38 SECTION 9 : SURPRISE AND DECEPTION “Generally, in a conflict, The Straightforward will lead to engagement and The Surprising will lead to triumph”. – Sun Tzu, The Art of War. Surprise 3.23 Surprise in war is a potent force multiplier. The payoffs of surprise are almost always in geometric proportions and it multiplies the chances of achieving quick and decisive military victory. As a decisive factor at all levels of warfare, and duly acknowledged as an autonomous principle of war, surprise allows the side that achieves it to concentrate superior forces unnoticed at the point of decision and to beat the opponent in terms of time, place, method or new technologies. The purpose of surprise, in essence, is to make the enemy react in an irrational and uncoordinated manner. 3.24 Strategic surprise can herald both the beginning and the end of a war. Considering the scope of its effects and the level at which it is planned, the phenomenon of military surprise can be classified as strategic, operational or tactical. However, in practice, the distinction between the strategic and operational and operational and tactical surprise is often hazy and they invariably tend to overlap. With battlefield transparency improving by the day, the ability to effect true surprise is progressively reducing. Military planners, therefore, need to concentrate more on deception, as a good and wellcoordinated deception plan would help to achieve surprise. Deception 3.25 Deception needs to be developed as an integral component of peacetime and wartime national security policy. Deception is intentional, purposeful, calculated and deliberate. The target of deception should be the adversary’s decisionmaking system. Deception should create perceptions and thereafter reinforce them. Deception should aim at misleading an adversary with regard to detectable information, whether