Operation Brasstacks
Encyclopedia
The Operation Brasstacks was a codename of a large military exercise undertaken by the Indian Army
in Rajasthan
region of India during November 1986 and March 1987. It was one of the largest mobilizations of Indian Armed Forces
in the Indian subcontinent
. Many regard this as one of the most critical points in the relationships between India
and Pakistan
with regard to nuclear war
. The exercise's magnitude and closeness to the border caused a situation where a war between India Pakistan looked imminent. There is still a considerable debate regarding the purpose of the exercise as many believe that India was preparing for a war against Pakistan, even though the stated objective of Operation Brasstacks was to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support devised by General Sundarji.
of the Indian Army
, General Krishnaswamy Sundarrajan (popularly known as Sundarji), at that time, advocated for modern methods of land-based warfare and professionalism in the Indian Army. According to General Sundarji, Operation Brasstacks was carried out to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support.
The scale of the operation was bigger than any NATO exercise and the biggest land exercise since World War II
. According to retired Lieutenant-General PN Hoon, commander of the Western Military Command of the Indian Army
, Operation Brasstacks was a mobilization of the entire army of India. The exercise took place in the deserts of Rajasthan instead of the sensitive regions of Kashmir
and the then restive Punjab
. At one point of time nearly 400,000 Indian army troops were deployed directly across the Sindh Province
of Pakistan. The magnitude and large scale direction of the exercise led to Pakistan fears that India was displaying an overwhelming conventional superiority and was planning to invade Pakistan, and dismember it by surgical strikes, as it did with East Pakistan
during the Indo-Pak 1971 Winter war
.
and Southern Air Command, near the Indian state
of Punjab
. Then-President
and Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army
, General Zia-ul-Haq
viewed the exercise
as a direct threat and challenge to Pakistan's existence, and issued commands Armoured Corps
and entire V Corps to move to the front lines. Meanwhile, Pakistan Air Force proceeded with Pakistan Army, and the Southern Air Command was put on high-alert directly reporting to Chief of Air Staff
of Pakistan Air Force
Air Chief Marshal Jamal Ahmad Khan.
In order to remind the Indian Armed Forces of the possible repercussions of war with Pakistan General Zia-ul-Haq famously said: "If your [Indian Armed] Forces cross our [Pakistan] borders by even an inch, we are going to annihilate your cities", indicating that if necessary, Pakistanis will not hesitate to use nuclear weapon
s, as first strike
policy, in order to defend their motherland. Many defence analysts saw this statement as the first real, although subtle, confirmation of Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons and discouraged an Indian invasion of Pakistan's territory.
By mid January, both the Indian army
and the Pakistan army
were facing each other on the frontiers. 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 codename Smiling Buddha
) and a state that was believed to be developing nuclear weapons at that time (Pakistan).
, particularly the western media, was involved after this and intense diplomatic maneuvers followed preventing any further escalation in hostilities.
Indian Prime minister
Rajiv Gandhi
and self-appointed President General Zia-ul-Haq involved in Cricket diplomacy to resolve this issue towards a peaceful end. It is also widely quoted that General Zia-ul-Haq, using his military confidence to his advantage, threatened and intimidated the Indian prime minister in the same cricket diplomacy during a match by warning him of Pakistani fighter jets loaded with nuclear weapons awaiting orders back home.
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
in Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
region of India during November 1986 and March 1987. It was one of the largest mobilizations of Indian Armed Forces
Indian Armed Forces
The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. They consist of the Army, Navy and Air Force, supported by three paramilitary forces and various inter-service institutions such as the Strategic Forces Command.The President of India is...
in the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
. Many regard this as one of the most critical points in the relationships between India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
with regard to nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
. The exercise's magnitude and closeness to the border caused a situation where a war between India Pakistan looked imminent. There is still a considerable debate regarding the purpose of the exercise as many believe that India was preparing for a war against Pakistan, even though the stated objective of Operation Brasstacks was to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support devised by General Sundarji.
Indian army rationale and moves
The Chief of StaffChief of Army Staff of the Indian Army
The Chief of the Army Staff is the commander and usually the highest-ranking officer of the Indian Army. The position is abbreviated as COAS in Indian Army cables and communication....
of the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
, General Krishnaswamy Sundarrajan (popularly known as Sundarji), at that time, advocated for modern methods of land-based warfare and professionalism in the Indian Army. According to General Sundarji, Operation Brasstacks was carried out to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support.
The scale of the operation was bigger than any NATO exercise and the biggest land exercise since World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. According to retired Lieutenant-General PN Hoon, commander of the Western Military Command of the Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
, Operation Brasstacks was a mobilization of the entire army of India. The exercise took place in the deserts of Rajasthan instead of the sensitive regions of Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
and the then restive Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
. At one point of time nearly 400,000 Indian army troops were deployed directly across the Sindh Province
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
of Pakistan. The magnitude and large scale direction of the exercise led to Pakistan fears that India was displaying an overwhelming conventional superiority and was planning to invade Pakistan, and dismember it by surgical strikes, as it did with East Pakistan
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
during the Indo-Pak 1971 Winter war
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military conflict between India and Pakistan. Indian, Bangladeshi and international sources consider the beginning of the war to be Operation Chengiz Khan, Pakistan's December 3, 1971 pre-emptive strike on 11 Indian airbases...
