India's military (catch all)

**davidbfpo** · 06-17-2015

A commentary 'Was India's special-forces raid into Myanmar a signal to China and Pakistan?' by Shashank Joshi, of RUSI (London), via the Australian Lowy Institute:http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/...Pakistan.aspx?

With my emphasis:

In their book on the subject, retired Lieutenant General PC Katoch and journalist Saikat Datta note that India has over 20,000 special forces but 'one tenth' of US capabilities, as a result of inadequate officer numbers, training, intelligence, language skills, air support, and a lack of centralised command. In another recent paper, George Perkovich and Toby Dalton cite Indian experts, including retired officials, who acknowledge that 'India does not now have the capability to combine special operations in Pakistan with precision air support', notwithstanding highly localised raids across the Line of Control.

**blueblood** · 06-17-2015

@omarali50,

Christine Fair (who was once labeled Christine Unfair by Hindutva fanatics because she said something that Pakistani PR people used against India) has an article on this topic:

Hindutvawadis are nice that way. If only you knew them better.

Frankly, most Pakistani commenters would have had slept better at night had Dr. Fair mentioned Mukti Bahini, RAW and 1971. So while I agree with it almost completely I also think this was a biased piece.

Clubbing India together with Pakistan does give a lot of leverage to "belligerent" elements. Mr. Ali, I have a few queries if you care to answer.

1) Why did Pakistani media consistently missed the part where firing on LOC from their side "coincidentally" matched with Kashmir elections and Samba and Kathua attacks but kept repeating the ISPR line of India creating distractions wrt Zarb-e-azb. This includes journalists like Najam Sethi who do not tow the Army's official line in general.

2) What part do you think army has played in the rise of Imran Khan and his future? While some say that Imran Khan is army's Plan B, Imran on record keeps or at least kept harping about the dangers that army bring by military operations across the country.

..............................................

https://twitter.com/majorlyp/status/608710075704860672

Something, most of us on this side of the border were thinking. You may find this person amusing, maybe.

As for Mushy, I think people are being too hard on him. From once the only world leader who carried a personal side arm, Mushy has turned into a senile old man whose every rants begins with the ritualistic "We are not ________. We are a nuclear power. India cannot do that to us"

Do Pakistanis ponder over the fact that would have happened had it been Nawaz as PM post 9/11?

**blueblood** · 06-17-2015

@davidbfpo, while I am fan of Gen. P.C. Katoch, I am also struggling hard to reach a common ground with him lately. Over the years he has made some pretty unwarranted and some times just lame comments.

Having a tenth of US capability is not a bad thing if you realize that you are not US. Tenth of US capability means 1 Supercarrier and 7 nuclear submarines. It can also mean 18 F-22s, 2 B-2s and 20 C-17s. Not bad!!

But most of all it means a 20% increase against the current Indian defence budget. You can have 100% of US SOF capabilities when you can afford to spend as much as US.

For the paper (yet to read) that mentioned Indian SOFs inability to conduct ops in Pak is a very dated outlook. Let me get back to you on this one.

**davidbfpo** · 06-23-2015

A useful guide to studying India's military by Shashank Joshi (RUSI) via WoTR, with a plethora oif links and recommendations:http://warontherocks.com/2015/06/so-.../?singlepage=1

Formal study of India’s military isn’t at the same stage of maturity as that of the PLA. The most useful Indian sources — which vary greatly in quality — tend to be a small cluster of retired officers rather than scholars with academic training, and much of the Western literature still needs to be grounded in better military understanding. Western military research institutes — parts of RAND, the NDU, the Army War College — that dominate Peter Mattis’ reading list aren’t as interested in India, and Indian research institutes don’t yet have the capacity. But a wave of insightful and important articles and books, many by young scholars, is laying a solid foundation on which to build.

**davidbfpo** · 06-23-2015

There are two smaller relevant threads: Indian Intelligence at (with 6.5k views and 6 post - unlike that on ISI):http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=19898 and Understanding India's Insurgencies (33k views and 173 posts) at:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ead.php?t=2248

**davidbfpo** · 03-18-2016

Well I knew India was moving along, but I'd missed much of the detail. Notably having ICBMs.

This article poses three challenging questions:

1.What role should India’s nuclear force play in deterring new threats in the land domain?

2. How should India manage regional seaborne nuclear deterrence?

3. How should a nuclear doctrinal review be conducted?

Link:http://defenceindepth.co/2016/03/18/...uclear-policy/