Unity in Combat: PAF-Army Synergy in Marka-e-Haq |
Modern war requires disciplined forces that operate to create synergies. The subject has been extensively discussed and debated by academics and military strategists worldwide. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a former President of the US, is one such strategist who asserted that, “Separate ground, sea, and air warfare is gone forever. If ever again we should be involved in war, we will fight it in all elements, with all services, as one single concentrated effort.” It is against this backdrop that the world witnessed an impressive exhibition of interoperability between the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) and the Pakistan Army during Marka-e-Haq in May 2025.
Interoperability among the Pakistan Armed Forces has existed for a long time. The 1965 and 1971 Pakistan-Indiawars provided ample examples in which different services of Pakistan’s Armed Forces, particularly the PAF and Pakistan Army, operated in synergy to achieve joint objectives. However, this interoperability was not institutionalised until 1976, when Pakistan established the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC). It was essentially an administrative body of high-ranking uniformed military leaders, whose main role was to advise the government and to streamline interoperability among the sister services.
Marka-e-Haq was the first instance in which the PAF and Pakistan Army operated under a partially shared situational awareness construct, facilitated by temporary liaison nodes and a parallel data-sharing mechanism established under Joint........