.
Pakistan's response
Pakistan's response was to mobilize its entire V CorpsV Corps (Pakistan)
The V Corps, also known as Victory Corps, is an administrative corps of Pakistan Army assigned in Karachi, Sindh Province of Pakistan. The V Corps is the only corps that is stationed in the Sindh Province, while the II Strike Corps and the IV Corps are both stationed in Punjab Province...
and Southern Air Command, near the Indian state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
of Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...
. Then-President
President of Pakistan
The President of Pakistan is the head of state, as well as figurehead, of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Recently passed an XVIII Amendment , Pakistan has a parliamentary democratic system of government. According to the Constitution, the President is chosen by the Electoral College to serve a...
and Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
, General Zia-ul-Haq
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq
General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq , was the 4th Chief Martial Law Administrator and the sixth President of Pakistan from July 1977 to his death in August 1988...
viewed the exercise
Military exercise
A military exercise is the employment of military resources in training for military operations, either exploring the effects of warfare or testing strategies without actual combat...
as a direct threat and challenge to Pakistan's existence, and issued commands Armoured Corps
Pakistan Army Armoured Corps
Pakistan Army Armoured Corps, , is an active military administrative combatant branch of Pakistan Army, tasked with the armoured warfare...
and entire V Corps to move to the front lines. Meanwhile, Pakistan Air Force proceeded with Pakistan Army, and the Southern Air Command was put on high-alert directly reporting to Chief of Air Staff
Chief of Air Staff (Pakistan)
The Chief of the Air Staff of the Pakistan Air Force, abbreviated as CAS, is typically the highest ranking 4-star rank officer in the Pakistan Air Force, unless a four-star officer is appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. The CAS is a senior and permanent member of the...
of Pakistan Air Force
Pakistan Air Force
The Pakistan Air Force is the leading air arm of the Pakistan Armed Forces and is primarily tasked with the aerial defence of Pakistan with a secondary role of providing air support to the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. The PAF also has a tertiary role of providing strategic air transport...
Air Chief Marshal Jamal Ahmad Khan.
In order to remind the Indian Armed Forces of the possible repercussions of war with Pakistan General Zia-ul-Haq famously said: "If your [Indian Armed] Forces cross our [Pakistan] borders by even an inch, we are going to annihilate your cities", indicating that if necessary, Pakistanis will not hesitate to use nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s, as first strike
First strike
In nuclear strategy, a first strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force. First strike capability is a country's ability to defeat another nuclear power by destroying its arsenal to the point where the attacking country can survive the weakened retaliation while the opposing...
policy, in order to defend their motherland. Many defence analysts saw this statement as the first real, although subtle, confirmation of Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons and discouraged an Indian invasion of Pakistan's territory.
By mid January, both the Indian army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
and the Pakistan army
Pakistan Army
The Pakistan Army is the branch of the Pakistani Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The Pakistan Army came into existence after the Partition of India and the resulting independence of Pakistan in 1947. It is currently headed by General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. The Pakistan...
were facing each other on the frontiers. 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 codename Smiling Buddha
Smiling Buddha
The Smiling Buddha, formally designated as Pokhran-I, was the codename given to Republic of India's first nuclear test explosion that took place at the long-constructed Indian Army base, Pokhran Test Range at Pokhran municipality, Rajasthan state on 18 May 1974 at 8:05 a.m....
) and a state that was believed to be developing nuclear weapons at that time (Pakistan).
End of Operation Brasstacks
According to events that played out and stance taken by the Indian army, Operation Brasstacks was only an exercise and not supposed to be a provocative one. The mediaMass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
, particularly the western media, was involved after this and intense diplomatic maneuvers followed preventing any further escalation in hostilities.
Indian Prime minister
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...
and self-appointed President General Zia-ul-Haq involved in Cricket diplomacy to resolve this issue towards a peaceful end. It is also widely quoted that General Zia-ul-Haq, using his military confidence to his advantage, threatened and intimidated the Indian prime minister in the same cricket diplomacy during a match by warning him of Pakistani fighter jets loaded with nuclear weapons awaiting orders back home.
Further reading
- Sunil Dasgupta, 'Operation Brasstacks,' Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 1996 (book review; notes previous coverage of the operation)
External links
- http://www.upiasia.com/Politics/2010/02/24/indias_futile_talks_with_pakistan/3333/
- http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/143245
- http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/siafdu/sundarji.html&date=2009-10-26+02:34:27
- http://www.rediff.com/news/1999/aug/05hoon.htm Rediff interview by PN Hoon
- http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/brass-tacks.htm
- http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rtanter/S96PS472_Papers/KHAN.ARIFA.PAKISTAN
- http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/Army/Army-Chiefs/Chiefs-Army16.html
- http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1902/19021240.htm V.P Singh's statement on the operation