boeing.co.in ONE PARTNERSHIP. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES. Boeing is proud of its longstanding partnership with India. A partnership India can depend upon to meet its developing requirements, from surveillance, strike and mobility platforms to C4ISR, unmanned systems and support services. The most advanced systems and technologies providing the greatest value for India. That’s a partnership of endless possibilities. India’s largest online military newspaper www.indiandefencereview.com ISBN 81 7062 177 1 ISSN 0970-2512 Apr-Jun 2014, Vol. 29 (2) INDIAN DEFENCE Contents REVIEW FOREMOST SINCE 1986 FROM THE EDITOR THE FAKE MILITARY COUP 3 MINISTER, MY MINISTER! DEFENCES ARE DOWN! 4 TALIBAN SET TO TAKE OVER PAKISTAN 6 INDIAN DEFENCE REVIEW COMMENT LESSONS FROM THE HENDERSON BROOKS REPORT EDITOR Lt Gen JS Bajwa 9 Bharat Verma LET PRIVATE AEROSPACE MANUFACTURING FLOURISH ASSOCIATE EDITOR Gp Capt Joseph Noronha 15 Priya Tyagi Col Danvir Singh ARTILLERY MODERNISATION Special Correspondent 24 EDITORIAL CONSULTANTS Claude Arpi ROLE OF C-17 GLOBEMASTER III Author and a Senior Journalist Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja 31 Lt Gen JS Bajwa IS THE IAF EQUIPPED FOR A TWO-FRONT WAR? Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee Gp Capt AK Sachdev 36 Brig Amar Cheema AEROSPACE AND DEFENCE NEWS Lt Gen Prakash Katoch Priya Tyagi 44 Gp Capt Balakrishna Menon EMPLOYING SPECIAL FORCES: A Response to Popular Fallacies Air Marshal Narayan Menon Saikat Datta 60 Prakash Nanda Senior Foreign Policy Analyst THE CULTURE BAGGAGE OF INDIAN MILITARY PHILOSOPHY Lt Gen SC Sardeshpande 63 Vice Admiral Rajeshwer Nath Vice Adm BS Randhawa EMPLOYMENT OF HELICOPTERS IN COUNTER INSURGENCY ROLES Former Chief of Material and Controller of Warship Gp Capt B Menon 66 Production and Acquisition, Indian Navy Amitabha Roychowdhury FORCE PROJECTION AND RAPID DEPLOYMENT FORCES Associate Editor, Press Trust of India Need for Reassessment Ramananda Sengupta Brig Deepak Sinha 73 Foreign and Strategic Affairs Analyst TIERED BORDER DEFENCE AGAINST CHINA Kanwal Sibal Special Correspondent 77 Former Foreign Secretary of India Vice Admiral Anup Singh WHY NOT HAVE ‘TECHNICAL SUPPORT DIVISION’ AT THE ARMY CORPS LEVEL? Col JK Achuthan 82 INTERNAL SECURITY: The Maoist Dimension Lt Gen Gautam Banerjee 88 in print every january, april, july and october from new delhi for more information, please email us at [email protected] iDR [email protected] INDIAN DEFENCE REVIEW PICTURE PAD IAF’s Jamnagar Base Gets Mi-17 V5s Mi-17 V5 being ceremonially inducted at the Jamnagar base in western India. A unit at the base that earlier operated old Mi-8s, now converts to spanking new V5s. Safe flight! DAILY ONLINE FROM NEW DELHI www.indiandefencereview.com Contributors may please send their articles, not exceeding 3500 words, in a disk with a hard copy, with suitable illustrations to Editor, Indian Defence Review. The views expressed are the contributors’ own and do not necessarily represent the opinions or policies of the Indian Defence Review. Publisher: Capt Bharat Verma, Indian Defence Review, Lancer Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi. Advertising: For information and rates, please contact Anuradha Verma, Director Coordination or the Publisher. How to reach us: Indian Defence Review, 2/42 (B) Sarvapriya Vihar, New Delhi-110016. +91 11 41759461, 26854691 z Telefax +91 11 26960404 z [email protected] z www.indiandefencereview.com Printed at Sona Printers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Price: Rs 350 PICTURE PAD 2 INDIAN DEFENCE REVIEW 29.2-Apr/Jun ‘14 FROM THE EDITOR rime Minister Manmohan Singh should order Pinvestigations by a retired Supreme Court Judge into the fake military coup propagated by former Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma maligning and belittling the Indian Army. It is becoming obvious that the babus in MoD, who are unable to deliver modern weapon platforms efficiently to the military, are hell bent on lowering the image of the The Fake Military Coup Indian Army, which in turn is demoralizing the troops and acts as a disincentive for the young to serve their country. This amounts to grave anti-India activity, weakening the sinews of the nation. With the political leadership clearly stating that there was no coup attempt, babu Shashi Kant Sharma and others need to be investigated and taken to task for creating a false alarm. It is imperative that we visit the contours of the military coup executed by General Musharraf in Pakistan on 12 October 1999. All militaries particularly the Army are highly trained to conduct ruthless operations against their adversary. The speed and precision of movement with the weapons they wield make them formidable and unstoppable. When the military coup took place in With the political leadership Pakistan, the Army under directions from Lt clearly stating that there was Gen Usmani, seized the air control tower to no coup attempt, babu Shashi enable