Indian Army News & Discussions

[ejaz007]

Singapore Tech Banned From Indian Gun Bid
By vivek raghuvanshi
Published: 12 Nov 2009 13:13


NEW DELHI - Singapore Technologies will not be allowed to participate in an Indian tender for 155mm ultra-light artillery guns because it was named in an alleged corruption scandal in June this year by India's fraud investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The move is the outcome of the latest circular from the Indian Defence Ministry, which does not allow tainted defense companies to participate in the procurement process pending a full CBI report, ministry sources said.

"Where the tender process has not started, there should be no dealing with the companies in the First Information Report until finalization of the investigation," a ministry source added.

With South African company Denel still blacklisted in India following a 2005 bribery case, Singapore Technologies was the front runner in the $1 billion tender to provide 155mm light howitzers for the Army's use in mountainous terrain.

The government has frozen the howitzer tender for now because only one bidder, BAE Systems, remains, and single-vendor defense procurements are not permitted.

In June 2009, seven companies were added to the list of those banned from Defence Ministry procurement bids: Singapore Technologies, Israel Military Industries, Poland's BVT, Singapore's Media Architects, and domestic companies HYT Engg, T.S. Kishan and R.K. Machine Tools. All seven figured in corruption charges filed against the former director-general of India's Ordnance Factory Board, Sudipta Ghosh. The Defence Ministry had blacklisted these seven companies following advice from the CBI, but the latest circular officially ends Singapore Technologies' part in the ultra-light howitzer tender.

Singapore Tech Banned From Indian Gun Bid - Defense News

 

[sudhir007]

Reality check: Army at only 50% of its capabilities

While Pakistan is flush with funds and weapons from the United States, and China is modernising its military on a massive scale, the Indian army has presented a bleak picture of its capabilities. The army has admitted to having achieved only 50% of the capabilities required to defend the country’s borders and fight insurgency in the north-east and Jammu & Kashmir.

Worse, it will take another 20 years to achieve 100% capability to repel any act of aggression, the army has revealed in an internal assessment report submitted before members of the standing committee on defence.

According to the army’s ’state of capability development’ assessment, most of its arms, including the infantry, artillery and armoured, would achieve 100% capability only by around 2027.

Beijing has for long been flaunting its capabilities along the border, where it has built up all-weather infrastructure up to the last posts which are equipped with modern amenities.
The shortfall in Indian capability is attributed to the delay in the acquisition of modern systems. The report says the infantry, artillery and mechanised forces have achieved about 60% of the capability required.

The projection is worst in case of combat helicopters, where the army has achieved just 17% capability. The army believes it would achieve 100% combat chopper capability only by the end of the 14th five-year plan in 2027.

The army’s efforts at emerging as a modern military with full network-centric capability would also be achieved by 2027 — currently, the capability stands at 24%. The concept refers to integration of the army into a force sharing real-time information using several networks, improving situation awareness and fighting capabilities.

Equally worrisome is the capability of the key fighting arms of the army.

The artillery has just 52% of the total capability required to defend the country. The figure would touch 97% only by the end of 2027, the report said.

The situation is the result of a lack of any major acquisitions in artillery since the Bofors scandal in the late 1980s. Subsequent scandals involving companies such as Denel and Singapore Technologies, both of which have been blacklisted, further crippled modernisation of the artillery.

The infantry, the army admits in the report, has only achieved 65% of its capability. It will reach the 100% mark only by 2027. The infantry wants to replace its indigenous INSAS rifles, acquire night fighting capabilities, new generation anti-tank missiles and rockets, and better protection for its soldiers.

The armoured regiments have reached 71% of the capability development, the best compared to other arms. The army is producing T-90 tanks indigenously, besides inducting 126 indigenous Arjun tanks. It is also looking at night fighting capability, NBC (nuclear-biological-chemical) protection, and enhanced air manoeuvre capability.
The mechanised units of the army have achieved 62% of the required capabilities, while the engineers have achieved 60%. Special forces and para units have achieved 69% of the capabilities required.

Overall, if one were to take the average of individual arms’ then the army’s “state of capability development” is just over 51%, the report says.

