Message through Exercise Azm-e-Nau-III

Exercise Azm-e-Nau-III, the biggest Military Exercises after the Zarb-e-Momin of 1989 began on April 10, 2010, with the demonstration of �Dispersal Techniques� by the troops in the �battle-like� situation. This exercise will continue until May 13, 2010. Over 20,000 combat troops of Pak Army consisting of all arms and services are taking part in the exercise. The ongoing PAF Exercise, �High Mark-2010,� would also be integrated with the field exercise of Pak Army at the appropriate time and level. Conceptually, the exercise is a concept validation stage of the operational thought process manifested in the form of tactical, operational, and organizational aspects, which would be validated and refined through the lessons learnt.

Exercise Azm-e-Nau-3 indeed is the culmination phase of the �Year of Training-2009/10�, as directed by the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani. The exercise was preceded by a series of deliberate process of war games like; Azm-e-Nau-1 and Azm-e-Nau-2, a continued process of training, discussions and logistic evolution of the concept of warfare that is �full responsive to a wide menu of emerging threats�. The exercise is being conducted along the eastern borders, with Sialkot, South Punjab and some areas of Sindh remaining as the major focus. It is, indeed, the testing of the battle procedures with an ordeal to assess the capabilities versus potentials to deliver once needed. As per the Director General Military Training, Major General Muzamil; the focus during the exercise would be, �tackling the situation in traditional war and to respond enemy�s preparedness.� This is being done in the perspective that in the current global scenario, Pakistan is facing several strategic challenges. It desires peace and harmony, without compromising the minimum credible and sustainable strategic deterrence.

The biggest challenge Pakistan facing following the incident of 9/11 is, its fight to scourge the menace of terrorism both at the domestic front as well as along the Pak-Afghan border, being the coalition partner. In this fight, �Pakistan has suffered the maximum in terms of human and economic losses due to terrorism and violent extremism, but it has not dented the resolve of the nation and its armed forces to fight and finish this scourge in accordance with own national interests.� Overall, Pakistan has suffered 30,457 casualties (killed and injured-out of that military casualties are 8785 that includes; 2273 shaheeds and 6512 injured) as compared to total of 1582 killed of NATO/US consisting of 43 nations in Afghanistan. So far 17, 742 terrorists have been killed or arrested in the operations launched by the Pakistani security forces. It is worth mentioning that Pakistan has deployed 147, 400 troops as compared to a total of 101,531 troops deployed by NATO and U.S. Pakistani security forces are manning 821 posts as compared to 112 posts by Coalition and Afghan National Army on the border. Apart from this over 20,000 troops are deployed for security duties in rest of the country and 10,000 troops serving under UN in different foreign countries. This entails that almost half of the Army remains continuously committed on operational deployment not only causing wear and tear of equipment affecting our logistic stamina but also psychological effects on the soldiers.

While the fight against the terrorism has been thrust upon Pakistan after the 9/11, it has a fear of regional destabilization due to a number of factors. These factor include; the over stretching of security forces thus the �capability to fight terrorism is dwindling at a rapid pace, with a shallow political consensus, the public opinion is quite fragile, potential emergence of a military capability in the west hostile to Pakistan, and Indian offensive doctrine of �Cold Start�. The Indian concept of �Cold Start� has very serious implications on Pakistan. Contrary to the traditional military mobilization and then going to war, in the Cold Start concept, Indian Army will go to war first and then mobilizes. The Chief of Army Staff has already drawn the attention of US and NATO military commanders towards the serious implications of this Indian strategy. The implications of the cold start are: �inherent strategic instability, potential for sudden spiral escalation, induces arms race in the region, linear shape/shallow depth and forward population centres of Pakistan would cause �strategic pull�, and last but not the least, it lowers the nuclear threshold�. Indeed, following the nuclearization of South Asia in 1998, apart from the Kargil conflict, there has been a major mobilization of the armed forces of Pakistan and India in 2002 escalation. Following this prolonged military escalation, Indian Army conceived this new concept of Cold Start to launch an offensive against Pakistan. In order to mature its concept of the Cold Start, India has conducted a number of war games and exercises. Even in the last two years, Indian Army has conducted over 12 military exercises. So much so, that the former Indian Army Chief, General Deepak Kumar, was ready to fight a two front war with Pakistan and China simultaneously. He even considered a limited Indo-Pak war under the nuclear overhang. In May 2009, Indian Army undertook major military exercise codename, �Hind Shakti� (Indian Power). The exercise was conducted near Pakistani border in the arid plains of Indian Punjab. As per the Indian Defence Ministry, �The exercise entailed participation by mechanised and infantry divisions in a blitzkrieg type armoured incursion,� emphasising �rapid penetration into enemy territory.� The elite Kharga Corps of Indian Army undertook these military manoeuvres. As per the Kharga Corps Commander, �The manoeuvres will factor in various scenarios, including the worsening situation in our neighbourhood.�

Other Indian Army corps carried out their exercises in different time frames. In another exercise in February 2010, the fighter jets of Indian Air Force pounded mock enemy bunkers in Pokharan area, close to the Pakistani border in a show of air power, once both were negotiating for the peaceful settlement of their issues. The exercise was even witnessed by military attaches of over thirty countries, less Pakistan and China. According to Uday Bhaskar, a New Delhi-based strategic affairs expert, �This is not just a firepower demonstration but a clear message about what India�s air force is capable of. It is a message to the neighbours.� It is worth mentioning that �Yodha Shakti� military exercises of Indian Army have recently been planned and will be conducted alongside the Azm-e-Nau in the Thar Desert near Pakistani frontiers. These are almost of month duration and aimed to test the offensive strategies of Indian Army. During the war-gaming as well as in the physical conduct of exercise, Azm-e-Nau, Pakistan Army would be considering all these considerations. Pakistan feels that if its fight against terrorism has become an inevitable, it cannot leave its eastern borders at the promises of its incredible friends. As pointed out by Dr. Henry Kissinger, the former U.S Secretary of State that, in the international politics, there neither exist permanent friends nor permanent foes. Rather these are the national interests of states which determine their future course of action. It is beyond doubt that, international politics is essentially a struggle for power. It is attributed to security competition and inter-state conflicts, mainly arose owing to the lack of an overarching authority above states and the relative distribution of power in the international system.

Pakistan has already faced the dilemma in 1971, where its friends never came to rescue it, once its eastern neighbour attacked and dismembered it. Indeed, as per the realist�s school of global politics, �all states wish to perpetuate their existence�. While revisiting the history, one finds that actions of some states resulted in other states losing their existence. After a series of successive military operations against terrorists in the tribal areas and Swat, Pak Army stands at a higher podium of professional excellence. Its present leadership has successively dispelled the global misperceptions, by highlighting the achievements of Pak Army at various forums. There exists a global recognition of Armed Forces of Pakistan as the best fighting entity having the capability to deal with internal insurgencies/ terrorism, natural calamities and to fight the external threat alike.

The simultaneous engagement to quell the terrorism and perfecting drills and battle procedures through Exercise Azm-e-Nau is indeed a unique example of projecting the power potential by Armed Forces of Pakistan. It is expected that capabilities of Pak Army will act as force multipliers by reducing the fog of war for own troops, obviating enemy surprise and reducing own reaction time. During the exercise, all available surveillance and reconnaissance assets would be utilized to validate their efficacy, with the precision that �to live with defeat is a death of everyday and if you want peace, then be ready for war�.