By Air Cmde TK Chatterjee(retd)
On March 9 2022 a Brahmos cruise missile was accidentally fired by the crew from somewhere in western India and it landed at Mian Channuin Pakistan. The missile was not armed, in that it did not carry a warhead, so there was no explosion and there was no damage to life or property. India immediately acknowledged that it was an accidental launch and ‘deeply regretted’ the incident and Pakistan in its turn did not retaliate in kind but demanded a joint inquiry. A rare but a welcome display of maturity from both governments.
While IAF did not divulge any details of the misfire, as is usual with Indian defence establishments, Pakistan ISPR published the missile track.
Since the missile turned through 90 degrees before it entered Pakistan, it is obvious that there were some routings programmed, as part of probable simulation, which the missile followed. This is of course assuming that the track put out by Pakistani authorities is correct. The total silence by Indian defence authorities on details of an accident is sometimes counterproductive. I remember an exercise between IAF and USAF held at one our bases in a state that was then being governed by a leftist government. There were some government sponsored anti USA demonstrations outside the airbase and the consequent media attention was inevitable. In absence of any official media briefings, media was reporting events based on inputs from the class IV employees of the airbase whom they could access. It was then realized that it is perhaps better to say something than say nothing and allow misinformation to the media. This latest accident demonstrates that we have not changed much.
Also Read: Pakistan calls India’s action over Brahmos missile incident ‘inadequate’, reiterates demand for joint probe
As reported in the media, the missile was accidentally fired during activation of a dummy missile by the unit personnel. It is reported that SOPs were violated and hence the missile fired. A cruise missile that can carry nuclear warhead has many levels of safety mechanisms. The launch protocols are multi layered and quite idiot proof. In all such high value systems it is the underlying principle that if there is a breach of protocol or a technical malfunction, the error is to be on safer side, meaning a ‘no-go’. So, the fact that the missile got launched is surprising. But there is something called the Murphy’s Law, which states that ‘if something can go wrong, it will’, and perhaps that is what happened in this case.
But what is more surprising is the alacrity with which the punitive measures were meted out by the government to the three defaulters, after a mere Court of Inquiry, which is only empowered to collect facts and apportion blame but has no powers to recommend punitive measures. There is no denying that the errors made by the missile crew in their respective operational and supervisory roles were grave since the incident could have had serious consequences internationally. But the AF Act provides for some more steps before a guilty is subjected to the coup-de-grâce. Government of India has indeed the powers to dismiss armed forces personnel summarily, which denies them all pensionary benefits, but this is a power that, it is assumed, is used in the rarest of rare cases. Was this case one of them?
In my career of more than three decades, I have seen many acts of omission and commission committed. Have seen fully serviceable aircrafts getting written off in human error accidents, there have been instances of ships exploding or ramming into each other, fratricide supposedly in the fog of war, but have not seen any instance of such hurried dispensation of justice. People got punished but nobody got dismissed due to accidents. If this is the trend, then imagine the punishment that should be awarded to the willful negligence of the Boeing staff who caused the two major accidents, involving 346 lives, in the sordid saga of the Boeing 737 Max flight control laws!
This is a country where justice is invariably delayed, even if not denied. Hence such quickfire reaction of the government definitely points to some motive other than just exemplary retribution in order to correct a faulty system.
Accidents are funny things; you don’t have them till you actually have them. This is not the first and this will definitely not be the last. If the government’s actions of dismissing the personnel was to tell the world,especially our neighbors, that we are a responsible country, capable of managing our WMDs, then we have not achieved much. Pakistan has rejected our verdict on the case and still demands a joint probe, to which India, quite rightly, is not expected to agree. In such a case, should we not feel that those three officers who are summarily dismissed are but victims of collateral damage?
Author is Indian Air Force Veteran.
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