Next Saras prototype by 2010-end IDRW.ORG

 

[RPK]

The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Nation | Tanks and carriers on army shopping list

New Delhi, Nov. 15: The Indian Army is in the market to buy hundreds of new troops carriers and tanks to reshape and re-inforce its mechanised forces, partly for deployment in high-altitude border zones and partly for counter-insurgency operations.

On the army’s shopping list are infantry combat vehicles, armoured personnel carriers and light tanks.

It has issued requests for information to buy 300 light tanks and 100 armoured personnel carriers (APCs). It expects to increase the total number of new APCs to 500 in five years.

The army is also looking to buy an unspecified number of Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICVs) to replace the Soviet-origin BMP-I and BMP-II machines. There are more than a 1,000 BMPs in service with the army’s mechanised forces.

Infantry Combat Vehicles and APCs are comparable — each is capable of carrying nine to 11 troops with equipment into an offensive. But ICVs have greater firepower.

The Indian Army wants an ICV that can be mounted with a cannon, a machine gun and anti-tank guided missiles.

The Strykers, deployed by the US in a joint exercise (Yudh Abhyas 09) with the Indian Army in Babina last month, are also in the sameleague. The US used Bradley fighting vehicles, now being replaced by the Strykers, in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

An army source said the light tanks were to be deployed in high-altitude areas, particularly along the border with China.

The army maintains a small unit of heavy T-55 and T-90 tanks in North Sikkim, near the China border.

But the heavy T-90 — the army’s main battle tank — is incapable of negotiating the hairpin bends in the mountains. Light tanks are expected to be able to perform the task better.

The army wants the light tanks for all-terrain use. It is looking to buy 200 wheeled and 100 tracked light tanks. The source said the number of tanks to be procured was likely to be increased from 300.

For all the platforms — ICVs, APCs and light tanks — the defence ministry will want to buy a small number off the shelf and insist on a transfer of technology agreement with the vendor.

The Indian Army is in the process of raising two new mountain divisions. Each division will have about 17,000 troops. The first is likely to start deployment in the Northeast, including the Arunachal border, by the end of the year.

 

[RPK]

Barracuda pitches camouflage system to Indian Army | StratPost

Saab’s unit Barracuda Camouflage has pitched its products to the Indian Army, for both vehicles as well as individual troops. The firm’s Mobile Camouflage System or MCS was tested at Suratgarh last summer, by the CVRDE (Combat Vehicles Research & Development Establishment), Chennai and the Defence Laboratory, Jodhpur. The CVRDE makes many of India’s armored vehicles, including the Arjun Main Battle Tank (MBT)

While normally camouflaged tanks were spotted by six spotters over a distance of 2400 meters, vehicles with the benefit of the MCS were could only be spotted at a distance of 1600 meters. “So then the relative advantage is 800 meters,” says Naresh Ummat, Managing Director of Barracuda Camouflage.

According to Ummat, a global tender was issued in 2007. “We had to study the product and the temperatures involved. We made some preliminary fittings. We gave them three sets of mobile camouflage. While in the field it must perform with the given parameters, it must also adhere to what the company claims in the laboratory,” he says.

The Indian Army, he says, is also interested in the MCS for its T-72 and T-90 tanks. Ummat says the camouflage has already been supplied for Prithvi missiles in the Indian Army.

One feature of this camouflage system is that it works to try and bring the temperature variance of the vehicle and the surrounding environment to within four degrees Celsius.

Barracuda has also offered its individual soldier-specific Special Operations Tactical Camouflage Suiting. This system, when tested by the Indian Army’s Northern Command, denied detection to 45 meters, where ordinarily it was 200 meters. The SOTCS is also available for all kinds of terrain including jungle, snow, desert etc. “We have now been asked for laboratory tests. This should happen in the next two weeks. We should be able to get a consolidated report within a month,” says Ummat, who also expects the army to be interested in MCS systems for 30 per cent of its armored vehicles

 

[brahmastra]

Murky Competition for $2B India Howitzer Order May End Soon… Or Not


:: Bharat-Rakshak.com - Indian Military News Headlines ::

 

[ironman]

Barracuda pitches camouflage system to Indian Army | StratPost

 

[RPK]

Army to get 600 avalanche victim detectors in J&K

fullstory


Jammu, Nov 18 (PTI) With high altitude mountainous belts in the state already under heavy snowfall, army is procuring around 600 state-of-art technological equipments for its use in the avalanche prone areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

The army's northern command has already issued tenders for purchase of 600 Avalanche Victim Detector (Triple Antenna) for its use in the mountainous belts of Kashmir, Ladakh and Jammu and other vital areas in the state.

