National Security
Security across the borders with the neighbouring countries is a matter of great importance for any nation and its government. A nation may have certain disputes about the borders with its neighbours. In case of a nation that is surrounded by one or more nations that are hostile towards it, the security at the borders is of paramount importance. Insurgency across the borders and possibility of any hostile action is a matter of continuous concern for such a nation and therefore warrants a state of high degree of preparedness; considering any possibility of war at any time. In the event a nation is required to respond to any hostile action, it must possess the ability to quickly and effectively execute its Defence mechanism; and quickly mobilise its forces to neutralise such hostile action, lest it suffer defeat, humiliation and disgrace at the hands of its enemy. It is therefore imperative that a nation is constantly aware of the ever evolving situation across its borders.
Every nation needs to be in a state of preparedness at all times-including times of peace. In fact, the nation can ill afford to be complacent during the times of peace and must make the most of such time to enhance its strategic and tactical capabilities- men, arms, ammunition, equipment, logistics and state of preparedness in general. The government and Defence forces of such a nation need to be aware of comparative strengths and weaknesses of itself vis-a-vis the enemy nation/s and the Defence capabilities must be continually upgraded considering the technological changes.
Principles of war are the strategic rules and the guiding principles that the government and Defence forces of a nation need to follow, for strategic planning of its Defence capabilities during the times of war and peace.
Defence forces – Structure
The Defence forces of a nation comprise of 3 wings- Army, Air force and Navy, except for a land locked nation that would not have a navy. These wings in turn consist of various sub-units, broadly explained hereunder:
Besides, each wing also has training, administration and accounts units.
All the wings of the Defence forces are equally important and must act in a coordinated manner. However, in certain areas, given the geographic and natural attributes, one of the wings may have a greater role to play in the Defence mechanism.
In a campaign, all the units must be involved to ensure that the nation has complete control and supremacy over its terrestrial, air and maritime areas and must be in a position to deny the enemy of any leeway to breach these defenses.
Intelligence Agency
An intelligence agency is an integral part of the nation‟s Defence services, which though an independent unit, operates in close coordination with all the three wings. An efficient intelligence agency plays a critical role (as critical as the forces themselves if not more) in the national security system
While no nation openly admits the existence of its intelligence personnel in another nation, friendly or otherwise, the personnel are active under various clandestine dispensations (including business or commercial enterprises) and operate in a stealthy manner. Some staff member/s at the embassy in another nation (particularly an inimical nation), may be secretly operating as intelligence staff but largely the intelligence personnel operate in innocuous roles in the target nation.
The intelligence unit plays a very vital role, particularly in gathering the critical information of the Defence capabilities and proposed actions, if any, of another nation/s that may be perceived as a threat to its own defenses. A superior intelligence agency enables its Defence forces to be forewarned of potential designs of the inimical nation, so as to be able to effectively pre-empt or counter such devious actions.
Besides the centralised intelligence agency/ies, each of the Defence forces has its own intelligence mechanism through formal and informal channels. The informal channels rely on the information available with the locals to a great extent and such informal intelligence plays an important role for the forces to plan their actions. These very meticulously cultivated channels are equally useful during the times of peace and war alike.
Arms and ammunition
The weapons and armory systems possessed by a nation is extremely important from the Defence perspective. No nation can afford to fight with old outdated arms and ammunition. Hence, strong research and development capabilities for continuous upgrade and improvement of the arms and ammunitions as well as facilities for manufacturing these being internally available is extremely critical. A nation must, therefore, invest heavily in building these capabilities, else the nation has to depend on external entities; making its Defence capabilities vulnerable to the actions of such entities and powers that be. Adequacy and availability or otherwise of latest and contemporary weapons can tilt the balance of power during the war, in favour or against a nation.
In addition to the traditional armaments, being armed with nuclear weapons strongly enhances the Defence capabilities of a nation. Availability of guided missiles- land to land (short range, medium range, long range and intercontinental ICBM), land to air, air to air, air to land/water and underwater guided missiles have now become an integral part of Defence forces of all major nations.
The Men- backbone of the Defence forces
It is said that the man behind the machine is more important than the machine itself. Many a battles exemplify and prove the above adage beyond any reasonable doubt. The leadership, integrity, courage, velour, competence, commitment, determination and perseverance of men really define the efficiency of the forces. The confidence of the Defence personnel that the nation unequivocally supports them at all times, leads to building of a strong force. The Defence personnel deserve the greatest of respect and every citizen of the nation is duty bound to treat them with the respect they deserve, with utmost sincerity.
The men need to be selected, trained, groomed and looked after in an effective manner to ensure the superiority of the national Defence forces. Protecting and supporting the families of the Defence personnel is an obligation of the nation and every citizen.
Principles of war
The principles of war are a set of strategic and tactical actions, parameters for measuring success or failures of the actions, corrective measures that need to be taken based on the progress of war and ensuring the national paradigm of security. These are summarised as under:
1. Objective of war-selection and maintenance of aim
2. Offensive warfare
3. Surprise
4. Security and secrecy
5. Mass and economy of force
6. Maneuverability and flexibility of forces- Men and Machines
7. Timing and Tempo
8. Unity of Command
9. Simplicity
10. Logistics- Support and supply
11. Cohesion, Coordination, Cooperation (between different wings of forces) and Combative Spirit-maintaining high morale of troops
The above principles will be discussed in detail in the subsequent chapters.
Objective
The most basic principle for success in any military operation is a clear and concise statement of a „realistic‟ objective and anticipated time to achieve it. It defines:
the intended purpose of the war
What is proposed to be accomplished
By when
The objective can be classified into „Macro‟ and „Micro‟ level objective/s. The overall objective of the nation, stated or unstated, is the Macro objective whereas the operational level objectives are micro level objectives, which when successfully accomplished lead to the accomplishment of the Macro objective.
Macro Objective
The macro objective of a nation could be to expand its territorial boundaries or to defend its own territory from being encroached upon. The examples of such objectives are under:
During the 6 day Israel-Arab war of 1967, the objective of the Israeli forces was to defend its territories against a combined attack by the surrounding Arab nations. As opposed to this the objective of Pakistan in the first ever Indo-Pak war immediately post-independence, was to forcibly occupy the state of Kashmir that had signed the treaty of accession to become part of India; under the garb of „liberating‟ Kashmir. (It is true that the official Pakistan defence forces were not engaged in the war, but by a „proxy‟ Kabayali Pathan warriors.) The stated Indian objective during the 1965 Indo –Pak war, the first official Indo-Pak war, was to defend its territory, the unstated objective- to recapture the occupied Kashmir from Pakistan.
Micro Objective/s
The macro objective is achieved by a series of campaigns that are successfully accomplished. A war consists of many battles and a combination of operations, each one of which must have a clear and realistic objective. All such micro objectives when successfully achieved lead to accomplishment of the overall Macro objective.
Examples: during the 6 day Israel-Arab War, Israel had meticulously planned attacks by its air force on the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian air forces to achieve supremacy in air and incapacitate them from attacking the Israeli territories.
These were supplemented by action by Israeli infantry and artillery against the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian ground forces. Each of these actions were dictated by specific objective for each battle and successful accomplishment of all of these lead to Israeli forces comprehensively defeating the combined Arab forces.
