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Thursday March 28, 2024

India incapable of implementing Cold Start doctrine

By Web Desk
January 11, 2017

Indian army lacks the material and organization to implement its so-called Cold Start doctrine, a concept of imposing a limited war on Pakistan.

Commenting on Indian army chief’s reference in an interview to existence of the Cold Start strategy,  Walter C. Ladwig III  and  Vipin Narang  say in an article the large number of obsolete tanks and artillery pieces, not to mention critical shortages of ammunition and air-defence assets raises serious questions about the Indian’s army’s ability to implement a Cold Start-style operation.

The article published in The Hindu said there is no public evidence that India remotely has the capability to undertake a major cross border incursion.

It further says the Islamic Republic uses India’s Cold Start doctrine as a pretext for expansion of its conventional and nuclear forces.

“Not only does the Indian Air Force lack the kind of close air support capability Cold Start would require, but army-air force cooperation is also beset by inter-service dysfunction. This has put India in the worst possible strategic position: claiming a capability that it does not have, but which provides justification for Pakistan’s aggressive expansion of its conventional and nuclear forces. Such an approach has rarely served a nation’s security interests,” the article noted.