Can India do an operation like the US did in Abbottabad?

 

By Col R Hariharan

Can Indian security forces carry out a special operation like the US SEALS did in Abbottabad?

The US SEALS struck within the backyard of Pak military establishment but in 40 minutes killed the most wanted terrorist of the decade Osama bin Laden. As the TV and other media had a field day covering the operation and its aftermath, the inevitable question why can't India carryout an operation like that to catch any of the 20-odd India's most wanted terrorists hiding in Pakistan was raised.

In answering it we must be realistic; we should not even contemplate such overseas special operations unless we fulfil three basic parameters for their success: strong national leadership with decision making ability as demonstrated by President Obama, realtime intelligence about the target before, during and after the operations, and technical support system including air lift and communication for special forces. I fear at present we do not fulfil any of these three basic parameters.

In this context, I found Lt General Vijay Oberoi's recent article critically examining the problems involved in any such India special opertions very interesting. He should know what he is talking about; after all he had been the Vice Chief of Indian Army. The article brings out the frustrations he faced when he came up with some ideas on making our Special Forces on par with the US SEALS. It is worth a reading; so I am reproducing it below.
 

A US SEALS-LIKE STRIKE MUST MEET AT LEAST 3 PARAMETERS: POLITICAL WILL, KNOWLEDGE OF TARGET AREA AND TARGET, AND FORCE’S CAPABILITY TO ACHIEVE END RESULT  

Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi

    

Once again, Pakistan’s nefarious activities relating to terrorism have been exposed. It is now trying to somehow wriggle out of the monumental expose’ that has followed the shooting down of Osama bin Laden by SEALS of the US Special Forces Command under virtually the nose of the all powerful Pakistani Army. That Pakistan was the epicentre of global as well as regional terrorism was well known to the entire world, especially to India and the United States, but opprobrium for Pakistan is now universal. Pakistan started with its usual ‘denial’ policy but in the face of new revelations, this gave way to threats and brandishing its nuclear sabre, something it always does when it is caught with its hands in the till! It is now in the third stage, as a defiant Prime Minister Gilani has absolved the army and the ISI of any wrongs and instead blamed the Americans and everyone else. Its all-weather friend-China has also given it the thumbs-up signal. 

It is unfortunate that once again Pakistan will get away because neither India nor USA, the two countries with the maximum stake in rooting out terrorism would take any precipitate action, but for entirely different reasons. The US still needs Pakistan to extricate itself with a modicum of pride from Afghanistan, and the DNA of the Indian political leadership is sans ‘pride or prejudice’. This is despite the anger of our populace towards all that the Pakistani’s have done to destabilise India, wantonly killing, destroying and creating panic.  The reaction of our ‘soft’ leadership was predictable; Pakistan has been given yet another reprieve despite its exposure as the perpetrator of terrorism encompassing India as well as other countries.

In this milieu, the media and many analysts do not seem to tire of discussing the pros and cons of launching a similar strike by our Special Force (SF’s).  Before such analyses get completely out of hand, let me point out a few facts. A strike like the one conducted by the US SEAL’s must meet at least three essential parameters. The first is ‘political will’, which we neither have nor apparently want to cultivate! The second is detailed knowledge of the target area as well as the target, which our intelligence agencies have never been able to give; and the third is the capability of the force needed to achieve the desired end state. Our 

SF comes in at the third level.

Hypothetically, even if our political leadership somehow is able to find the necessary ‘will’ and by some miracle the intelligence agencies are able to give ‘actionable’ intelligence, which they have never given in the past, do the defence forces have the kind of forces the US SF employed in taking out Osama?

The Indian Military does have units that are known as SF, but we would be deluding ourselves if we think that they are in the same league as the elite SF of the world, like the Delta Force and the SEAL’s of USA; the SAS and SBS of UK; or the Spetsnaz of Russia.  Notwithstanding this, our SF units are manned by specially selected brave men, who are well trained and have better equipment than other units.  Although their equipment may not be as sophisticated as other elite SF’s, they have the ability and capability to carry out raids of the type that eliminated Osama. Their major weaknesses relate to having no integral helicopters to train for the wide variety of missions they are designed to perform and lack of network centricity that is essential in such missions today. Unfortunately, many overtures for setting up a state of art elite SF unit, mooted by me a number of times did not fructify on account of three reasons - refusal of the Air Force to part with helicopters;  emotional attachment of senior officers to their regiments; and the comfort of the status quo! My detailed recommendation made on combining all SF under a joint Special Forces Command was also scuttled by the Chiefs, as they did not want to lose their SF resources to a joint entity.
                                  
I do hope the Chiefs and other stake holders revisit our SF capability and make our SF as capable and elitist as those of other countries. Today, it has become a dire necessity that can no longer be sacrificed at the altar of expediency and turf considerations.