"These AVDs would be used for locating victims caught in avalanches in the mountainous belts. This is of most importance for the troops serving in the high altitude and mountainous areas," a senior officer said.

The AVDs would be available to troops serving in Kargil, Siachen, Batalik, Sonamargh, Leh, Niyoma, Tangdhar, Kupwara, Bandipora, Banihal, Warwan, Kishtwar, Baramulla, Gurez, Karen, Doda, Poonch, Mahore and Rajouri.

 

[beckham]

Scam casualty: Army Deputy Chief's posting is cancelled


In the first major fallout of an Army probe into a land scam in Darjeeling, the Ministry of Defence has cancelled the appointment of Lt Gen P K Rath, who is being investigated in the case, as Deputy Chief of Army Staff.
Sources said the Ministry has written to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), withdrawing the appointment of Rath as Deputy Chief due to the ongoing Court of Inquiry (CoI) into the land scam which has also brought two other serving Lt Generals under the scanner. The process to appoint a new Deputy Chief has been initiated, the sources said.

While Rath has been attached to Kolkata for the inquiry, one of the seniormost officers of the Army, Lt Gen Avadhesh Prakash, who is the Military Secretary (MS) at Army HQ, has also been called for questioning. This has caused a lot of discomfort in military circles as the MS is in charge of making all key appointments in the Army.

The case involves granting of NOCs (no-objection certificates) against norms for transfer of 70 acres near the 33 Corps HQ in Sukna to an educational institution that posed as an affiliate of Ajmer’s Mayo College.

Defence Minister A K Antony has sent a strongly-worded note to Army HQ, asking it to conclude the inquiry soon and fix responsibility at the earliest.

Antony, who has also ordered a separate inquiry, has written that the involvement of senior officers in such matters is “not only damaging the image of the Indian Army” but will also “adversely affect the ability of senior officers to measure up to the expectations of the men they lead”.

The repeated involvement of senior officers in such cases, Antony warned, would in the long run “weaken the ability of the armed forces to ably handle ever increasing security challenges”. He also instructed the Army to ensure that a clear message is sent that corruption is “dealt with absolute sternness and promptness”.

Sources said that while the Army had requested that the post of Deputy Chief of Army Staff be kept vacant till the conclusion of the inquiry, it was overruled by the Ministry.

 

[brahmastra]

Thermal Imaging system for T-72 tanks

New Delhi, Nov 23 (PTI) The Russian-made T-72 tank fleet of the Indian Army is undergoing an upgradation programme to equip thermal imaging capabilities to its night vision system, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Defence Minister A K Antony told the Lower House in a written reply during question hour that the process of upgrading the night fighting capabilities of the T-72 tanks with thermal imaging was an ongoing process.

He said the fleet was being optimally used and was the mainstay of the present tank fleet. "The entire fleet of this tank is fully battle worthy with high mission and operational reliability."

Of the total holding of T-72 tanks, a part of them was already equipped with high-end technology night vision device, which was fully integrated and exploited, he said.

India currently operates about 1,800 T-72 tanks.

 

[sudhir007]

New grenades to replace those of World War II vintage

World War II vintage hand grenades – often dubbed as duds – in use with the Indian Army will finally be replaced with the defence ministry approving the indigenous mass production of the multi-mode grenade.

Defence Minister A.K. Antony in a written reply to Rajya Sabha said: ‘Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has developed multi-mode grenade which has been cleared for bulk production.’

Antony also discredited reports that 30 percent hand-grenades used by the Indian Army proved to be duds.

‘No such survey (of defective grenades) has been carried out. As per records available for the period from 2005-2009 out of total grenades used in training only 0.002 percent defect reports were raised,’ Antony said.

