good.

All I would say learn lessons from history an stop fooling yourself and for god sake donot press self annihilate button ... and save yourself from humiliation...

flamebaits are not welcome........ LINK deleted!

KEYSER

 

[Contrarian]

In that light, read India's new doctrine, they donot wish to capture chunks of Pakistani land as a bargaining tool for later on, they plan to destroy Pakistan's infrastructure and their armed forces directly to destroy Pakistan's war fighting ability. Its not about land anymore.

 

[BATMAN]

^^This seems to me more effective solution to destroy Pakistan rather than all out war.
Do you expect any draw backs of this policy?
How ever, There is a clear shift in India's defence products development policy. All new projects are setup on the lines of JV from begining rather than calling in specialists to so called 'iron out' the snags of projects at later stages.

Says who ? Kargil is the counter example. Yes the 4th war CAN be nuclear, but there is no certainty that it WILL be nuclear. You see there are certain ways to avoid reaching the nuclear threshold, even in times of open hostilities. The next war will not be fought to grab huge chunks of land, but to achieve a set objective. In which case, India can use its overwhelming conventional superiority to achieve it quickly, with minimum pain and loss of face to Pakistan, and thus avoid a nuclear confrontation. Trust me, as macho as dictators sound, they are the least likely to engage in a war where their personnel safety is not guaranteed. They have just too much power and luxury to blow it away.

Blitz, you cannot calculate the true dynamics of war.
Kargil was not an all out war and it never engaged Pakistan's conventinal war machine more than a fraction.
It was a tactical maneuver and Kargil hills were captured without firing a bulllet what happened after was all diplomatic adjustment or peace deal, otherwise it had all potential to explode to all out war.
With term 'macho dictator' if you are reffering to Musharraf than I will only say that you have no idea of the man and it is just typical Indian hate towards the him. Other wise one cannot ignore his leadership role in today's world.

Plus, there are other uses of having a good military, like enticing an economically weaker rival into an arms race resulting in its ruin. Then there is an even more comprehensive outlook towards arms buildup, where they are not meant to be used, but to be showcased, as a symbol of military and scientific prowess. Its a good bargaining chip in business and political negotiations, attracting investments, etc etc.

Yes, that's true that India has initiated an arms race in South Asian region and as far Pakistan is concerned it actually proved benificial to Pakistan, where as the irony is that this race has costed India more than Pakistan.