Sudarshan Shakti

India is launching another massive combat exercise to sharpen its “pro-active” strategy of multiple blitzkrieg thrusts across the border. Around 50,000 soldiers along with T-90S, T-72 M1 mainbattle tanks and infantry combat vehicles, backed by Sukhoi-30MKI fighters, aircraft, helicopters, drones, satellites and other force-multipliers, will take part in the ‘Sudarshan Shakti’ exercise in the Thar desert in November-December. This comes after the major ‘Vijayee Bhava’ wargames in April-May, during which Pakistan projected its new 60-km Nasr (Hatf-IX) missile as a deadly game-changer against what is loosely called India’s ‘Cold Start’ doctrine. The military brass points to India’s nuclear doctrine, which holds that “nuclear retaliation to a first strike will be massive and designed to inflict unacceptable damage”. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in turn, will address the top brass of the three services on October 11.