Operation Brasstacks
| Operation Brasstacks | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Indian Army Military exercise |
| Planned | General Krishnaswamy Sundarji, CoAS |
| Planned by | Southern Army Command |
| Target | Southern Pakistan |
| Date | 18 November 1986 – 6 March 1987 |
| Executed by | Indian Army |
| Outcome | Exercises were halted Pakistan redeployment its armed forces Cricket diplomacy defused the threat |
Operation Brasstacks was a codename of a major military exercise of the Indian Army in Rajasthan state of India, that took place in 1986 until its execution in 1987.
As part of a series of exercises to simulate the operational capabilities of the Indian armed forces, it was the major and largest troop mobilizations of Indian forces in the Indian subcontinent. 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 Indian Navy near to the Pakistan naval base. Operation Brasstacks involved numbers of infantry, mechanized, air assault divisions, and 600,000 army personnel who were massed to 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 of Pakistan. However, the most important aim of these war alert simulations was to determine tactical nuclear strategy, overseen by the Indian Army.
The military strategists of the Pakistan Military regarded this war game as a threatening exhibition of overwhelming conventional force, and the most critical moment in foreign relations between India and Pakistan. The Pakistan military strategists even viewed this war game as reprisal of nuclear war. The security information website Global Security.org characterized Operation Brasstacks "bigger than any NATO exercise - and the biggest since World War II". Even as today, the Pakistan military analysts and strategists regarded this as "blitzkrieg-like" integrated deep offensive strategy to infiltrate in dense areas of Pakistan, but on the other hand, India maintained that "core objective of Operation Brasstacks was to test new concepts of mechanization, mobility, and air support devised by Indian army."
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