Operation Brasstacks

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Operation Brasstacks
TypeIndian Army Military exercise
PlannedGeneral Krishnaswamy Sundarji, CoAS
Planned byWestern Army Command
Southern Command
TargetSouthern Pakistan
Date18 November 1986 – 6 March 1987
Executed byIndian Army
OutcomeExercises were halted;
Pakistan redeployment its armed forces
Cricket diplomacy defused the threat

Operation Brasstacks was a major combined arms military exercise of the Indian Armed Forces in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The operation took place from November 1986 to January 1987 near Pakistan border.[1][2]

As part of a series of exercises to simulate the operational capabilities of the Indian armed forces, it was the largest mobilization of Indian forces on the

Korangi Creek of Karachi Division in Pakistan.[3] However, the most important aim of this war alert simulation was to determine tactical nuclear strategy, overseen by the Indian Army.[3]

The

deep offensive strategy to infiltrate into dense areas of Central Pakistan. On the other hand, India maintained that "[the] core objective of Operation Brasstacks was to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support devised by Indian army."[2][5]

Background

Indian Strategic overview

Main article: Cold Start (military doctrine)

After the

Thar desert.[5] In December 1986, with more than ten thousand armoured vehicles spread across its western desert, India launched the final stage of a huge military exercise that stirred new tensions with Pakistan.[6]

The scale of the operation was bigger than any

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercise and the biggest land exercise since World War II.[7] Initially, around 600,000–800,000 troops were mobilized and stationed on Rajasthan state's western border, less than 100 miles away from Pakistan.[7] The commander of the Indian Army's Western Command, Lieutenant General Prem Nath Hoon, maintained that, "Operation Brasstacks was a mobilization of the entire Army of India."[8]

The magnitude and large scale of the exercise led to Pakistani fears that India was displaying an overwhelming conventional superiority and was planning to invade Pakistan and dismember it by

Indo-Pak 1971 Winter war.[9] According to General Hoon's memoirs, a letter was directed to Sundarji by Western Command, arguing that "when such a large exercise is conceived", the movement of Indian forces is going to attract the attention of Pakistan.[8] General Hoon maintained that, General Sundarji did not inform Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi about the scale of the operation and such details were hidden from him.[8] Hoon also wrote in his memoir: "Brasstacks was no military exercise. It was a plan to build up the situation for a fourth war with Pakistan." Indian scholar, Paul Kapur further argues that during Operation Brasstacks, the Indian Army lobbied the government multiple times, but unsuccessfully, to attack Pakistan.[clarify][10][11]

It is theorised by author Robert Art and others that the Brasstacks crisis was not an inadvertent and accidental crisis caused by Pakistan's misinterpretation of a large scale Indian Army exercise, confined mainly to the vast Rajasthan desert sector, as provocative.[11] In this theory, General Sunderji's strategy was to provoke Pakistan to respond and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to the offensive against Pakistan and destroy its atomic bomb projects in a series of preventive strikes.[11]

Pakistan strategic response

Main article: Strategic depth

After the success of the

theoretical physicist Munir Ahmad Khan, hectic discussions took place every day between the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs, amid fears that India might attack Pakistan, who was on route to becoming a nuclear power. Since 1981, the commanders of the Pakistan Armed Forces were given standing orders to mobilize their forces at once, from all directions, as quick as it could to divert such attacks.[9]

When Brasstacks was executed, Pakistan quickly responded with maneuvers of its own forces, first mobilizing the entire

Bombay, Noorani replied: "it might be so".[9]

The situation could have potentially lead to a war between a de facto nuclear weapon state (India—who had already conducted a nuclear test in 1974, Smiling Buddha, and a state known to have nuclear infrastructure, that was believed to be developing nuclear weapons at that time (Pakistan).[9]

1987 Pakistan atomic alert

In January 1987, Pakistan had put its nuclear installations on high alert, and the crisis atmosphere was heightened.

atomic weapons if its existence was threatened"; although he later denied having made such a statement.[4] Indian diplomats in Islamabad claimed that they were warned that Pakistan would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if attacked. Pakistan denied the veracity of these statements.[4]

Aftermath

Cricket diplomacy

Main article: Pakistani cricket team in India in 1986–87

The tensions diminished in March 1987, with an agreement by the two nations to withdraw 150,000 troops in the Kashmir area, followed by a second agreement to withdraw more troops in the desert area that was signed the same month.[6] While negotiating the withdrawal accord, India vowed to proceed with Brasstacks, asserting that Pakistan had no reason to feel provoked.[6] India did delay the beginning of the last stage of the operation until the following week, while the latest withdrawal agreement was being negotiated.[6] To prove its intentions were peaceful, India took the unusual step of inviting diplomats and journalists to observe the operation separately.[6] Pakistani Foreign Service officers, senior diplomats and statesmen were those who were invited.[6] According to an unnamed Western diplomat, "This was not a third-world army. This was a modern army, fully competent for any mission, easily as good as the Chinese, the Koreans or the French."[6]

Pakistan's President Zia visited India in February 1987, having been invited to see a cricket match between the two countries.[12] Zia's estimation was that he and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi could meet quite cordially, but could not agree on substantive issues.[12]

Effects and legacy

According to the Indian Army, Brasstacks was only an exercise and not supposed to be a provocative one. The media, particularly the Western media, was involved after this and intense diplomatic manoeuvres followed preventing any further escalation in hostilities. On multiple occasions, General Sunderji maintained that: "This was, is and always has been a training exercise. I can't answer why there have been misperceptions about it in some quarters."[6] India repeatedly accused Pakistan of continuing scientific research on atomic bombs; Pakistan continued to sharply reject the claims. A few days later, A. Q. Khan also rejected any statements issued regarding atomic bomb development, and has since said "his comments were taken out of context."[6]

The real motives behind the exercise remain disputed. In 1999, a former senior Indian Army officer, Lieutenant-General P. N. Hoon, remarked that the operation had mobilized the entire Indian Army to Pakistan's eastern border.

nuclear deterrent.[6]

Sources

  • Sunil Dasgupta, "Operation Brasstacks," Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 1996 (book review noting previous coverage of the operation).

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-57607-713-9
    .
  2. ^ a b c d Brigadier-General Muhammad Aslam Khan Niazi of Pakistan Army Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (29 October 2011). "India Toying With Dangerous Cold Start War Doctrine – Analysis". Euroasia Review. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  3. ^ a b c d e f GS. "Brass Tacks". Global Security.org. Global Security. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e Mahar Regiment. "General Krishnaswamy Sundarji". Bharat-Rakshak. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Steven Weisman, Special to the New York Times (6 March 1987). "ON INDIA'S BORDER, A HUGE MOCK WAR". The New York Times, 1987. pp. html. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  6. ^ a b Abdullah, Sannia (Winter 2012). "Cold Star in Strategic Calculus" (google docs). IPRI Journal XII. 1 (27). Islamabad Policy Research Institute: 6–8. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  7. ^ a b c d Miranda, Jewella C (5 August 1999). "Interview with General PN Hoon". The Redcliff Review. The Rediff Interview. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  8. ^
    ISBN 81-7764-402-5
    . Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  9. ISBN 978-9971-69-443-2
    .
  10. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7425-5669-0
    .
  11. ^ a b SPECIAL REPORT. "PAKISTAN AND THE WORLD DURING THE ZIA REGIME". Pakistan Defence Journal. Retrieved 1 November 2012.

External links

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