A comprehensive and integrated approach involving the military, civilian establishments and the government to develop and maintain potent capability for special operations is the need of the hour, irrespective of whether the capability is used or not

Operation Neptune’s Spear undertaken in Pakistan recently by the US Special Forces was reminiscent of the American movies featuring the swashbuckling Navy Seals, US Marines, Central Intelligence Agency, etc—unravelling similar plots. The question that arose in the public mind immediately after this real-life adventure to nab Osama bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist in the world was—does India have the capability to undertake similar operations across enemy lines? Given the prevailing security scenario in the region and a distinct possibility for such an option, this question was pretty much expected. While every citizen of India has the right to be informed of the military capability of our armed forces and their state of preparedness, they ‘need not’ know the ‘taskspecific’ and ‘role-specific’ capabilities of special operations. More importantly, our adversaries must ‘never know’. Special operations require detailed planning, training and coordination amongst the various military and civilian agencies. Silence therefore is the key to a reasonable degree of success. Given the complexities of special operations, it would be prudent for those not connected with the planning and execution of missions to remain totally detached. Is it therefore even necessary to discuss our special operations capabilities in the public domain? In fact, even those in the armed forces and related civilian agencies not ‘directly’ involved in the planning and conduct of these operations are unaware of the actual capabilities, tactics, skill sets and weapon profiles of Special Forces. Lower the exposure of Special Forces, greater the probability of success of missions.

There are, however, a number of misconceptions about the very necessity, purpose and composition of Special Forces. It is a common belief that these operations are always heliborne whereas these could be airborne, shipborne, sub-surface or land launched missions, with a desired force and weapon mix related to tasks in hand. Any operation which does not conform to conventional military norms during war and peace falls under the category of special military operations and these could be either covert or overt, depending on the situation. The most important ingredient for success in these operations, besides of course the combat capability of task force, is actionable real-time intelligence, both human and technical. This is a long, patient and arduous process which can take days, weeks or months to prepare, collate information and plan to determine the right window of opportunity to launch a special operations mission to achieve a specific task or aim of national importance. These operations are not premised on military tenets of responses to conflict situations alone, but are national tasks cleared and approved at the highest levels of government and military leadership. A country could make a grave mistake if a mission of this nature is launched without factoring in the many issues of strategic importance—the prevailing geopolitical situation, military preparedness of the adversary, escalation dynamics, own preparedness, terrain, etc. It must be understood that it can never be a knee-jerk counter-response to a particular situation demanded by angry nationalists, media activism or compulsions of domestic politics.