The Ukraine war has reached the 28th day and there is no sign , that it may end any time soon.
This war must have jolted many Indian defense experts serving as well as retired who have been for many years saying that under the current geo political environment there cannot be any Conventional war and even if it happens, it is going to be SHORT.
Now that the Ukraine war has broken this mind set, it would be good if Indian Top Brass looks at this reality of a prolonged CONVENTIONAL war a little more seriously.
The following at the cost of reiterating must be kept in mind ;
One. At no stage we must forget that We Have Two inimical powers as Neighbours To Deal With. The Indian military must be prepared to fight a two front Conventional war.
Two. We must keep in mind that Nations undergo turmoil and then bounce back. So, Pakistan also is not likely to remain weak forever and we may in future have to face a resurgent Pakistan. A strong Pakistan will always be dangerous for India.
Three. The current geo – political situation emboldens rogue nations to take recourse to war , like Russia under the autocratic rule of Putin has done. Both Pakistan and China have Govts which are rogue and autocratic in nature.
Four. We may not be able to fill the Quality and Quantity gap with China but can surely integrate our resources like the Ukrainians have done and inflicted heavy losses on Putin’s forces. The Ukrainians have achieved this because of the integration of surveillance systems, hand held anti tank and anti air craft weapon systems. A small force, if appropriately employed and even if it is not carrying sophisticated weapon systems, it can still stop the powerful invader. The Ukrainians have just done that; Mountains offer us this opportunity and We can surely turn any Chinese adventure into a misadventure.
.Five. The Political Leadership must refrain from interfering with Military Plans. The Political leadership must never fall prey to this allurement of dictating military strategy and must allow army Generals a free hand in planning the operations. Although the dictators have traditionally fallen prey to this temptation - like Hitler and this time Putin, and led their respective armies to disastrous consequences. Even our NSA Mr Doval tried his hand at planning a military operation at Pathankot which he was not capable of and messed it up.
Six, The Political Leadership should be wise enough to understand that sycophants will always lead him and the nation to disaster. They must keep sycophants away or else they will feed the Political Boss the kind of information that he wants to hear. It is quite likely that Putin, an autocrat, is now having his back to the wall because he preferred to have only sycophants around.
Last but not the Least, One does not need a stronger Lion to defeat a Lion; even Hundreds of Bees can easily kill a Lion. We may still be far off from achieving self reliance in Def manufacturing and Research and Development but we can surely create thousands of teams which can operate like Bees and sting the Lion to death.