Operation Brasstacks was a
combined arms
Combined arms is an approach to warfare that seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects—for example, using infantry and armoured warfare, armour in an Urban warfare, urban environment in ...
military exercise
A military exercise, training exercise, maneuver (manoeuvre), or war game is the employment of military resources in Military education and training, training for military operations. Military exercises are conducted to explore the effects of ...
of the
Indian Armed Forces
The Indian Armed Forces are the armed forces, military forces of the India, Republic of India. It consists of three professional uniformed services: the Indian Army, the Indian Navy, and the Indian Air Force.—— Additionally, the Indian Ar ...
in the state of
Rajasthan
Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...
from November 1986 to January 1987. The operation's aim was to determine tactical
nuclear strategy
Nuclear strategy involves the development of military doctrine, doctrines and strategy, strategies for the production and use of nuclear weapons.
As a sub-branch of military strategy, nuclear strategy attempts to match nuclear weapons as means ...
.
As part of a series of exercises to simulate the operational capabilities of the Indian armed forces, it was the largest mobilization of Indian forces on the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
, involving the combined strength of two Army Commands - almost 500,000 troops - half the Indian Army. Operation Brasstacks was tasked with two objectives: the initial goal was the deployment of ground troops.
The other objective was to conduct a series of
amphibious assault exercises by the
Indian Navy
The Indian Navy (IN) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Navy, maritime and Amphibious warfare, amphibious branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of the Naval Staff (India), Chief ...
near to the Pakistan naval base at
Karachi
Karachi is the capital city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Sindh, Pakistan. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, largest city in Pakistan and 12th List of largest cities, largest in the world, with a popul ...
.
Operation Brasstacks involved numbers of infantry, mechanized, air assault divisions, and 500,000 army personnel who were massed within 100 miles of Pakistan.
An amphibious assault group formed from Indian naval forces was planned and deployed near to the
Korangi Creek of
Karachi Division
Karachi Division () is an administrative division of the Sindh Province of Pakistan created in December 1960. There are seven districts in Karachi Division. CNIC code of Karachi Division is 42. According to 2023 Pakistani census population of ...
in Pakistan.
However, the most important aim of this war alert simulation was to determine tactical
nuclear strategy
Nuclear strategy involves the development of military doctrine, doctrines and strategy, strategies for the production and use of nuclear weapons.
As a sub-branch of military strategy, nuclear strategy attempts to match nuclear weapons as means ...
, overseen by the Indian Army.
The
Pakistan Military regarded this
war game as a threatening exhibition of overwhelming conventional force, perhaps even as a rehearsal for
nuclear war
Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...
,
amounting to the most critical moment in
India–Pakistan relations. The security information website ''Global Security.org'' characterized Operation Brasstacks as "bigger than any
NATO exercise – and the biggest since World War II".
Even today, Pakistani military analysts and strategists regard it as a planned "
blitzkrieg-like" integrated
deep offensive strategy to infiltrate into dense areas of Central Pakistan. On the other hand, India maintained that "
hecore objective of Operation Brasstacks was to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support devised by Indian army."
Background
Indian Strategic overview
After the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Indian Army had long been advocating for practicing modern methods of land-based warfare and professionalism.
The
Chief of Staff
The title chief of staff (or head of staff) identifies the leader of a complex organization such as the armed forces, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a principal staff officer (PSO), who is the coordinator of the supportin ...
of the
Indian Army
The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...
, General
Krishnaswamy Sundarji
General (India), General Krishnaswamy "Sundarji" Sundararajan, (28 April 1928 – 8 February 1999) was the Chief of the Army Staff (India), Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army from 1986 to 1988. He was the last former British In ...
, an officer who earlier had commanded an infantry division in the
Bangladesh Liberation War
The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...
, threw himself into the Indian Army's modernisation.
He was granted permission, and ordered a large scale military exercise to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support.
He issued orders to mobilize the mechanized and armoured divisions, and armed tanks were sent to take position in the
Thar desert
The Thar Desert (), also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent that covers an area of in India and Pakistan. It is the world's 18th-largest desert, and the world's 9th-large ...
.
In December 1986, with more than ten thousand armoured vehicles spread across its western desert, India launched the final stage of a huge military exercise that stirred new tensions with Pakistan.
The scale of the operation was bigger than any
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental transnational military alliance of 32 member states—30 European and 2 North American. Established in the aftermat ...
(NATO) exercise and the biggest land exercise since
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
.
Initially, around 600,000–800,000 troops were mobilized and stationed on Rajasthan state's western border, less than 100 miles away from Pakistan.
The commander of the Indian Army's
Western Command, Lieutenant General
Prem Nath Hoon, maintained that, "Operation Brasstacks was a mobilization of the entire Army of India."
