Attack on the Pakistan naval base mirrors LTTE strikes
Sandeep Unnithan May 23, 2011 | UPDATED 21:08 IST
The July 24, 2001 attack against Colombo's Kattunayaka military airbase carried out by 14 Black Tiger suicide commandos was the most lethal guerilla attack against a country's military aviation assets. It completely destroyed ten aircraft including two Airbuses, attack helicopters and fighter aircraft and damaged 15 other aircraft. The second attack by 21 Black Tigers against the fortified Anuradhapura military base in October 2007 destroyed 10 aircraft including helicopters and surveillance aircraft and damaged ten others.
The attacks seem to have a common modus operandi. Over a dozen suicide terrorists are usually involved in these pre-dawn attacks as they overrun the base from multiple directions. The terrorists are armed with heavy weapons including rocket propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices to be used against the aircraft. (The ten 26/11 Mumbai attackers carried AK-47s and grenades because their primary intent was to cause mass civilian casualties and hold out against the security forces).
The number of casualties in such attacks against aviation assets is comparatively low because the primary targets are aircraft. The LTTE's 2001 attack was aimed at simultaneously hitting the Sri Lankan economy and its military capability to launch air attacks to the north of the country. The 2007 attack was purely intended to degrade Sri Lankan military capability as it advanced towards the LTTE bastions.
In the case of Karachi, the target appears to be the eight US-supplied P3C Orion long range maritime patrol and strike aircraft, refurbished at a cost of $474 million. The attack took place despite all Pakistan armed forces bases going on heightened alert following the TTP's threat of retaliation over the May 1 killing of Osama bin Laden in a US military raid on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
One of the important lessons of the Second World War was the need for dispersing military aircraft to prevent them from being taken out in a pre-emptive first strike. In the opening hours of Operation Barbarossa, the Luftwaffe destroyed over 800 Soviet aircraft parked on the ground in forward air bases. The Indian air force raised a 1500-strong 'Garud' special forces in 2004 after studying the Kattunayaka airbase attack. They realized their airbases were extremely vulnerable such pre-emptive strikes by non-state actors.
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