On February 14, India suffered the worst ever terror attack perpetrated against its armed forces. A suicide bombing in Kashmir claimed 40 CRPF Jawans who were returing to duty from leaves. The attack was perpetrated by Jaish-e-Mohammed with support from Pakistan’s deep state. Retaliation was India’s only heal, Operation Balakot was that retribution.
A country seething with anger, mourning the loss of their brethren and a growing resentment against the repeated strikes from across the border at its underbelly, this was largely the mood of India, following the dastardly terror attack at Pulwama that claimed more than 40 brave Indian sons. At the very outset, the attack had all the vital elements to conclusively establish the role of a foreign terror organisation operating the in the valley. As the video of Adil Ahmed Dhar, the bomber who perpetrated the attack, emerged online, the role of Jaish-e-Mohammed, one of Pakistan’s most preferred non-state actor to stoke violence in Jammu and Kashmir was established beyond doubt.
Earlier on February 14, Dhar, a local youth indoctrinated and radicalised by Jaish, driving a car laden with military-grade explosives, had murdered at least 40 CRPF japans in cold-blood. As the horrific images of the attack, those showing the mangled wreckage of the ill-fated vehicle and the charred and mutilated mortal remains of the jawans, beamed live to the houses across India, the country rose unanimously against its arch rival – Pakistan, a known sponsor and supporter of terrorism.
PM Narendra Modi, shortly after the attack, took to twitter to condone the strikes and said “attack on the CRPF personnel in Pulwama is despicable. I strongly condemn this dastardly attack. The sacrifices of our brave security personnel shall not go in vain. The entire nation stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the families of the brave martyrs. May the injured recover quickly.”
As the national called for retaliation and retribution, PM Modi at the introduction ceremony for the country’s first semi-high speed train set, said “A grateful national bows to the martyrs of Pulwama. A befitting reply will be given to the perpetrators of the heinous attack and their patrons. No force will succeed in disturbing peace, progress and stability of India.”
The nation waited with abated breath in anticipation of another surgical strike, to which the current Government had resorted to after the Uri attack in 2016. But as days rolled, the country grew restive as no action followed even after more than a week. For the larger public, revenge was the only healing from Pakistan’s thousand cuts, and they wanted it quick.
But the Government had no such luxuries. While the Government upped the diplomatic onslaught, any military action would need through and careful planning. Knee-jerk reactions were a big no-go.
As the ten days mark rolled by, the country’s population grew more restive, which was only compounded by the usual silence maintained by Government’s top functionaries such as the Home, Foreign and Defence ministers. Resorting to social media platforms, people drummed the war rhetoric. After all, attack at Pulwama was the work terror attack perpetrated against India’s security forces since the rise of insurgency in Kashmir.
For Pakistan’s deep state, the real faces behind the Pulwama attack, it was beginning to appear as though that India would yet again resort to the preferred diplomatic and international channels, to condone and isolate Pakistan. While there was considerably heightened activity along the Line of Control (LoC), vis-a-vis increased cease fire violations and combat patrols by the Indian Air Force (IAF), there was hardly any significant troop movement to indicate any impending military action, The Pakistani Army, nonetheless, had upped its ante and had increased its presence along the LoC and International Border (IB).
This lull, however, was broken on February 26th, when Major General Asif Ghafoor, the Spokesperson for Pakistan’s Armed Forces, twitted saying “Indian Air Force piloted Line of Control. Pakistan Air Force immediately scrambled. India aircrafts gone back. Details to follow.”
The early morning tweet by a high-ranking officials such as the DG-ISPR of Pakistani armed fires put India’s strategic circle into a huddle. What had promoted the DGISPR to tweet at an unearthly hour of 5:00 AM (IST) in the morning?
The cryptic thought made two things clear. It was not. Single aircraft that had violated the LoC, but it was a formation. Meaning, this definitely was no accidental intrusion across the border.
As Major General Gafoor took to twitter again at around 7:00 AM (IST) tweeting “Indian aircrafts intruded from Muzaffarabad sector. Facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force released payload in haste while escaping which fell near Balakot. No casualties or damage,” it was clear that the LoC had seen action. The through of two nuclear armed neighbours having rubbed shoulders caught attention of global powers.
The second tweet by DGISPR clearly indicated of an air strike carried out by the IAF somewhere in Pakistan. But, would India have really dared to employ its Air Force was a big question haunting the country’s strategic and diplomatic circle. Further, the tweet talked about a place addressed to as Balakot, located somewhere in the Muzaffarabad territory.
