ZIPRA was vitiated by a long-standing debate on military strategy. It was not a sudden Moscow diktat wich created the most secret ZIPRA plan: Operation Zero Hour. This envisaged a co-ordinated general offensive on several fronts simultaneously. Five regular battalions with artillery support were to seize bridgeheads in the northern front at Kenyemba, Chirundu and Kariba to enable ZIPRA troops to cross with armour and artillery. At the same time attacks were to be mounted on the airfields at Kariba, Victoria Falls and Wankie, which would be secured to enable the transfer of ZIPRA MiGs from Angola. The principal objective was to enable regular troops to seize and hold the strategic rear bases along the border in support of the offensive to be launched from within Rhodesia.
As the offensive moved in-country, guerilla units already in place would sabotage transport links to undermine the Rhodesian counter-offensive, which would be further slowed by urban warfare. Zero Hour was planned for the start of the 1979 rainy season, October or November. Far from encouraging this plan, the Soviets refused to release ZIPRA pilots in training in the USSR. Rhodesian raids on the army being assembled on the Zambian border delayed Zero Hour, which was ultimately aborted by the Lancaster House talks.