Could India have pulled it off? A Special Forces Analysis

The world woke up to the news of Osama Bin Laden being killed by American operatives deep within Pakistan, in the affluent suburb of Abbottabad, barely 2 days ago. Operation Neptune's Spear (some say it's Operation Geronimo) was executed clinically on President Obama's orders with no reported casualties on the attacking force's side. I was on a particular forum I frequent and people were bandying about the idea that India (especially India's Naval MARCOS commandos) could have pulled off a similar raid.

Well here's a little excerpt from the rather lengthy reply/analysis I wrote comparing the structure of the USA's special forces unit-organisation to India's. Note that I'm merely analyzing with whatever information is available publicly, not commenting on an individual soldier's ability. Feel free to point out mistakes or give your opinion (as long as it's kept civil) in the comments section below. Just putting it out here since plenty of readers thought it well-reasoned. If nothing else, here's hoping it provides you an interesting read. 

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While I'm patriotic, calling the MARCOS the "best" out there would be fallacy. Especially against DEVGRU/SEAL Team Six which was sent in with CIA operatives to get Bin Laden. But they are certainly one of the best if not as good as the SEALs. They don't have access to the same training methods or level of secret facilities or weaponry. The MARCOS are good. But they don't have a specialized Spec Ops air insertion unit like the 160th SOAR (a.k.a the Night Stalkers who I'm pretty sure were involved in the raid a day or two ago) who get the best of the best equipment and practice in the worst weather possible flying at low level. It's not the Navy's fault that MARCOS doesn't have such support but just that they don't have the money or will to develop such an inter-services special ops support force.

Again, there's no reconnaissance unit always around with Indian forces unlike the US which has innumerable spy satellites and Predator drones. Lastly, not enough air support either with the state our Air Force is in. Certainly no AC-130 gunships or attack helicopters. The Indian Air Force doesn't have enough planes for normal sanctioned force strength (hence the current purchasing spree) let alone to spare for a special division.

Also see how our supposedly-elite forces like the NSG are mostly used for VIP protection (unlike the US which uses the Secret Service for protecting high value targets). Instead of using just the Special Rangers Group, often even the elite Special Action Group members are put to this task. Nice way to pull them off their vital training regimens and make them guard politicians instead. Further, they come under command of a police DG, even though their members may be drawn from the Army, unlike the Marcos which is under the Navy.

 Indian navy sailor B.K. Gurung holds his position on the flight deck of USS Mustin (DDG 89) during a visit, board, search and seizure drill April 7, 2007, while under way in the Philippine Sea. The drill is part of exercise Malabar 07-01, a U.S. and Indian naval exercise held off the coast of Okinawa, Japan.

The US however organizes their forces differently. The Spec Ops portion is handled by the SEALs and Delta Force out of Fort Bragg abroad. They probably used Delta Force (SFOD-Delta now ACE) too but they'll never say it because officially the name "Delta Force" doesn't exist even if Chuck Norris plays them :P . On domestic soil, though these operators may be involved, the primary task of such ops goes to the FBI's HRT. Apart from this, to handle emergencies such as terrorist attacks within each city, there's a SWAT Team on hand too. All well equipped.

The CIA in addition to its own Special Operations Group has its "contractors", and I don't mean Blackwater, I mean the kind that are officially not working for the CIA but are usually former operatives of some of the above mentioned units unofficially sanctioned to "do what must be done". So you see, there just isn't anything to match this kinda structure. It's not the Navy MARCOS commandos' fault, it's just that, despite cross-training with the SEALs and the British SAS on several occasions, there is no single JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command) here to take care of the requirements of all these guys or political will-power to give them free rein and an increased budget.

Sad part is they keep increasing the salaries of politicians and giving tax breaks to the BCCI instead of using the money to pay these soldiers who actually sacrifice plenty so that we can stay safe or augment the defense institutions. But no, we forget each terrorist attack after a small candle lighting ceremony. Nothing much is done. The reduction in usage of Black Cats for mere VIP security was marginal, made just in reaction to the public uproar following the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. The NSG (National Security Guards) received equipment upgrades like Non-Skid Shoes and training from Germany's elite GSG-9 only after these attacks, and still doesn't have enough planes and helicopters to achieve the anywhere-in-the-country-within-4-hours mobility that the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team boasts.

Coming to the question of whether a country like Pakistan would take kindly to a strategic commando strike by India, it would probably end up escalating things to an almost war-like state. They'll use that "intrusion" as an excuse if India tries it. The Americans are kinda expected to take shots within the country so unless the Pakistanis got tipped off about them going after OsamaCO's head. Plus they're throwing billions of dollars worth of aid at Pakistan which no one else is doing.

There was some reporter on TV quizzing the Air Chief Marshal PV Naik whether India has the capability to carry out such surgical strikes against terrorists. From the way the Marshal thought about it and paused while saying "India.... has the capability" it seemed like he was himself doubtful. The Russian Spetnaz, the Americans, Israel (with its Sayeret Matkal Unit 269 and Mossad) have shown time and again that they can take out who they want - whether legally or not - if said individual is a thorn in their rear ends. Examples include the terrorists who carried out the inhuman slaughter of Jewish athletes at the Munich Olympics. Sadly, India doesn't have too many cases of such proven counter-terrorist action. Here, commandos put their lives on the line to capture a single terrorist and kill the rest and instead of interrogating him brutally, then shooting him and dumping his body in the sea, the government keeps each terrorist safe and sound, gives them books to read, lets them spit at magistrates and "respect their human rights". Sad, but true.