Google Maps, 21st century’s [referred world atlas], pinned the said city – Balakot, somewhere close to Manshera, tens of kilometres inside Pakistan. This was prime sovereign Pakistani territory. Had India struck into Pakistan’s sovereign territory? If yes, what was the target, a critical military installation? Or was it simply an ill-minded narrative being spun by Pakistan’s deep state?
As the country’s population kicked into life cheering and celebrating about an alleged air strike, Vijay Gokhale, the country’s Foreign Secretary (FS), took stage at the MEA’s (Ministry of External Affairs) office in New Delhi to address a press conference.
Mr. Gokhale, a seasoned diplomat, set tone to the briefing by confirming that the Pulwama attack had indeed been planned and executed from Pakistani soil by JeM and its founder Masood Azhar. Taking pot shots at Pakistan for having failed to tackle the menace of terrorism emanating from its soil, the foreign secretary confirmed that fighter aircraft from the IAF had indeed targeted a JeM terror camp in Balakot, Pakistan. This confirmation by one of the Government’s top bureaucrat sent ripples across the country and the international community.
Speaking about the nature of the operation, Mr. Gokhale, said “Credible intelligence was received that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country and the Fedayeen Jihadis were being trained for this purpose. In face of this imminent danger, a pre-emptive strike became absolutely necessary.”
Giving sketchy details about the strike, the FS, said “In an intelligence led operation in early hours of today (February 26), India struck the biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot. In this operation, very large number of JeM terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and group of jihadis were eliminated. The Government of India is firmly and resolutely committed of taking all necessary measure to fight the menace of terrorism. Hence this non-military pre-emptive action was specifically targeted at the JeM camp.” The Foreign Secretary’s address confirmed India’s strike against Jaish and also a strike at Pakistan’s heart.
While the decision to employ the Air Force itself was a bold move, an operation to strike a target deep inside Pakistan punched holes in India’s self-established tactical threshold, which had been steadily in place for decades now. It was credibly established that the series of early morning tweets by Pakistani DG-ISPR, debunking any strikes, was only a facing saving act by Pakistan.
While the country waited for intimate details about this historic strike, in line with what followed after the 2016 surgical strikes, the Government went into an unseen silent penance. After all, retaliation from Pakistan was an occupying thought for the country’s forces, decision and policy makers.
OPERATION BALAKOT
On February 26, shortly after 2:00 AM in the morning, close to a dozen Mirage – 2000 fighters thundered into the black lifeless skies from the Indian Air Force’s premier Gwalior Air Force Base (AFB). After a sustained climb, the Mirages set course on a northerly direction and soon began an eventful flight.
Almost simultaneously, somewhere over the skies of Jammu and Kashmir, the indigenously designed and developed Netra Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&CS) aircraft’s powerful radar and sensor systems kicked into life. The aircraft’s jet engines roared into life as Netra began a cautious sweep of the sky. Positioned somewhere down south, its predecessor, the Israeli-imported Phalcon AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), India’s eye-in-the-sky, also began its scan of the sky. Fitted out with state-of-the-art Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, these aircraft could detect hostile aircraft and missile, hundreds of kilometres away.
All the while, at Halwara Air Base four Sukhoi aircraft, the Air Force’s frontline air superiority fighters, which had been on tarmac awaiting action at runway readiness status, were green-lit for take-off. Soon after wheels up, the Sukhois setting a westerly course punched through towards the LoC.
As the Sukhois neared the troubled border, alarms rang out at Pakistani air bases. A formation of Indian frontline fighters did trouble the calm of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF). However, the aircraft soon held short of the border and began patrolling the air space on a steady holding pattern.
Pakistani’s soon concluded that the Sukhois were on just yet another CAP (Combat Air Patrol) mission. Since the Pulwama attack, the IAF had drastically increased CAP missions along the LoC and International Border (IB) and this was nothing new to Pakistan. Nonetheless, to avert any misadventures by the CAP party, the PAF sets its eyes on the Sukhois.
Several hundreds of kilometres away deep inside Indian Territory, the Mirages had mated with the mammoth IL-78 MKI mid-air refueler tankers to take in fuel for their impending mission.
The Phalcon and Netra early-warning aircraft had by then credibly ascertained that the PAF had no inkling about what was about to unfold. The large Indian formation, which was holding short of J&K somewhere in the border of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, had not yet been picked up.
It was around at this movement that the Mirages were green-lit by the country’s top military brass to conduct one of the most daring military operations ever undertaken by India. Early in the night, the Mirages had been fitted out with SPICE (Smart, Precise Impact, Cost-Effective) guided glide bombs and crystal maze missiles, a variant of the famed Israeli-origin Popeye air-to-surface missiles. Loaded on these missiles were the co-ordinated of a terror camp situated deep inside Pakistan.
