Future War, Futuristic Tech

Maj. Gen. Atanu K Pattanaik (retd)

On a bright late July morning in 1992, the pilots of the Army Aviation base in the Shyok River valley had lined up in their bright blue flying overalls for the annual administrative inspection. To reach the Shyok valley located at 12,600 feet and hemmed in by two mighty ranges, one had to cross the awe-inspiring Khardung la, the highest motorable pass in the world at 18,380 feet. Winding channels of the Shyok that originates from the Rimo Glacier and the Nubra river that flows from the snout of the Siachen glacier and joins at Diskit crisscross the wide and flat valley.

In July, the patches hugging the streams are lush green interspersed with shades of orange and yellow. Double humped Bactrian camels lazily swoosh around, adding a surreal beauty to the flight location that is otherwise drab and depressing. In the early nineties there used to be no electricity, telephone connectivity, feeble satellite dish TV reception and a local market that traded its summer cabbages and greens as well as chicken using a barter system. Money did not count for much then in this outlier.

The brigade commander duly arrived and was ceremonially received by the flight commander. As the pilots were being introduced, highlighting their flying ratings such as Master Green etc, a Jonga with a staff officer from the HQs screeched to a halt. The officer whispered something into the commander’s ears and the inspection came to a halt. We were instructed to quickly grab our flying helmets and maps and run to the helicopters neatly parked for the inspection. An emergency had been reported from a company post in the southern Siachen Glacier.

In the mid-eighties a chance reconnaissance expedition by the famous mountaineer, Col Narendra Kumar, had led the Indian Army to launch Operation Meghdoot in 1984 to secure the icy heights from an evident Pakistan aggression. If he had not undertaken this expedition, all of the Siachen Glacier, an area covering almost 10,000sqkm, would be of Pakistan today. This is how the highest battlefield in the world took shape. Siachen assumes strategic significance for India, Pakistan and even China because it forms a hub between Shaksgam Valley, Karakoram Pass and Aksai Chin. Therefore, holding Siachen is vital for India to prevent ingress not only from Pakistan but also from China. Life is tough at the Siachen Glacier, spread over a 76 km area, due to sub-zero temperatures that dip below minus 60 degrees Celsius, constant threat of avalanches, crevasses on the glacier, high-speed winds, and a range of potentially fatal altitude-related ailments like hypoxia.

Constant grab action attempts by Pakistan were then common. There was one such intrusion attempt in July 1992, wherein