Army drill in May to validate 48-hour mobilisation time

[Neil]

Can Indian Army mobilise troops within 48 hours? The army believes it can and will seek to validate its answer at an annual exercise involving about 10,000 personnel in the Rajasthan-Punjab region in May.

After terrorists attacked parliament in December 2001, the government had ordered army mobilisation. But Operation Parakram took 27 days, by which time sufficient international diplomatic pressure had built up to pre-empt any military strike on Pakistan.

Since then, the army has been working hard to bring down its mobilisation time. Sources said better road management, offloading, rail links, equipment and man-management had reduced the time to 48 hours and every strike corps had been working at reducing its mobilisation period.

The two-week exercise, Vajra Prahar, will involve the Ambala-based 2 strike corps, besides elements from the Patiala-based 1 armoured division, Meerut-based 22 division and Dehra Dun-based 14 division, also called Rapids.

Earlier, the army used to launch an attack after an entire formation had gathered, but the new approach is for small battle groups with command-and-control abilities carrying out early launches. As elements have to be gathered from far-flung places, it's important to plan in advance.

Training time will be reduced, and as small groups get ready, they would be launched.

Incidentally, the Pakistani army had held a war game last year near its India border with around 50,000 troops mobilised in three days from one end of that country to the other.

Former army chief general VP Malik pointed out that distances in Pakistan were shorter. "We took 20 days to mobilise troops for Operation Parakram. The lesson learnt was to reduce the time, which brought forth the doctrine of cold start for strategic re-location. Today, we are in a much better position," he said.

Every year, the three corps take turns to hold war games. Last year, 21 corps had its first drill based on nuclear biological chemical warfare.


http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_army-drill-in-may-to-validate-48-hour-mobilisation-time_1513511

 

[sayareakd]

we need to watch this exercise, pak would be also watching and so is china and USA. This will prove if IA has learn something or not, plus it will also show it cold start is dead or alive.

 

[Adux]

There are a whole lot of structural changes needed in our defense setup, We are, and always has been reacting to events, not creating or shaping them to our advantage.

 

[Adux]

IF there are any Vetrans, how does Chief of Defense Staff, Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff differ in approaches and command authority.

 

[arya]

no we cant

we have lots of holes

we are lacking in lots on thing

 

[LETHALFORCE]

we need to watch this exercise, pak would be also watching and so is china and USA. This will prove if IA has learn something or not, plus it will also show it cold start is dead or alive.

why does this have to be made public?? Cold start has remained without any change so it must be implementable??

 

[sayareakd]

why does this have to be made public?? Cold start has remained without any change so it must be implementable??

LF the real reason is to assure people of India that Cold start did exist and sending chill down the pakistan, if they play mischief then India surely will act.

 

[p2prada]

Nice. So this confirms the existence of Cold Start. I guess this will be the first time a 48 hour mobilization exercise is being conducted. Kick azz.

So can we expect an Independent Brigade Group to have 10000 men for all sectors?

Should we assume there are at least 3-5 tank regiments with every IBG? 120 to 200 tanks

Also is it right to assume we can have 100 to 200 artillery guns for each IBG?

Let's not forget a squadron of attack helis for CAS?

Is it right to assume the analysts across the border are quaking in their boots? Yes.

 

[Adux]

Is there infrastructure for us to support 48 hours deployment of so many assets?
Does anyone know much about the question asked before?

 

[joe81]

To assemble 10000 men will it take 48 hours?? I think the time its on a higher side...Are the forces not battle ready at all times? So how much time will it take to deploy the entrire IA along the border ? Probably months!!! What is the time required to assemble 10000 men in other armies?

Will our Intelligence agencies know 48 hours before a war is launched on India so that IA can get atleat 10,000 men near the border (10,000 men is the best case scenario). I think it should be matter of minutes before you can have ur men in the border.

 

[Yusuf]

Its not a question of just assembling 10,000 men, but entire fighting force including tanks, guns, helos etc... That does take time. And no the men on the border are not fully equipped to march into enemy territory. There are corps to do that. Cold start hopes to change a bit and reduce that time from months to hours. Change in doctrine.

No one in the world believes that cold start exists or it can be pulled off esp the west and US in particular. They still have no understanding of how things work here. Its good that they live under that notion.

 

[Neil]

is the purpose of the ex only to validate the time or its also for battle-last time they had nuclear,chemical threats ex- after 48 hour mobilization...?

 

[nrj]

Its interesting to see these open developments as we resume composite dialogue with Pak. Its a statement that; we are hiking our defense budget, validating your dreaded nightmare but we are also resuming the composite dialogue.

So basically its shaping into appreciably calculated plan to get aggressive, bargain UNSC position but promote talks to eliminate any international pressure or criticism.

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Apart from validating mobilization time & getting forces ready, it'll also bring out any more infrastructural/administrative lapses if present so possible remedies can be drawn out.

 

[ace009]

Is this mobilization only for ONE strike force? Or does this involve more than one? Also, how deep is the mobilization from? From Patiala, DehraDun etc to Ambala does not seem that far to me. If they were from Andhra to Punjab, in under 48 hrs, it would be more of an achievement.

 

[sandeepdg]

Is this mobilization only for ONE strike force? Or does this involve more than one? Also, how deep is the mobilization from? From Patiala, DehraDun etc to Ambala does not seem that far to me. If they were from Andhra to Punjab, in under 48 hrs, it would be more of an achievement.

Obviously they will be mobilized from the assets closest to the place where the exercise will take place. See the article carefully
" The two-week exercise, Vajra Prahar, will involve the Ambala-based 2 strike corps, besides elements from the Patiala-based 1 armoured division, Meerut-based 22 division and Dehra Dun-based 14 division, also called Rapids" .
All these locations are not far from the regions where the exercises will take place. Moving men may not be a huge deal, but what I am interested to know is whether they can move all the heavy artillery and armor to these locations in 48 hours. We have to see what happens.

 

[ZOOM]

Wow, very thrilled to see Indian Army looking to carry out drill of mobilizing itself within 48 hours to the border areas of Pakistan. Perhaps, I for one must look forward to see IA mobilizing itself withing similar timeframe towards Tibeten border.

I don't want to get into technical details, but one thing for sure, this drill would be very quite affair with no buzz in the country about such activity, and hence it would be highly probable that Army would carry out this drill with some success. As it is entirely army initiative, but during the real crisis, thing will going to be decided by our leaders and hence army should take that point in mind.