Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 6 INDIA'S ASSERTIVE COMMAND SYSTEM—A CLOSER LOOK
Development Organization and, second, to the Chief of the Air Staff, to support,
via prearranged procedures, the fabrication of India's distributed components
into complete and usable weapon systems.
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The Air Chief would be obligated to
provide all the major transportation assets necessary to completing the processes
of integration as well as to generate the alerts required to prepare the designated
attack (and supporting) units for the nuclear delivery mission. The last individual
relevant to completing this process is the Chief of Army Staff or the Director-
General, Military Operations, who is likely to be responsible for allocating the
small security details necessary to escort the various custodians en route to the
assembly areas.
While these organizational arrangements exploit what are clearly formal
command relationships within the Indian state, the operational dimensions of
integrating India's nuclear weapons and preparing them for delivery rely greatly
on
informal,
but quite well understood, 'standard operating procedures'
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which
regulate the actions of the various custodians and their supporting cast: the key
points of contact within the DAE and DRDO communities, the Air Force transport
and attack squadrons, and the Army units committed to the security detail.
What is remarkable about this system in general is how informality, unwritten
rules, and 'work-arounds' have been utilized to construct a relatively flexible
command system that serves the operational needs of the national leadership
even as it preserves the preexisting structural balances within the Indian state.
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The failure to appreciate the utility of such arrangements within the Indian
