India’s War Plans
India has an advantage in numbers but if war was simply a numbers game, then 75-80% of the wars through history, particularly in the early years of man when numbers mattered, would not have been won by the smaller, better trained, more disciplined and highly motivated fighting forces. At Yarmuk, Khalid Bin Walid led the muslims, outnumbered 7 to 1 by the Romans, to victory in one of the most decisive battles in the world.
Headquartered in New Delhi, the Indian Army has Artillery man Gen S Padmanabhan, a South Indian, as COAS. On Dec 30, 2001 he took over in rotation as the Chairman Joint Chiefs. The Indian Army has five Commands, Northern Command with HQ at Udhampur near Jammu (looking after Kashmir), Western Command at Chandimandir (looking after Punjab and Rajasthan with borderline at Bikaner), Southern Command at Poona (looking after Gujrat and Maharashtra), Central Command at Lucknow with one Strike Corps for the western border and Eastern Command at Calcutta (looking after Counter-Insurgency in Assam and the NEFA border with China). In affect Pakistan is faced with the Northern, Western and Southern Commands even though troops are earmarked as Army Reserve in both Central and Eastern Commands.
