New Delhi, April 06: In a move that has the potential to stoke fresh tension between the two nations, India and Pakistan armies have begun preparations to conduct wargames, practically within shouting range of each other.
According to a report published in a leading English daily on Tuesday, the military wargames, to be held later this month, will involve thousands of troops, aiming to test offensive strategies in the event of an armed conflict with the other side and will have active participation of their respective air forces.
The Indian Army will launch its month-long wargames in mid-April in the Thar Desert. Codenamed as ‘Yodha Shakti’, the games will involve one of its three principal ‘strike’ formations, the Mathura-based 1 Corps.
The Indian Army’s exercise under the Jaipur-based South Western Command will be held in the Pokhran ranges and it aims to validate battle concepts of the mechanised troops of the Strike Corps and also involving the close air support to be provided by the Indian Air Force’s fighter aircraft and attack helicopters.
The exercise would test out the troops’ ability to carry on the battle under darkness, particularly its T-72 and T-90 tanks and infantry combat vehicles, as 80% of the mechanized vehicles suffer from night blindness, a fact admitted by former Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor in his annual press conference January this year.
The troops would simulate enemy forces and a battle scenario would be tried out to see how the formations perform in both holding territory and in carrying out surgical strikes deep inside enemy territory, apart from capturing and destroying strategic assets of the enemy.
Around the same time – from April 10 to May 13 – Pakistan will also conduct its ‘Azm-e-Nau-III’ (new resolve) exercise, described as its biggest wargames in two decades, to train for a conventional war with India. The manoeuvres will be held near the border in the country’s Punjab and Sindh provinces – close to Rajasthan’s Thar Desert.
Pakistan’s massive military drill Azm-e-Nau-III will mobilise 20,000 troops in the beginning, rising to 40,000 to 50,000 towards the end, according to reports.
Pakistan is already conducting a large Air Force war game of its own, under which the use of ground troops is envisaged during the last phase.
–Agencies