By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd) Former Director General of Information Systems, Indian Army

Absence of strategic culture in the Indian politico-bureaucratic combine has failed to capitalise on our Special Forces (SF) being employed optimally in furtherance of our national security interests. Little surprises, more than 63 years down the line from independence, we have neither defined a national security strategy nor our national security objectives despite sundry political statements that India’s areas of strategic interests span the Straits of Malacca, Middle East, Commonwealth of Independent States countries, Indian Ocean Region and the like. Since incomprehension of presentday conflicts and foolhardy policies have led to total drying up of trans-border human intelligence, we rely on New York Times for information that some 11,000 Chinese are engaged in 14 development projects in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

SF have wide applications across the entire conflict spectrum. They are not mere tactical tools in conventional war as we think in India, but are most suited for controlled response along the escalatory ladder in the emerging strategic environment. With ample scope for employment in irregular conflict, terrorism, information, asymmetric and NBC warfare they should be central to asymmetric response, not necessarily engaging in direct physical attacks. The key lies in achieving strategic objectives through application of modest resources with the essential psychological component. Despite China’s renewed aggressiveness, Pakistan’s aggravating radicalisation and terror sponsoring, we fail to acknowledge the immense strategic value of irregular or asymmetric forces and have not created requisite deterrence to asymmetric threats. Inability to respond adequately to asymmetric approaches has earned us the label of a ‘soft’ state. Globally, SF are deployed abroad incognito but India waits for conventional war other than UN missions and the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) experience. Pakistan’s SSG has been operating in Jammu & Kashmir, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, acknowledging that SF do not create resistance movements but advise, train and assist resistance movements already in existence. United States Special Forces (USSF) operates in some 200 countries today though fighting only in Afghanistan and Iraq. SF can perform diverse yet time critical missions with little or no signatures. Ideal response to asymmetric threats is adoption of a proactive strategy ensuring prevention of an attack. Indian SF number more than uniformed USSF but have only one-tenth their capabilities. Ignoring valid global norms, we have undertaken rapid expansions, diluting our capabilities. We have no national doctrine or philosophy for employment of SF, no institutionalised integration and no institutionalised synergised intelligence infrastructures.

SF must be continuously employed to shape the battlefield; conventional wars in nuclear backdrop to asymmetric and fourth generation wars. Their employment should be theatre specific and as force multipliers to complement tasks performed by conventional forces, entailing high risk and high gain missions having minimum visibility with desired effect. Shaping the battlefield is a continuous process covering the entire spectrum of conflict including in peace time as well. They must primarily look beyond our borders to nip asymmetric threats in the bud and to control the fault lines of our adversaries. Well-manned, well-equipped, well-trained, psychologically motivated SF capable of projecting a nation’s power is one of the force multipliers of power play. They must be nurtured for full conflict spectrum capability. For rapid decision-making and coherent response to non-traditional challenges, we need a well worked out strategy for their employment, establishment of a unified command and control structure at the highest level, secure and seamless communication, enhanced interagency coordination for intelligence gathering, sharing and establishment of a national interagency intelligence database, etc. SF are a vital element of national power, possessing enormous freedom of action and should be fruitfully employed to successfully meet the future challenges.