Military Operations in Urban Areas: The Indian Experience

2004

SYNERGY, 2013

How do countries transition from single service to joint operations? This article engages with the discussion on military innovation to argue that civil–military relations are the most important driver for jointness. In doing so it examines jointness in the Indian military. Relying on archival research and primary interviews this article sheds new light on the operations of the Indian Peacekeeping Forces (IPKF) in Sri Lanka from 1987–1990, the 1999 Kargil War and the Post-Kargil defence reforms. The main argument is that the Indian military’s transition to jointness has been ‘incomplete’ primarily because of its prevailing model of civil-military relations. This model prevents civilians from interfering in the operational issues of the military, including on matters pertaining to jointness. It therefore recommends more forceful civilian intervention to overcome the prevailing single service approach.

2011

Proceedings 2023, 2023

The general trend of urbanization at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century coincides with an increase in armed conflicts between military formations in urban areas. Weaker armed forces tend to draw stronger armed forces into the closed environment of urban areas to mitigate the effects of their weaknesses in human and material resources. Stronger armed forces express their desire to bypass and avoid the development of armed conflicts in urban areas. On the other hand, when the operational situation requires an armed conflict to develop inside urban areas, the stronger armed forces show a tendency to disproportionately use all their material and human superiority causing damage or destruction of facilities and infrastructure systems of urban areas, and this leads to the suffering of the civilian population. The characteristics of urban areas influence contemporary armed conflicts to manifest themselves differently compared to areas like forests, flat lands, mountains, and others. By applying the method of analysis of the content of the document, it was established that the basic characteristics of urban areas: built objects for housing and business, communal infrastructure, and the presence of permanent residents, have an impact on the basic characteristics of armed conflicts: multidimensionality, precision, non-linearity in time and space of execution, distributed content, simultaneity in action, integration of forces, interoperability and the need to respect international humanitarian law in the use of military force.

This book chapter looks into India’s civil-military relations and its impact on India’s military effectiveness. It discusses the theory of civil-military relations and identifies that while Huntington’s ‘objective control’ best describes civil-military relations in India, it does not, contrary to Huntington’s claim, maximize military effectiveness. Borrowing from Risa Brook’s approach, the author analyses Indian military effectiveness by examining its four crucial determinants—weapons procurement, defence planning, integration and human resource development. He argues that the current structure of civil-military relations, more accurately described as an ‘absent dialogue’, has an adverse impact on its military effectiveness. While the Indian state has acknowledged some of these problems and has made some attempts at defence reforms, more forceful political intervention is required.

2015

How do conceptions of war drive defense and military reform? Most commentators have observed for the past decade that the paradigm of war is shifting. However, what the “new paradigm” is, and how force structure, doctrine and operations should evolve to meet this new paradigm is less clear. The Indian security community has had a lively debate about defense reforms since the 1999 Kargil War. Interventional events have been closely watched in India, including the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Russia’s interventions in Georgia and Ukraine. Of critical importance to India are events closer to home, like the 2008 Mumbai Terrorist attacks, the on-going Naxal insurgency, instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the rise of China. For decades the focus of the Indian military was clear: maintain a conventional advantage over Pakistan, secure India’s contested borders, and assist domestic security forces with internal conflicts and violence. 1 Recently, new issues and threats have...

ORF Issue Brief No 525, 2022

A nation-state-with its numerous institutions, actors, and daily interactions-is a complex system and it is a tall task to predict the future trajectory of any of its subsystems such as the armed forces. What is certain, though, is that every sovereign state aims to have a military that is of the highest possible calibre. One of two paths may be chosen to achieve this goal: tying-in the military's capability development with the economic performance of the state, or the military developing enabling and cross-cutting capabilities that are relatively independent of the fluctuations in the country's economic fortunes. A future-ready force need not necessarily be funding-or resource-intensive; the imperative is a smart approach to its threat environment and the ways to mitigate it. The future of warfare seems to be shifting towards non-contact and information operations, supplemented by limited actions in the physical domain. India needs to be oriented, prepared and equipped to fight this kind of conflict.

International Review of the Red Cross, 2010

Armies have traditionally avoided cities and siege operations. Fighting for and in cities is costly, slow, and often inconclusive. But sometimes they are unavoidable, either because they are located on main road or rail junctions or because of their value as political and/or economic prizes. Urban expansion in both north and south has made cities today the main theatres of military and humanitarian operations.Armies' structures, equipment, and doctrines are undergoing a process of adaptation. Manoeuvre has given way to fire power and protection for the troops as the decisive elements of military power. While heavy fire power does considerable damage and causes civilians to flee their homes, operations using protection techniques are only suitable for stabilization. Moreover, their success depends essentially on the willingness of troops to make sacrifices, and on support from the public.

The Round Table

This article gives an overview of the state of the Indian military by assessing its overall performance, current debates, and future challenges. While doing so it covers three main subjects-the role of the military in nation-building, contemporary challenges, and defence reforms. This covers a wide range of issues, from the military's historical role-in wars and domestic counter-insurgencies, current threats, and missions to preparing for the future. In the penultimate section, it describes debates on defence reforms and military transformation triggered by the creation in 2019 of the post of Chief of Defence staff. It concludes with an overview of state-military relations and identifies some areas for future research.