Ajay Banerjee
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 25

Twenty years after the Kargil conflict, the 168-km wide ‘Kargil’ frontage along the Line of Control (LoC) now has the heaviest deployment of artillery guns anywhere in India, sources in the Army said.

India’s war-time lessons have resulted in the addition of an array of artillery guns. This is backed by layered surveillance systems meshed in with the huge increase in manpower and fire capability.India has the ability to station a division of artillery guns. Some are permanently stationed, others can be sent within a few hours, a functionary said, narrating what has changed in 20 years.

Artillery guns played a major role in the Kargil war. Lt Gen VK Narula (retd), former Director General Artillery, says: “Artillery guns can neutralise the enemy positions allowing the ground forces much easier access. This is what exactly happened in Kargil. The guns had pulverised the enemy at all Pakistani positions other than those behind the mountains.”Nuclear-armed neighbours India and Pakistan had fought the war in May-July 1999 along the 168-km Himalayan ridgeline that forms the Mushkoh-Drass-Kargil-Batalik-Turtuk axis of the LoC. An internal study within the Army points to how future wars could be different, asymmetric and dominated by the use of cyber and space assets.

At a national seminar in Mid-July “20 years after Kargil conflict”, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat spoke of two issues — changing character of warfare and transformation of forces. “In these 20 years, character of warfare and its conduct has changed. Cyber and space have changed the dynamics and both will be fiercely contested,” he said.

Another change for India is the ability of surveillance. The existing layers include UAVs, long range sights that look as far as 25 km, and thermal imagers. During winter, aerial sorties are carried out with high resolution cameras that provide live feed into control rooms. Twenty years ago, the IAF had just Mirage-2000 jets that filmed things in black and white. The tape had to be carried back to the operations room to be studied.

The next addition in this surveillance layer will be ‘quad-copters’ (small drones) and tactical UAVs. Since 1999, the Army has not vacated any posts in those icy heights. Its manpower for the 196-km frontage was a mere ‘3,000’ troops, but now it stands at 12,000 with the ability to airlift acclimatised troops within hours.