Kargil war ushered in sweeping military reforms
The war had a significant impact on India’s strategic thinking and forced the country’s leadership to take a holistic look at the national security architecture
Twenty-five years after the Indian Army rewrote the rules of mountain warfare and beat astonishing odds to eject a treacherous foe from the dizzying heights occupied by it in the Kargil sector a few months after the signing of the Lahore peace declaration, the focus is back on how the military has transformed since the turn of the century, weeded out its vulnerabilities, and sharpened its readiness to deter its adversaries.
As the country prepares to celebrate a milestone anniversary of the 1999 Kargil war with Pakistan on July 26, what has also unquestionably returned to the spotlight is the bold leadership of commanders in the combat zone, and the courage, resilience and sacrifice of the young men they fearlessly led.
Hard lessons were learnt from the war and the events that led to it, and there’s no question of a repeat of a Kargil-like misadventure by Pakistan, military affairs experts said, pointing to the overhaul of India’s intelligence set-up, far-reaching military reforms, sharpened focus on the modernisation of the armed forces, and vastly improved border management.
Several steps taken to tighten security came on the back of a report by a Group of Ministers (GoM) set up by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in April 2000 to review the national security system as well as the recommendations made by the K Subrahmanyam-led Kargil Review Committee (KRC) that highlighted yawning deficiencies in the system.
The GoM also backed the appointment of a chief of defence staff (CDS) to provide single-point military advice to the government and enhance jointness in the armed forces, a significant recommendation that was on the back-burner for years before the government finally cleared it in 2019 and appointed General Bipin Rawat as India’s first CDS.
The Kargil war, though limited in geography and scale, had a significant impact on India’s strategic thinking, and it forced the country’s leadership to take a holistic look at the national security architecture, said former Northern Army commander Lieutenant General DS Hooda (retd).
“The KRC and the GoM reports were the most comprehensive examination of national security issues. This led to a restructuring of the intelligence setup in India to bring in greater cooperation between intelligence agencies. It also led to the raising of HQ Integrated Defence Staff, the Andaman and Nicobar Command, and the Strategic Forces Command.” he said.
The creation of the Defence Intelligence Agency in 2002 and the technical intelligence gathering agency, National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) in 2004, were among the key outcomes.
On the ground in the Kargil sector, the gaps in deployment that led to an undetected intrusion were filled by placing a mountain division in an area that only had a brigade and a new Corps HQ came up in Ladakh to improve the command and control, Hooda said.
The limited war, India’s fifth, was fought in the summer of 1999 along a 170km mountain frontier, stretching from Mashkoh Valley to Turtuk in the Kargil sector, after thousands of Pakistani intruders exploited gaps in Indian defences and sneaked across the Line of Control (LoC) to capture several commanding heights, with some of them offering a sweeping view of the strategic Srinagar-Leh highway.
“Today, a repeat of Kargil, where large-scale incursions occur, is not possible on LoC,” said Hooda.
“However, one lesson we need to continuously reinforce is that irrespective of what is happening bilaterally at the political and diplomatic level, the Indian military must always keep its guard up. Even as the Lahore summit was being held between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan in February 1999, Pakistan soldiers were crossing the LoC in Kargil.”
The need to remain vigilant equally applies to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, he said. The military standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh is now in its fifth year, with no indication of an immediate resolution even as India is hoping that ongoing negotiations with the neighbour will help restore the status quo ante of April 2020.
Things have totally changed during the last 25 years because of a significant increase in force levels, induction of new equipment and technologies, and a laser focus on intelligence, said Lieutenant General YK Joshi, a former Northern Army commander and Kargil war hero. He was awarded the Vir Chakra, India’s third-highest wartime gallantry honour, for his heroism and leadership in the difficult battle to recapture the strategically important and towering feature, Point 5140, in the Dras sector.
Young and indomitableJoshi’s unit, 13 Jammu & Kashmir Rifles, secured a morale-boosting win on June 20 that was one of the turning points in the war. The other hard-fought victories that turned the tide of the war in Kargil included the daring recapture of Tololing, Tiger Hill, Point 4875, Khalubar, Point 4812 and Chorbat La.
“The indomitable fighting spirit, the grit, the determination and the resolve of our troops during the Tololing–Point 5140 battle made everyone among the civil and military leadership in New Delhi realise that we could do it,” General VP Malik, who was the army chief during the war, wrote after retirement in his book Kargil: From Surprise to Victory.
The war, in which 527 Indian soldiers were killed in action, gave birth to a new generation of Indian heroes -- Captain Vikram Batra, Lieutenant Manoj Kumar Pandey, Grenadier Yogendra Yadav and Rifleman Sanjay Kumarall of whom were awarded the country’s highest wartime honour, the hallowed Param Vir Chakra.