Having been green-lit for the operation, the Mirages continued on their northerly course and began a gradual decent as they entered into Jammu and Kashmir. And shortly after, they were met with the formidable Sukhoi Su-30 MKIs, which were loaded with R-77 and R-27 Air-to-Air Missiles. These Su-30s were intended to provide air cover for the Mirages as they began their operation.
The formation, soon aligned themselves along the rugged Himalayan ridge line. Here on, the Mirages began what is known as a terrain hugging flight path. This extremely demanding phase of the flight guaranteed avoidance from radar detection and thus punitive action from enemy’s ground based air defence system. In a short while, the Mirages engaging their afterburners, made a clean ingress into Pakistan Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POKJ), in the process becoming the first formation of the IAF to breach the LoC on combat missions after almost four and half decades.
After a short while, the Mirages broke cover rose furtively into the skies, gained altitude and began their decent to scramble the payload. Within minutes, the Mirages gad reached the pre-designated stand-off launch positions, deep inside POJK.
Tapping in on their years of training runs, pilots from the elite tiger and battle-axes squadrons, allotted pre-fed targets to each of the missile and pressed softly into their controls. The aircraft shuddered softly as the SPICE bombs tore away from weapon stations under the aircraft.
All the while, Pakistani radars had picked up the Mirages and had scrambled their fighters from nearby bases. With weapons away, the Mirages punched out of the Pakistani air space in a hurried egress manoeuvre.
Far from Pakistan’s prying eyes, the SPICE bombs that had been released by the Mirages, had begun making their way towards the pre-designated targets. SPICE’s unique scene-matching algorithms comparing the electro-optical image received in real-time via the weapon seeker with mission reference data, pre-fed and stored in the weapons’ computer memory during missions planning at Gwalior, continuously adjusted the flight path of the bomb towards the targets.
In the homing phase, following the successful completion of scene-match process, SPICE acquired the pre-designated targets in Balakot, Pakistan. With pin-point accuracy, the missile struck the targets at a pre-defined impact angle and azimuth. The live-feed relied on to the Mirages and the Air Force’s Command and Control Centres, confirmed that the terror training camps in Balakot had been struck.
By 4:45 AM (IST) in the morning, the Mirages made an uneventful landing at their home base in Gwalior after a successful mission. The Air Force had yet again successfully delivered the mandate as desired from the Government.
PLANNING FOR OPERATION BALAKOT
Within hours of the Pulwama attack, multiple meetings of the NSC and the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), the country’s top security decision making body headed by the PM, were conveyed in New Delhi to take stock of the prevailing security situation. These meetings also set tone for carving an apt reply to terror organisations and their sympathisers.
Over the course of several meets, the top Government functionaries were briefed about the retaliatory options that existed by the NSC and Armed Forces. In close consultation with the NSC, the Government steered away from resorting to any knee-jerk reactions. The Government wanted to send a strong message to perpetrators from across the border.
While intelligence agencies across the board were tasked with analysing threats of any immediate future attacks, the armed forces were given a free hand to deal with any Pakistani misadventures along the LoC. The top echelons were, however, asked with crafting retaliatory options to be presented to the Government.
The forces initially did lean towards the option of executing shallow-depth surgical strikes against terror launch pads situated in PoJK. But intelligence agencies had by then credibly ascertained that Pakistan, anticipating Indian action, had emptied these launch pads. Moreover, there was heightened Pakistani presence along the LoC and IB. Constant snowing for days had meant that most of the areas along the border were impregnable. At multiple posts more than four feet of snow had accumulated, making the traverse of a strike force extremely daunting. Thus, the prevailing weather conditions also deterred the option of launch any surgical strikes.
By then, it had been clear to the forces that any retaliatory action would have to be in the form of overt actions. The forces then considered the option of assaulting known terror installations with a barrage of artillery assault. Advanced artillery shells meant that India could strike almost 20 kilometres inside Pakistan. But the collateral – civilian casualties- from such an assault remained a key concern. The Government had made amply clear that there had to be civilian casualties at any cost.
For the MEA, this was crucial to step up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan at the international stage. Any civilian casualties threatened to change the narrative and the compassion that was in India’s favour across all international forums.
While punitive strikes utilising precision guided surface-to-surface missiles were an option, it was ruled out given the escalation risk it carried. Utilisation of both the artillery and missiles would entitle strong repercussions at International forums. These options have for long been pursued as a precedent to full blown conflict. No one, not event India and Pakistan, themselves wanted to witness a full blown conflict amongst two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The last remaining option involved the employment of fighter aircraft from the IAF to launch precision strikes against known terror targets inside Pakistan and PoJK. The heavily advanced weapon systems employed by the Air Force for ground strikes, such as the Crystal Maze and SPICE, guaranteed little to no collaterals.