‘Certain defects were reported in 1994-1995 and in the subsequent years. Thereafter, product improvements were carried out with the result that the defect reports…were considerably lower in number,’ Antony added.

New grenades to replace those of World War II vintage IDRW.ORG

 

[RPK]

Army in Ladakh to be provided with solar energy: Centre

Jammu: In a bid to reduce their dependence on fuels, the Centre today said that solar energy would be provided to Army personnel deployed in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

A comprehensive project for the purpose is under consideration of the Centre, union secretary for New and Renewal Energy Deepak Gupta said, while chairing a high-level meeting here.

The meeting was informed that work on 800 kW three hydel power projects is going on in full swing in Ladakh, which are expected to be completed by September next year.


Gupta asked concerned officers to assess the potential and feasibility of micro hydro power and renewable energy projects for harnessing in the state.

He called for furnishing list of completed projects and handed over projects to respective district administrations and village level committees for proper upkeep and maintenance.

The meeting held threadbare discussions on construction of micro-hydel projects, establishment of solar lighting system, transmission and distribution system and subsidy related issues in the state.

 

[brahmastra]

New force to man hostile creeks along Indo-Pak border


Sir Creek (Gujarat), Nov 27 (PTI) In order to thwart landing of terrorists through the sea route, BSF has formed its first commando unit -- Creek Crocodiles -- to man the hostile creek area where India shares border with Pakistan.

Creeks are a very hostile terrain constituting of numerous raised grounds having mangroves and a network of water channels which are quite shallow where all movements are tide dependent.

Creek Crocodiles are trained to thwart any evil designs from across the border, BSF Commandant Pushpendrasinh Rathore, who is training the commando unit at Koteshwar outpost of BSF, told PTI.

 

[RPK]

fullstory

Army displays firepower near Sino-Indian border

Gangtok, Nov 26 (PTI) The Black Cat Division of the Army today showcased its military firepower during a demonstration which was open to the public, at Chhangu Lake near the Sino-India border.

The peaceful ambience around the Chhangu Lake reverberated with the firing on mock target from Bofors guns, field guns and mortars during the exercise named 'Fireball', an army release said here.

The aerial capability of the army was displayed by the high speed and versatile Cheetah helicopters in a mock drill for tactical support to ground troops, it said.

Communication, engineering and logistics equipments were also on display.

Operation Fireball was attended by Sikkim Assembly Speaker K T N Gyaltsen, HRD Minister N K Pradhan and senior army officials.

 

[RPK]

Gallantry awards for Army's lifeline


BANGALORE: The Pioneer Corps, known as the lifeline of the Indian Army, has completed 250 years in the service of the nation. To commemorate the occasion, a Special Day Cover was released by Lt General S S Kumar, quartermaster general and colonel commandant of the Pioneer Corps, here on Thursday.

Addressing the troops, the colonel commandant said the present security scenario demands high vigilance and called upon them to be alert.

A biennial conference of senior officers, wreath-laying ceremony, band display, barakhana for the troops were held as part of the 250th anniversary. The QMG also presented the best pioneer unit rolling trophy for 2008-2009 to 1807 Pioneer Unit.

A two-minute silence was observed to pay homage to those who died during the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

 

[RPK]

fullstory

Marwah takes over as commander of 15th Corps

Srinagar, Nov 30 (PTI) Lt Gen N C Marwah today assumed charge as Corps commander of Srinagar-based 15th Corps succeeding Lt Gen Bikram Singh.

Singh handed over the command of the prestigious Chinar Corps to Marwah at a simple ceremony held in the corps. Singh proceeds to Army Headquarters as Director General Staff Duties.

Before transferring of charge, both the General Officers laid floral wreaths at the Corps War Memorial and paid rich tributes to the brave martyrs of the Corps.

Marwah, an alumni of National Defence Academy, was commissioned into the Kumaon Regiment in 1973. A graduate of Defence Services Staff College and College of Defence Management, the General Officer had varied command and staff appointments during his career spanning 36 years.

He was Additional Director General Military Operations prior to assuming command of Chinar Corps.