Musharraf to land, troops took over control of the state-run television, put the Kant Sharma and others need prime minister Nawaz Sharif under house to be investigated and taken to arrest by encircling his residence, took over task for creating a false alarm. control of international airports and snapped the international phone lines. Thus, neutralizing the political leadership at one go and ensuring that the bureaucracy towed the line of the Pakistan Army. When armies move, whether in operational area or in civil areas, they have studied all aspects of the situation, readied adequate firepower to neutralize dissent, and thought out the end game well in advance. All military coups will have similar patterns, no matter which army conducts it. Compare the above with the picture painted by former Defence Secretary Shashi Kant Sharma, falsely implicating that the political leadership at the highest level was jittery. If the Indian Army was executing a ‘coup’, then the Shashi Kant Sharmas’ of this world would not have the luxury of inviting the former DGMO Lt Gen AK Chaudhary late at night to find out, bataiye‘ kya ho raha hai’ (tell me what is happening?), because in a coup mode the Indian Army and not the bureaucrat would be calling the shots. The former Army Chief Gen VK Singh would not be going to the Supreme Court for redressal of the age controversy. Instead he would be at the helm of affairs and conducting the operations personally to takeover New Delhi. The movement of a mechanized infantry unit without ammunition from Hissar and a paratroopers detachment from Agra late at night on January 16, 2012 were conducting normal routine exercises unrelated to each other. In a huge army, there is continuous training of local units, FROM THE EDITOR 29.2-Apr/Jun ‘14 INDIAN DEFENCE REVIEW 3 which are neither projected to the DGMO or to the Army HQs. Also,every Brigade Commander upwards independently is authorized to mobilize his formation within an hour 24x7 and they don’t need permissions for war mobilization. At the same time, there are always sufficient well-trained and armed troops available in the capital to take over a small city like New Delhi. It really does not require extra troops from outside with two permanent infantry brigades, one artillery brigade, engineers and signal regiments that are stationed in the Capital. In fact, when a new Army Chief takes over, his battle hardened ...India has a federal structure infantry battalion or one of the battalions from where all the state capitals his regiment serve in the Capital as a personal will be required to be honour: a battle hardened infantry battalion by itself is a very lethal force that can create simultaneously brought under mayhem. Furthermore, since this picture was the Indian Army’s control. painted by babu Sharma on 16 January 2012, This is not so in Pakistan a huge contingent of Indian Army had already moved into New Delhi for the 26 January where only Islamabad has to Republic Day parade. Hence, no extra troops be taken over. were required in any case. Therefore, it is obvious that this great army is not in the business of military coups despite the wherewithal permanently at its disposal at New Delhi! This was a false alarm purposely created to malign the Indian Army as the Army Chief and the Ministry of Defence were at loggerheads due to the General’s demand to rectify incorrect entry of his date of birth. Further, if the coup was actually taking place, the former Defence Secretary would not have had the luxury of leaking the information to a newspaper to create panic – he would have been effectively neutralised well in time because this is how a professional army executes its tasks. Despite the impediments created by politicians and bureaucrats in terms of paucity of young human resources and necessary equipment, the Indian Army remains extraordinarily professional in its approach of securing the nation’s borders. The idea of a military coup, therefore, is preposterous and unthinkable in India! A military coup is simply not feasible otherwise also as India has a federal structure where all the state capitals will be required to be simultaneously brought under the Indian Army’s control. This is not so in Pakistan where only Islamabad has to be taken over. The continuous and gross neglect of the Indian Army and insulting behavior of the civil administration towards the military is, therefore, a matter of shame. It is time that the Army Chief asserts his dignity to restore the honour of this great army by demanding of the Prime Minister to institute an inquiry into the former Defence Secretary’s obnoxious behavior of creating the false alarm and heaping insults. The guilty must be taken to task. This will help to quell the rising frustrations and anger within the rank and file of the Indian military. Minister, My Minister! Defences Are Down! n the past seven years Defence Minister AK Antony’s incompetence has ensured that India’s Imilitary capability rapidly shrinks.