The pantheon includes Majors Vivek Gupta, Rajesh Adhikari, Sonam Wangchuk and Padmapani Acharya, Captains Neikezhakuo Kenguruse and Anuj Nayyar, and Lieutenants Balwan Singh and Keishing Clifford Nongrum, who were all decorated with Maha Vir Chakra, Indian’s number two wartime medal.
Batra, Pandey, Gupta, Adhikari, Acharya, Kenguruse, Nayyar and Nongrum didn’t return from the battlefield. Operation Vijay, India’s code name for the war, accounted for four of the 21 PVCs awarded in India’s military history. There is no definitive account of Pakistan Army casualties, but different estimates peg the number between a few hundred and a few thousand.
At 19, Tiger Hill hero Yadav became the youngest recipient of PVC. Whether it was Yadav riddled with 15 bullets but still persevering with the mission or Batra’s iconic victory slogan “Yeh Dil Maange More” that thrust the Pepsi tagline into the national consciousness or Kenguruse who kicked his boots off for a better grip to climb a rock face at 16,000 feet and -10 degrees Celsius, the unbreakable spirit and fortitude of the Kargil heroes at the tip of the spear rocketed them to cult status.
“We won the war because of our youngsters,” said Joshi.
“The brave soldiers and officers stared death in the face and pulled off some nearly impossible missions. Their heroism and sacrifice is unmatched. It was India’s first televised war and some of the iconic images from the war zone will stay etched in the public mind,” he said.
Early setbacksThe Indian Army’s initial sluggish response to Pakistan’s Operation Badr ruthlessly exposed a series of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance failures, gaps in defences and lapses in command and control.
The army’s 121 (Independent) Infantry Brigade responsible for guarding the sector was oblivious to the looming threat posed by the battle-ready intruders, a mix of Pakistan army regulars and Mujahideen, until a local herder alerted a unit (3 Punjab) deployed in the Batalik sector.
Tashi Namgyal of Garkon village was looking for a missing yak when he unwittingly spotted the Pakistani infiltrators on a mountain top on May 3, becoming an unlikely entry in the war’s timeline stretching almost three months. In the days that followed Namgyal’s accidental discovery, it was clear to the army leadership that a war was in the making and recapturing the dominating positions would take blood, sweat and tears.
The Indian soldiers weren’t well equipped, a point emphasised by Malik at a media briefing on June 23. In response to a question on the glaring shortcomings, he ominously said, “We shall fight with whatever we have.”
“When the Kargil war began, it was not the vintage but the deficiencies of weapons, equipment, ammunition and spares that worried us more. Even infantry weapons such as medium machine-guns, rocket launchers and mortars, apart from signal equipment, bulletproof jackets and snow clothing for high-altitude warfare, were in short supply,” he wrote in his book, which captures the layered realties of the war.
Urgent action helped fix some of the deficiencies as the war rumbled on.
The Indian Air Force’s role in crushing the enemy cannot be overstated.
After the PM-headed Cabinet Commitee on Security authorised the use of air power on the Indian side of LoC on May 25, IAF launched a deadly wave of airstrikes on positions held by the Pakistan army, including the administrative and logistics base at Muntho Dhalo in the Batalik sector and a battalion headquarters atop Tiger Hill, dealing a crippling blow to the enemy’s war effort and somewhat easing the Indian Army’s advance.
Military rebootThe military is a rebooted force, and its capabilities are no longer in question, said a senior army officer, who asked not to be named. “The three services have inducted new weapons, systems and technologies at a staggering speed during the last 10 to 15 years. We have strengthened our military posture with new fighter jets, a variety of helicopters, transport planes, missiles, warships, submarines, artillery guns, surveillance systems, drones. radars and other modern equipment. Indigenisation is also in full swing,” he added.
To be sure, the induction of more fighters, mid-air refuellers, airborne early warning and control systems, submarines, light tanks and artillery gun systems is still a work in progress. So is theaterisation, a long-awaited reform for the best use of the military’s resources to fight future wars.
“For a moment, let’s look at what has been done. There’s been a remarkable technology infusion that allows gap-free surveillance of our borders. Modern weapons and systems have sharpened our combat edge. We have turned the corner on infrastructure development. We’ve come a long way,” said Joshi.
India will celebrate the landmark Kargil Vijay Diwas in the shadow of tensions with China in Ladakh and a resurgence of Pakistan-backed terror in the Jammu region.
Keeping the powder dry is the only option.