Operation Brasstacks

Operation Brasstacks was a codename of a major military exercise of the Indian Army in Rajasthan state of India, that took place in 1986 until its execution in 1987.

As part of a series of exercise to stimulate the operational capabilities of Indian army, it was the major and largest troop mobilizations of Indian army in the Indian subcontinent. Operation Brasstacks was tasked with two objectives, with initial goal was the deployment of ground troops. The other objective was to conduct series of amphibious assault exercises of Indian Navy near at the Pakistan naval vicinity border. Operation Brasstacks involved numbers of infantry, mechanized, air assault divisions, and 400,000 army personnel who were massed up within 100 miles of Pakistan. An amphibious assault group of Indian Navy was planned and deployed near at the Korangi Creek of Karachi Division of Pakistan. However, the most important aim of this war game was to determine tactical nuclear strategy, overseen by the Indian Army.

The military strategists of the Pakistan Military regarded this war game as a threatening exhibition of overwhelming conventional force, and the most critical moment in foreign relations between India and Pakistan. The Pakistan military strategists even viewed this war game as reprisal of nuclear war. The Global Security.org characterized Operation Brasstacks "bigger than any NATO exercise - and the biggest since World War II". Even as today, the Pakistan military analysts and strategists regarded this as "blitzkrieg-like" integrated deep offensive strategy to infiltrate in dense areas of Pakistan, but on the other hand, India maintained that "core objective of Operation Brasstacks was to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support devised by Indian army.

Indian Strategic overview
After the 1971 conflict, the Indian Army had been long advocating for practicing the modern methods of land-based warfare and professionalism. The Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, an officer who earlier had commanded the infantry division in East Pakistan war, threw himself into the Indian Army's modernisation activities. He was granted permission, and ordered the large scale military exercise to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support. He issued ordered mobilize the mechanized and armoured divisions, and armed tanks were sent to take position in the Thar desert. In December 1986, with more than a thousand armoured vehicles spread across its western desert, India launched the final stage of a huge military exercise that has stirred new tensions with Pakistan.

The scale of the operation was bigger than any NATO exercise and the biggest land exercise since World War II. Initially, around 150,000-400,000 troops were mobilized and stationed Rajasthan state's western border, about less than 100 miles away from Pakistan. The commander of the Indian Army's Western Command, Lieutenant General P.N. Hoon, maintained that, "Operation Brasstacks was a mobilization of the entire army of India."

The magnitude and large scale direction of the exercise led to Pakistan fears that India was displaying an overwhelming conventional superiority and was planning to invade Pakistan, and dismember it by surgical strikes, as it did with East Pakistan during the Indo-Pak 1971 Winter war. According to General Hoon's memoirs, a letter was directed to Sundarji by Western Command, arguing that "when such a large exercise is conceived", the movement of Indian forces is going to attract the attention of Pakistan. General Hoon maintained that, General Sundarji did not inform Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi about the scale of the operation and such details were hidden to him. Hoon also wrote in his memoir: "Brasstacks was no military exercise. It was a plan to build up the situation for a fourth war with Pakistan." Indian scholar, Paul Kapur further argues that during the Operation Brasstacks, Indian army persuaded multiple times, but unsuccessfully, to attack Pakistan.

"Brasstacks was no military exercise. It was a plan to build up a situation for a fourth war with Pakistan. And, what is even more shocking is that the Prime Minister, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, was not aware of these plans."

It is theorised by author Robert Art and others that the Brasstacks crises has been that it was an accidental crises, caused by Pakistan's misinterpretation inadvertently provocative Indian Army's exercise, and then move to a large scale war with Pakistan. General Sunderji's strategy was to provoke Pakistan's response and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to offensive against Pakistan and take out its atomic bomb projects in a preventive strikes.

Pakistan strategic response
After the success of the Israeli Air Force's air strike on Iraqi nuclear power plant in Osirak in 1981, Pakistan Armed Forces had been alerted since then. According to memoirs of nuclear strategist and theorist Munir Ahmad Khan, the hectic discussion took place every day between ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs, in an amid fears that India might attack Pakistan who was en route to become subsequent nuclear power. Since 1981, the commanders of the Pakistan's unified armed forces were given the standing orders to mobilize their forces at once, from all directions, as quick as it can to divert such attacks.