The magnitude and large scale of the exercise led to Pakistani fears that India was displaying an overwhelming conventional superiority and was planning to invade Pakistan and dismember it by
surgical strikes, as it did to
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...
during the
Indo-Pak 1971 ''Winter war''.
According to General Hoon's memoirs, a letter was directed to Sundarji by Western Command, arguing that "when such a large exercise is conceived", the movement of Indian forces is going to attract the attention of Pakistan.
General Hoon maintained that, General Sundarji did not inform Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi (20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian statesman and pilot who served as the prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the Assassination of Indira Gandhi, assassination of his mother, then–prime ...
about the scale of the operation and such details were hidden from him.
Hoon also wrote in his memoir: "Brasstacks was no military exercise. It was a plan to build up the situation for a fourth war with Pakistan." Indian scholar, Paul Kapur further argues that during Operation Brasstacks,
It is theorised by author Robert Art and others that the Brasstacks crisis was not an inadvertent and accidental crisis caused by Pakistan's misinterpretation of a large scale Indian Army exercise, confined mainly to the vast Rajasthan desert sector, as provocative.
In this theory, General Sunderji's strategy was to provoke Pakistan to respond and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to the offensive against Pakistan and destroy its
atomic bomb projects in a series of preventive strikes.
Pakistan strategic response
After the success of the
Israeli Air Force's surprise
Operation Opera air strike on the Iraqi
nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power st ...
in Osirak in 1981, the
Pakistan Armed Forces
The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consists of three uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are backe ...
had been on alert. According to memoirs of nuclear strategist and
theoretical physicist
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental physics, which uses experi ...
Munir Ahmad Khan
Munir Ahmad Khan (; 20 May 1926 – 22 April 1999), , was a Pakistani nuclear engineer who is credited, among others, with being the "father of the atomic bomb program" of Pakistan for their leading role in developing their nation's nuclear we ...
, hectic discussions took place every day between the Ministries of
Defence and
Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...
, amid fears that India might attack Pakistan, who was on route to becoming a
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced by ...
. Since 1981, the commanders of the
Pakistan Armed Forces
The Pakistan Armed Forces (; ) are the military forces of Pakistan. It is the world's sixth-largest military measured by active military personnel and consists of three uniformed services—the Army, Navy, and the Air Force, which are backe ...
were given standing orders to mobilize their forces at once, from all directions, as quick as it could to divert such attacks.
When ''Brasstacks'' was executed, Pakistan quickly responded with maneuvers of its own forces, first mobilizing the entire
V Corps and then the
Southern Air Command, near the
Indian state
India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...
of
Punjab
Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...
.
Within weeks, the
Pakistan Navy
The Pakistan Navy (PN) (; ''romanized'': Pākistān Bahrí'a; ) is the naval warfare branch of the Pakistan Armed Forces. The Chief of the Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy and is a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Com ...
's combat ships and submarines were deployed for the purpose of intelligence management, in the northern
Arabian Sea
The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...
.
The
Government of Pakistan
The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, con ...
viewed this
military exercise
A military exercise, training exercise, maneuver (manoeuvre), or war game is the employment of military resources in Military education and training, training for military operations. Military exercises are conducted to explore the effects of ...
as a ''direct threat'' to Pakistan's physical existence.
This included further orders to deploy the entire
Armoured Corps
An armoured corps (also mechanized corps or tank corps) is a specialized military organization whose role is to conduct armoured warfare. The units belonging to an armoured corps include military staff, and are equipped with tanks and other arm ...
, with the V Corps, to move to the front lines.
By mid-January 1987, the Pakistani Armed Forces and Indian Army personnel stood within firing range along an extended border area.
The
Foreign Office of Pakistan summoned the Indian Ambassador to Pakistan, S. K. Singh, at midnight, to meet with
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,
Zain Noorani
Zain Noorani (22 May 1927 – 18 December 1992) was a Pakistani politician who served as the 4th Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Pakistan), minister of state for foreign affairs from 10 April 1985 to 20 December 1986 and deputy Minister ...
, who had just returned from an emergency meeting with Pakistan's President
Zia-ul-Haq. Noorani advised the Indian Embassy that he had an important message from President Zia.
Noorani officially advised Singh that in the event of violation of Pakistan's
sovereignty
Sovereignty can generally be defined as supreme authority. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within a state as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body or institution that has the ultimate au ...
and territorial integrity by India, Pakistan was "capable of inflicting unacceptable damage on it."
When Singh asked Noorani whether this implied an
tomicattack on
Bombay
Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...
, Noorani replied: "it might be so".
