Sp Forces should be solely used for strategic missions: CNS

New Delhi, Mar 13 (UNI) India's expanding geographical 'area of interest and the increasing threat from non-state actors, such as terrorist groups, underlines the need for maintaining Special Forces solely for strategic operations, Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash today said.

''The nature of warfare is fast changing and the conventional battlefield will soon be a thing of the past. Assymetric forms of warfare are emerging as a major challenge and are being resorted to by non-state actors ... we have been facing a similar situation in Kashmir for the last decade and a half,'' he said, speaking at the release of a book on 'Special Forces' here.

Pointing out the external threats and the internal subversions the country faces, he said the current security challenges are both ambiguous and challenging and require a multiplicity of responses.

''Special Forces have a major role to play in assymetric warfare and policy-makers should draw up plans to use them for strategic and grand strategic roles, rather than as an adjunct to conventional forces for mere tactical roles,'' he added, citing two prominent examples from the Second World War -- the rescue of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini by the Germans and the British commandos' raid to destroy a heavy water plant in Norway, forestalling Axis efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

Admiral Prakash added that closer to home, the activities of Pakistan's Special Services Group (SSG) bear scrutiny.

''Ever since the SSG's formation in 1954, it has engaged in assymetric warfare against us -- in the Naga Hills in the 1950s, in then East Pakistan during the 1971 war and more recently, in Kashmir,'' he said, adding that it had exerted an influence greater than the number of troops it used.

He quoted the just-released US Quadrennial Defence Review which recommends a hike in US Special Forces, and said the Indian defence planners should make a clear demarcation between airborne and Special Forces and draw up an operational hierarchy and structure to use them optimally.

''Between the armed forces, the Home Ministry and the Cabinet Secretariat, we have more than 10,000 Special Forces personnel...

they are a significant national asset,'' he pointed out.

Later, talking to mediapersons, Admiral Prakash, who is the Chairperson of the Chief of Staff Committee, said the creation of a Special Forces Command was not currently on the agenda.

''It is one of the proposals before the Chiefs of Staff Committee,'' he said.

UNI VD AT ND1944