When the Brasstacks was operationalized, Pakistan quickly responded with maneuvers of its unified forces, first mobilized the entire V Corps and then the Southern Air Command, near the Indian state of Punjab. Within weeks, the Pakistan Navy's combat ships and submarines were deployed for the purposes of the intelligence management, at the northern Arabian sea. The Government of Pakistan viewed this exercise as a direct threat to Pakistan's physical existence. This included the further orders to deploy entire Armoured Corps with the V Corps to move to the front lines. By mid-January 1987, the unified armed forces and Indian Army personnel stood within firing range along an extended border area. The Foreign Office of Pakistan summoned Indian ambassador to Pakistan, S.K. Singh, on midnight, to meet with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Zain Noorani who had just returned from an emergency meeting with President Zia-ul-Haq. Noorani commenced to Indian Embassy that he had an important message from President Zia. Noorani officiated to Singh that in the event of violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity by India, Pakistan was "capable of inflicting unacceptable damage on it." When Singh asked Noorani whether this implied an [atomic] attack on Bombay, Noorani replied: "it might be so".

In order to remind the Indian Armed Forces of the possible repercussions of war with Pakistan General Zia-ul-Haq famously said: "If your [Indian Armed] Forces cross our [Pakistan] borders by even an inch, we are going to annihilate your cities", indicating that if necessary, Pakistanis will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons, as first strike policy, in order to defend their motherland. Many defence analysts saw this statement as the first real, although subtle, confirmation of Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons and discouraged an Indian invasion of Pakistan's territory. By mid-January, both the Indian army and the Pakistan armed forces were facing each other on the frontiers. The situation could have potentially lead to a war between a de facto nuclear weapon state (India—who had already conducted a nuclear test in 1974 codename Smiling Buddha) and a state, although nuclear power, was believed to be developing nuclear weapons at that time (Pakistan).

1987 Pakistan atomic alert
On January 1987, Pakistan had put its entire nuclear installations on "high-alert", and the crisis atmosphere was heightened. The PAF's aircraft were equipped with miniature atomic bombs and given standing orders-await by air chief marshal Anwar Shamim to take air sortie on regular basis. During this time, Abdul Qadeer Khan gave an interview to Indian diplomat, Kuldip Nayar in which he made it clear that "Pakistan would use its atomic weapons if its existence was threatened; although he later denied having made such a statement. The Indian diplomats claimed that their diplomats in Islamabad were warned that Pakistan would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if attacked. Pakistan denied the veracity of these statements.

Cricket diplomacy
The tensions diminished on March 1987, with an agreement by the two nations to withdraw 150,000 troops in the Kashmir area, followed by a second agreement to withdraw more troops in the desert area was also signed the same month. While negotiating the withdrawal accord, India vowed to proceed with Brasstacks, asserting that Pakistan had no reason to feel provoked. But India did delay the beginning of the last stage of the operation until the following week, while the latest withdrawal agreement was being negotiated. To prove its intentions were peaceful, India took the unusual step of inviting diplomats and journalists to observe the operation separately. The Pakistani foreign service officers, senior diplomats and statesmen were the ones who were invited. According to an unnamed Western diplomat, who maintained that "This was not a third-world army. This was a modern army, fully competent for any mission, easily as good as the Chinese, the Koreans or the French."

In 1987, Zia visited India on February 1987, having invited himself to see a cricket match between the two countries. Zia's estimation was that he and Rajiv could meet quite cordially but could not agree on substantive issues. It is widely alleged, at one point Zia leaned over to Rajiv Gandhi and said, "If your forces cross our border by an inch, we are going to annihilate your cities." Whether or not he spoke those words, India soon withdrew its army. Pakistan, and Zia himself later denied such allege statement.

Effects and Legacy
According to events that played out and stance taken by the Indian army, Operation Brasstacks was only an exercise and not supposed to be a provocative one. The media, particularly the western media, was involved after this and intense diplomatic manoeuvres followed preventing any further escalation in hostilities. On multiple occasions, General Sunderji maintained that: "This was, is and always has been a training exercise. I can't answer why there have been misperceptions about it in some quarters." India repeatedly charged Pakistan with its continuing scientific research on atomic bombs, which Pakistan sharply continued to reject the claims. A few days later, dr. A.Q. Khan also reject any statements issued regarding the atomic bomb development and since said "his comments were taken out of context."

The real motives behind this controversial military exercise is unknown and unclear. In 1999, former senior commander of Indian Army, Lieutenant-General P.N. Hoon remarked that the operation had mobiled the entire Indian army to Pakistan's eastern border. He further notes that, Operation Brasstacks was a plan to build up a situation for a fourth war with Pakistan. The Western scholars also theorized that Brasstacks crises has been an accidental crises, caused by Pakistan's misinterpretation inadvertently provocative Indian Army's exercise, and then move to a large scale war with Pakistan. Robert Art noted that, "General Sunderji's strategy was to provoke Pakistan's response and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to offensive against Pakistan and take out its atomic bomb projects in a preventive strikes." Even as of today, the Pakistan military analysts and strategists regarded this as "blitzkrieg-like" integrated deep offensive strategy to infiltrate in dense areas of Pakistan. The New York Times noted that India's accelerated drive for military technology, motivated Pakistan to turn its rationale of stockpiling the atomic bombs as a deterrent.