The situation could have potentially lead to a war between a ''de facto'' nuclear weapon state (India—who had already conducted a nuclear test in 1974, ''
Smiling Buddha
Smiling Buddha (Ministry of External Affairs (India), MEA designation: Pokhran-I) was the code name of India's first successful Nuclear weapons testing, nuclear weapon test on 18 May 1974. The nuclear fission bomb was detonated in the Pokhran#P ...
'', and a state known to have
nuclear infrastructure, that was believed to be developing nuclear weapons at that time (Pakistan).
1987 Pakistan atomic alert
In January 1987, Pakistan had put its nuclear installations on high alert, and the crisis atmosphere was heightened.
During this time,
Abdul Qadeer Khan
Abdul Qadeer Khan (1 April 1936 – 10 October 2021) was a Pakistani Nuclear physics, nuclear physicist and metallurgist, metallurgical engineer. He is colloquially known as the "father of Pakistan and weapons of mass destruction, Pakistan's ...
gave an interview to Indian diplomat,
Kuldip Nayar in which he made it clear that "Pakistan would use its
atomic weapons if its existence was threatened"; although he later denied having made such a statement.
Indian diplomats in Islamabad claimed that they were warned that Pakistan would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons if attacked. Pakistan denied the veracity of these statements.
Aftermath
Cricket diplomacy
The tensions diminished in March 1987, with an agreement by the two nations to withdraw 150,000 troops in the Kashmir area, followed by a second agreement to withdraw more troops in the desert area that was signed the same month.
While negotiating the withdrawal accord, India vowed to proceed with ''Brasstacks'', asserting that Pakistan had no reason to feel provoked.
India did delay the beginning of the last stage of the operation until the following week, while the latest withdrawal agreement was being negotiated.
To prove its intentions were peaceful, India took the unusual step of inviting diplomats and journalists to observe the operation separately.
Pakistani Foreign Service officers, senior diplomats and statesmen were those who were invited.
According to an unnamed Western diplomat, "This was not a third-world army. This was a modern army, fully competent for any mission, easily as good as the Chinese, the Koreans or the French."
Pakistan's President Zia visited India in February 1987, having been invited to see a cricket match between the two countries.
Zia's estimation was that he and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi could meet quite cordially, but could not agree on substantive issues.
Effects and legacy
According to the Indian Army, ''Brasstacks'' was only an exercise and not supposed to be a provocative one. The media, particularly the Western media, was involved after this and intense diplomatic manoeuvres followed preventing any further escalation in hostilities. On multiple occasions, General Sunderji maintained that: "This was, is and always has been a training exercise. I can't answer why there have been misperceptions about it in some quarters."
India repeatedly accused Pakistan of continuing scientific research on atomic bombs; Pakistan continued to sharply reject the claims. A few days later, A. Q. Khan also rejected any statements issued regarding atomic bomb development, and has since said "his comments were taken out of context."
The real motives behind the exercise remain disputed. In 1999, a former senior Indian Army officer, Lieutenant-General P. N. Hoon, remarked that the operation had mobilized the entire Indian Army to Pakistan's eastern border.
He further notes that, ''Brasstacks'' was a plan to build up a situation for a fourth war with Pakistan.
Western scholars have theorized that ''Brasstacks'' was an accidental crisis, caused by Pakistan's misinterpretation of an inadvertently provocative Indian Army exercise.
Robert Art suggests that, "General Sunderji's strategy was to provoke Pakistan's response and this would provide India with an excuse to implement existing contingency plans to go on to offensive against Pakistan and take out its
atomic bomb projects in preventive strikes."
Even today, Pakistani military analysts and strategists regarded this as a "
blitzkrieg-like"
integrated deep offensive strategy to infiltrate into dense areas of Pakistan.
The ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' noted that India's accelerated drive for military technology, motivated Pakistan to turn to its rationale of stockpiling
atomic bombs as a
nuclear deterrent
Nuclear strategy involves the development of doctrines and strategies for the production and use of nuclear weapons.
As a sub-branch of military strategy, nuclear strategy attempts to match nuclear weapons as means to political ends. In addit ...
.
Sources
*Sunil Dasgupta, "Operation Brasstacks," ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists'', October 1996 (book review noting previous coverage of the operation).
References
External links
Singh and Gilani Confer at Match ''Israel National News'', 30 April 2011
''Geocities'', 26 October 2009
''Global Securi''ty
Pakistan and Nuclear Proliferation Arifa Khan, 20 June 1996
{{Indo-Pakistani relations
History of the Indian Army
Military history of Pakistan
1986 in India
1987 in India
Indian military exercises
Nuclear history of Pakistan
Nuclear history of India
Military government of Pakistan (1977–1988)
Rajiv Gandhi administration
India–Pakistan relations