India, Pakistan To Launch Major War-Games

Arch rivals and nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors India and Pakistan are set to hold separate large-scale war-games on either side of the international border in the coming weeks to test the preparedness of their respective armed forces in the event of a war.

Both nations are reported to have informed each other--as is customary in peace-time--about the maneouvres and the movement of troops, tanks, guns and fighter aircraft, to allay mutual concerns of any aggressive intent.

In its biggest war-games in two decades, Pakistan will stage "Azm-e-Nau-III" ("New Resolve") exercise from April 10 to May 13, near the border in the country's Punjab and Sindh provinces, to ready for a conventional war with India.

The drill will mobilize 20,000 troops to begin with, and rise to up to 50,000 towards the end, reports say.

Pakistan Air Force is conducting a large war-game of its own, code-named "High Mark," covering almost the entire landmass of the country from Gilgit in the Northern Areas to Karachi in the extreme south on the Arabian Sea coast, and will climax in a joint exercise with the Pakistan Army.
Just days after Pakistan kicks off its war-games, the Indian Army will launch its month-long exercise on April 15 in Rajasthan's Thar desert in the north-west. Codenamed "Yodha Shakti", the manoeuvre will involve one of its largest and most powerful "strike" formations, the Mathura-based First (Strike) Corps.

Troops will simulate "enemy forces" in a real battle scenario to assess how the formations would perform in both holding territory and in carrying out surgical strikes deep inside "enemy territory", apart from capturing and destroying strategic assets of the enemy.

The force is expected to validate new equipment, especially night-vision devices and electronic monitors, "in an environment of network-centric operations". It will also involve close air support from the Indian Air Force's front-line fighter aircraft and attack helicopters.

Also, the exercise will test the ability of troops to carry on the battle during night, particularly its T-72 and T-90 tanks and infantry combat vehicles, as 80% of the mechanized vehicles suffer from night-blindness, a fact admitted by immediate past Army Chief of Staff, General Deepak Kapoor, in his annual press conference two months ago.

"Yoddha Shakti" is a part of a series to test the "cold-start" doctrine under which the army will launch an assault from bases immediately after the political signal is given, without taking either days or months to mobilize.
The doctrine was adopted by Indian Army for a conventional war with Pakistan after the stand-off in 2002--post-Kargil war-- that saw full-scale deployment for a year that, however, did not escalate into a war. The biggest war-games India conducted so far were in the second half the 1980s, codenamed "Operation Brass-tacks", when Gen. K. Sundarji, considered India's version of Gen. George Patton, was Chief of the Army Staff, and which narrowly missed becoming a shooting war.