By no means are the Indian Special Forces less formidable or less motivated, it's just that there is much that needs to be done to modernize them and support them, the way a soldier, who puts his life at risk so that we can sleep peacefully in our homes, should be aided. 

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Fifth-Gen Fighter Jets: Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons

No, this isn't about that Chinese martial arts flick where everyone and their uncle soared through the air effortlessly, this is about a different kind of flyer. A man made one.

The means to control any theater of war lies in first securing air superiority over the battlefield. With stealth and weapons technology advancing by the day, air forces the world over are putting vast resources into either procuring or developing the best of fighter aircraft. Fifth-gen fighter aircraft are characterized by the ability to use information from a wide range of sources to correlate events in realtime, provide an enhanced situational awareness, air frames that can withstand insane high-G maneuvers, and LPIR (Low Probability of Intercept Radar) which can use radar to scan for enemies in the sky without giving away the aircraft's position.

F-22

The F-22 was the first of this kind and, as of 2011, the only actively operating Fifth-Gen Fighter Jet. Lockheed Martin's F-22A Raptor while providing the US Air Force with the best there is in air superiority fighters, can also attack ground targets. Designed to replace fourth-gen fighters like the F-15, every single F-22 costs a cool $150 million dollars to make. The technology used is so bleeding edge and secret that any export or sale of the F-22 outside the US is banned, not even to close allies like the Israelis.

PAK-FA Prototype

While the F-22 held sway for quite a while, there are challengers in the design/prototype phase being developed by a few other nations. India and Russia have jointly been developing the PAK-FA (Perspektivny aviatsionny kompleks frontovoy aviatsii, that is "Prospective Airborne Complex - Frontline Aviation") . Otherwise known as the T-50, what initially began as a project headed by Sukhoi later roped in India's Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to create a supersonic-cruise capable fifth gen fighter jet that is apparently a bit less stealthy than an F-22 but much cheaper at an estimated $100 million each. 250 machines are expected to be built each for the Russian and Indian air forces. The Indian variant - christened the FGFA - adds another pilot, calling for slightly different wing surfaces, capability to carry a different array of weapons (including nuclear armament) and avionics that might be sourced from multiple nations, as opposed to only Russian technology.

LCA - HAL Tejas

The Indians meanwhile are busy with their own plans, following the successful completion of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project with the production of the HAL Tejas, which of course wasn't a fifth-generation aircraft but a single seater multirole jet fighter. The Indian Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) is now designing the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA),  a proposed fifth generation aircraft in the 25 ton category. The ADA was even ready to develop a whole new prototype Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA)radar to complement the aircraft. Only a scale wind-tunnel model of the plane has yet been seen in public though. The AMCA is expected to use 2 GTRE GTX-35VS Kaveri engines designed and built by the DRDO's Gas Turbine Research Establishment Labs, with thrust vectoring and supercruise capabilities. The Indian Navy has also thrown in a significant amount of funding, so it's obvious that there'll be a naval variant of the AMCA too.

AMCA Model

The FGFA will only be ready by around 2018 and the AMCA by 2025. This will cause the force strength of the Indian air force to deplete massively till then (despite the addition of a few Su-30 planes) and is also the reason you've been seeing the "126 aircraft bid offer" left open by the Indian Air Force in the news infrequently. That bid is currently being led by the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Eurofighter Typhoon

The Americans meanwhile have been collaborating with a few other nations to develop another stealth fighter project - Lockheed Martin's F35 Lightning II. This was in the news too, albeit because funding for an alternate engine for this aircraft was cut recently by the House. The F35 will be significantly cheaper per unit than the F-22 while also having a VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) variant. The aircraft has been in the "testing" phase for the last 4 years or so.

F35 Lightning II

The Japanese have the Mitsubishi ATD-X Shinshin in the works, and the South Koreans are tinkering with the Korea Aerospace Industries KF-X, both expected to take quite a while to achieve "production" status.

While these tigers of the aviation world have at it, the dragon hasn't quite been asleep. The Chinese have their jack-in-the-box in the form of the Chengdu J-20. It's a less-agile, but much larger design (in comparison with F22s and PAK-FAs) that will supposedly have greater range too. This jet, being built by the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group for China's People's Liberation Army Air Force, has been the centre of much controversy. Initially, it was reported that the J-20 used elements copied from a Russian stealth jet, followed by an accusation that reverse engineering had been done from an American F-117 Nighthawk that had been shot down in Serbia. Later, it was also alleged that cyber-espionage of the F-22 and F-35 project files had significantly aided the Chinese in putting together the J-20. Indeed, the front does look like an F-22 and the tail fins slightly resemble those of the PAK

Chengdu J-20

The timing aside, the US is still confident it will way more stealth fifth-gen fighters several years on than any competing air force in the world and that the J-20 hence poses no real threat to it. Still, the rising Asian power deserves credit for the way in which they've pulled their socks up and gone about putting together a stealth jet real quick.

With all this military tech being churned out, one thing is clear - the skies will be a very different place 10 years on, with both what we can "see" and what we can't.

Photo Source: Wikimedia

Joke - A Guide to US News Papers

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.
2. The New York Times is read by people who think they run the country.
3. The Washington Post is read by people who think they should run the country.
4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand the Washington Post. They do, however like the smog statistics shown in pie charts.
5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could spare the time, and if they didn't have to leave L.A. to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.
7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country, and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.
8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who's running the country either, as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.
9. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure there is a country, or that anyone is running it; but whoever it is, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are handicapped minority, feministic atheist dwarfs, who also happen to be illegal aliens from ANY country or galaxy as long as they are democrats.
10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.