Kargil: Learnt and unlearnt lessons from a costly victory
July 24, 2021, 9:06 PM IST
The writer is a retired Air Vice Marshal from IAF and visiting professor at Ashoka and Jindal universities
Twenty two years after the Indian Army, enabled and complemented by the Indian Air Force, evicted Pakistan Army’s Northern Light Infantry (NLI) intruders from the daunting heights of Mushkoh, Dras, Kaksar and Batalik, the Kargil conflict of 1999 continues to generate a wide range of analyses from historians and strategic analysts. Adding to these in the public discourse is the continued emotional impact of loss on the families and the units who suffered significantly during the bruising high-altitude conflict that saw tough frontal assaults and brutal close-quarter fighting that is no longer considered the ‘new normal’ in contemporary warfare. In the sobering backdrop of these memories, one would imagine that India would have lost no time in absorbing the lessons from the conflict and translated them into suitable doctrines and strategies for the conduct of limited and high-intensity conflict, particularly in high-altitude terrain. The outcomes, however, have been a mixed bag.