India Deploys Israeli Hi-Tech War Equipment in War Preparations

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India Deploys Israeli Hi-Tech War Equipment in War Preparations

31 December, 2001, Exclusive to DEBKAfile:

 

The highly advanced Israeli-made weapons

systems acquired by the Indian army in 2001

figured prominently in the tactical pros and

cons of going to war, in New Delhi and Islamabad alike.

Revealing this, DEBKAfile's military sources name the

items imported from Israel as the Green Pine radar system,

developed for Israel's Arrow anti-missile missile,

three electronic tracking and command centers and

the Rafael version of the Popeye cruise missile.

The war rhetoric on both sides eased slightly

today after Pakistan detained 30 militants and shut

down three terrorist organizations' offices.

However if war nonetheless erupts,

Israeli electronic warfare and naval

cruise missiles expert operators will be

there on the spot and directly involved..

DEBKAfile's Indian sources report that at the

end of last week, as the war fever mounted,

Israeli personnel engaged in constructing,

maintenance and operating the new systems

in Indian Kashmir and the northern sector

of the Indian-Pakistani were evacuated with

their families. They left behind a skeleton

Israeli crew to keep the electronic systems

running smoothly in the event of a flare-up,

and a small contingent of Israel naval officers

to show their Indian counterparts how to work the

Popeye missiles (range 15000 km and capable of

carrying nuclear warheads).

Military experts in the United States,

India and Pakistan hold the view that the

presence of these systems in the Indian army

has thus far held off a Pakistan pre-emptive

strike against the Indian divisions before they

take up their border deployments. A pre-emptive,

or surprise assault would be the best chance for

the numerically inferior Pakistani army, with its

half million men, to throw the invasion plans of

India's 1.2 million strong army into disarray.

Posted since last April in the western section of

the Vale of Kashmir between the towns of Uri and Punch,

the Green Pine radar's strategic value is inestimable.

It covers all of Pakistani's military command centers

and bases between Islamabad, the capital, and the Indian

frontier. It also permits Indian surveillance of Pakistan's

nuclear center at Kahuta and Sargodha, where Pakistan keeps

its Shaheen missiles (capable of delivering nuclear warheads),

a homemade version of the Chinese mobile M-11 missiles.

According to DEBKAfile's Indian sources, the

three early warning stations built by Israel

are located north of Ladakh, near the west

Kashmir town of Kupwara opposite four strategic

Pakistan Kashmiri towns of Kel, Skardu, Astor and

Gilgit, and in the town of Kargil, opposite the seat

of Pakistan's Himalayan command centers in Kashmir,

where the current troop buildup is centered.

Those sources report additionally that since the

outbreak of the Afghan War, in early October, the

Indian supreme command has ordered its various

services, especially the air force and missile units,

to keep the Green Pine radar and the electronic early

warning stations running round the clock, both as a

vital war appurtenance of war and to drill the crew

in real battle conditions. The Indian high command

was consequently au fait of every detail of the

Afghan War and various movements taking place in

Western China and the eastern reaches of Central Asia.

The Israeli Green Pine radar took to the field last

May in the biggest nuclear exercise India ever conducted.

Dubbed "Perfect Victory", the exercise was designed

to depict an Indian victory over Pakistan.

The 50,000 and 120 warplanes taking part

in the war games practiced deep forays

into enemy territory and the takeover

and demolition of enemy strategic

installations. It was Green Pine's first

\ experience of a nuclear exercise.