NEW DELHI: Future wars will be fought as integrated battles amplified by highly sophisticated military strategy says Lt-Gen A.S. Kalkat general officer commanding in chief of the Army Training Command.
In a paper “The Gulf war a reappraisal” published in the latest edition of the prestigious United Services Institution Magazine Gen Kalkat says that future wars would comprise four stages.
The preparatory stage consisting of deployment of Surveillance and intelligence capabilities that second stage of use of high technology force multipliers using aircraft attack helicopters long range surface to surface missiles and guided weapons systems for degradation of potential targets predesigned.
And then the stage of destruction involving launching of ground forces to swiftly move across the borders and destroy the degraded enemy forces and the concluding stage of consolidation and regrouping which the former IPKF commander says would be heavily influenced by the postures of the international community and political objectives of the victors.
Saying that the Gulf war had contemporary lessons for all the standing armies of the world General Kalkat says the war had proved the effectiveness of electronic warfare and Stealth technology.
The general says that Gulf war had shown increasing readiness of the United Nations Security Council to quickly condemn aggression a ready will to enforce it resolutions politically economically and militarily reinforced by the ability of the leading industrialized states to forge unilateral economic and military sanctions into “multinational decisions.”
He said another emerging tend after the Gulf war was that of the threat of political and economic isolation and a trend to regard internal conflict in a state as an international concern. He cites the examples of Tiananmen Square incident the nationality issue in the erstwhile Soviet Union and the Serb-Croat conflict in Yugoslavia and alleged state repression Iraq.
He says another new trend was that of targeting of a country’s industrial infrastructure which can support nuclear or missile development program as against the earlier practice of targeting industries sustaining of on-going war.
Another major factor thrown up by the allies’ spectacular victory in the Gulf war was the use of media for propaganda during the war which had brought about a new relationship between military interests and wider international political considerations he says.
On the conduct of the war itself Gen. Kalkat says that while President George Bush set clear cut political goals and objectives he designated the military commander in the person of General Powell to execute the decisions. “The Viemam era national command authority was replaced by the commander in chief.
Another major factor was the advantage given to combat experience he says.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 24, 1992