The intelligence inputs, however, had amply made it clear that all launch pads in the range of these missiles had been emptied out. If the Air Force wanted to sticker any of the other targets, currently housing Jihadis, it rewired the IAF to make ingress at least into PoJK. This required the Air Force to cross the LoC at least for a brief time period.
This also meant considerable escalation. How would Pakistani generals react to the fact that several Indian aircraft armed to the teeth flying into PoJK? Could it lead to a fatal miscalculation? While all these concerns played up on the minds of military planners, it overtime emerged that air strikes were the only option meeting all the requirements of the Government and NSC.
But would the Government show the political will to launch such a daring operation? This was a question that no one, except the CCS could answer.
Top echelons of the Air Force led by the Air Chief, a seasoned fighter pilot himself, made the case with the Government in a carefully calibrated presentation, which had taken into account several concerns that Government would rise through the course of meet.
The Air Force’s case was centred on the fact that the capabilities it possessed were unmatched and in fact proven. Both the preferred strike weapons, the SPICE and Crystal Maze were Israeli-origin systems.
Israel had widely employed these systems to strike terror targets planted amongst civilian settlements in urban clusters. For years, Israel utilising these missiles had conducted operations right in the centre of human terrain with hardly any collaterals, vis-a-vis innocent casualties.
Reviewing an operation Gaza city that employed the SPICE for targeting a building in heavily populated area, former US Secretary of State John Kerry had termed it hell of a pinpoint operation. The missile, according to US-based Defense News, had impacted only 250 meters from friendly forces. Both the missile systems equipped with state-of-the-art systems had proven accuracy.
The launch platform – Mirage 2000 – itself was also a proven war machine. These had been extensively used by India through the course of the Kargil conflict in 1999 to launch Laser Guided Bombs (LGBs) targeting fortified enemy installations. Mirages had played a crucial role in the operation launched to recapture Tiger Hill.
The Government after thoroughly considering the Air Force’s case and due consultation with the NSC, gave its nod for the operation. Risk taken by the current Government, which was headed to general elections in less than a couple of months, needs to be lauded.
With the political will and nod in place, the Air Force began scouring for targets. Intelligence agencies, operating both TECHINT and HUMINT, pooled in their resources to ascertain known terror training camps. As agencies scoured trough previous records, two targets took the centre stage – Bahawalphur and Balakot.
While Bahawalpur was the headquarters of JeM, Balakot was one of JeM’s biggest terror training camp. Agencies by then had established that this very terror camp had played host to the masterminds, who planned and executed the Pulwama attack.
Bahawalpur, however, was nestled deep inside Pakistan. Moreover, Pakistan anticipating punitive action from India had upped the ante at JeM’s HQ. Balakot, however, emerged as a favourable target.
The camp was situated on a hilltop and was nestled amidst thick forest, far away from any human inhabitation. Balakot was thus made the preferred target.
Data available with RAW proved that Balakot housed a mammoth training camp and was a staging base for multiple fidayeen attacks launched against India. The terror had found place in multiple US intelligence agency cables as well. US’s lead intel agency – the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – had time and again referred to the Balakot terror camp.
In preparation for the attack, intelligence agencies, such as RAW and NATRO, scoured sources providing any information about the camp. RAW made it certain that Balakot was a major terror installation, one that was key for JeM’s efforts to terrain Jihadi. NTRO, utilising highly advanced imagery and interceptor capabilities, established that the training was active and that it was bustling with Jihadis. With this, Balakot was firmly locked on to the IAF’s crosshairs.
The successful high-risk operation had set a few news for the Air Force and country. The Mirages had become the first fighter aircraft since the 1971 indo-Pak war to have reached the LoC on a combat mission. With the bombs successfully delivered, the pilots had flown right thrown the much talked about tactical threshold of Pakistan. A new normal had also been set in India’s history and fight against terror organisations originating from Pakistan.
In the course of the operation, the Air Force’s assets had operated in one of the most contested air spaces in the world. Protected by several layers of Air Defence systems, the Pakistani airspace is a highly denied and protected environment, a virtual minefield for any intruding aircraft.
While use of air power in the fight against terrorism has become a new normal across the globe, none of the air forces have usually undertaken missions in denied airspaces.
US forces, which have extensively used their air power against terrorist, has championed around their victory in Afghanistan, Iraq and several other nations. But these terror organisations have little to no means to retaliate against the USA. It’s a virtual free air highway for US and coalition forces.
That was not the case for India’s operation against Jaish, which largely operates under the security umbrella of Pakistani armed forces. But pilots of the IAF had conquered this challenge, proving their mettle.
