Special Operations Case Studies Lessons For India

This book in four sections covers the ‘Operational Milieu and Special Operations’, ‘Successful Special Operations’, ‘Failed Special Operations’, and ‘Implications for India’. It covers regular, irregular and mixed operations under the rubric of hybrid warfare of select foreign militaries, and Indian experience in sub-conventional operations. A myriad of successful and failed special operations covering a span of over seven decades from 1943 onwards have been analyzed in detail, drawing lessons from each. The last Section, ‘Implications for India’, covers lessons, challenges and recommendations in three chapters. These highlight India’s adverse strategic asymmetry vis-a-vis China–Pakistan, inability of India to put in place SOF structures to optimize the considerable SF potential for employment at the strategic, operational and tactical levels, and ending up with policy recommendations.

Section I: Operational Milieu and Special Operations

1. Understanding Special Operations

2. Geostrategic Environment and Special Operations Forces

3. Indian Experience in Countering Asymmetric War

Section II: Successful Special Operations

1. Op ‘Gunnerside’ — The Norwegian Sabotage of Hitler’s Atomic Bomb (February 1943)

2. Op ‘Eiche’ — German Rescue of Benito Mussolini (September 1943)

3. Desert Raids by Indian Special Forces (December 1971)

4. Op ‘Jonathan’ — Israeli Raid on Entebbe (July 1976)

5. Op ‘Eland’ — Selous Scouts Raid on Nyadzonya (August 1976)

6. Op ‘Nimrod’ — SAS Raid on the Iranian Embassy in London (May 1980)

7. Op ‘Black Tornado’ — NSG Operations in Mumbai (November 2008)

8. Op ‘Neptune Spear’ — US Raid to Kill Osama bin Laden (May 2011)

9. Op ‘Hot Pursuit’ — Indian Raid on Insurgent Camps in Myanmar (2015)

10. Indian Raid on Terror Launch Pads in POK (September 2016)

Section III: Failed Special Operations

1. Op ‘Eagle Claw’ — Hostage Rescue from US Embassy in Tehran (April 1980)

2. IPKF Raid on Jaffna Unversity (October 1987)

Section IV: Implications For India

1. Lessons from The Study

2. Challenges India Faces

3. Policy Recommendations