User:Sterling Saini/sandbox/Modernization of the Indian Military

The Military Modernisation Program of the Indian Military is a process that began in the late 90's, where the Indian Armed Forces started to replace their legacy systems after the knowledge gained from the Kargil War. Furthermore, it refers to the change in India's military doctrine, from the Sundarji Doctrine to the Cold Start after India's experiences in Operation Parakram. The process reflects a change in India's military strategy, and a shift from imported equipment to home-manufactured equipment, especially due to the Make in India program.

Change in Doctrine
The Indian Army, from the 1980's until 2001, used the Sundarji Doctrine. Created by General K Sundarji, this involved a 'holding corps' and a 'strike corps.' The doctrine assumed Pakistan would make the first strike, and India would have to retaliate. 7 infantry heavy 'holding corps' would stay on the border and check a Pakistani advance, while 3 'strike corps,' consisting of amour and mechanised infantry, would come from central India and advance into Pakistan.

However, the problems with the Sundarji Doctrine were exposed after the 2001 Indian Parliament Attack, where tensions between India and Pakistan increased dramatically. India, in response to the attacks, begun massing troops along the border with Pakistan. Up to 500,000 troops were mobilised by India, but in the time taken (27 days), Pakistan was able to counter-mobilizer and deploy 300,000 troops on the border with India. An analysis of the doctrine by Indian Army officials found out that the doctrine had 3 major problems: That the size of the strike force made maneuverability difficult, the lack of surprise by the Indian military (which allowed Pakistan time to prepare for war), and the lack of offensive firepower made offensive operations limited. Pakistan conducted several nuclear weapons tests during the tense standoff, and Pakistani nuclear weapons were deployed as well as Indian ones. It was not helped that Pakistan did not have a 'no-first use' doctrine, meaning that Pakistan would, as said by President Pervez Musharraf, 'respond with full might' if provoked by India.

In response, the Indian Army began developing a doctrine known as Cold Start to combat the problems with the Sundarji Doctrine. As compared to the previous doctrine, Cold Start was a limited warfare doctrine, involving overwhelming firepower from the India side coupled with support from the Air Force and the Navy. It would involve limited, rapid, armoured thrusts with necessary air support. The aim was to "establish the capacity to launch a retaliatory conventional strike against Pakistan that would inflict significant harm on the Pakistan Army before the international community could intercede, and at the same time, pursue narrow enough aims to deny Islamabad a justification to escalate the clash to the nuclear level"

In May 2011, India launched Operation Vijayee Bhava ("Be Victorious"), a defence exercise involving 50,000 troops in Bikaner and Suratgarh near the border with Pakistan to boost the synergy between the various branches of the armed forces.

The main objective of the operation was to cut down the mobilisation time of the military. The response time was shortened from 1 month to 48 hours. Exercises aimed at reducing mobilization time and improved network-centric warfare capabilities have contributed to the development of the doctrine.

Weapon Modernisation
The Indian Armed Forces has embarked on a program to modernise all its outdated weapons systems. This involves the integration of several systems, from different sources, to improve network-centric warfare and the replacement of older weapons systems. Furthermore, it involves the integration of indigenous systems to replace several imported and license produced systems - an example being the HAL Tejas replacing the MiG-21Bis ons.

The Kargil War found that Indian's Hawker Hunter