Zarvan
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The Primary Army modernization is F INSAS Program, as earlier Mentioned all Indian infantry soldiers will be network connected into a smart system gives them clear view to the battle field, not only the network centric, but much better Fire arms and Bullet proof Jackets and communication systems, but the same pushed into another five to seven years, due to lack of several technologies and funds,
Mainly the basic fire arm, The Army soldiers using the decade old heavy Assault rifles with iron sights, lack of digital scopes,and Fore grips makes the soldiers less combat effective in current warfare, under the modernization all such rifles were changed and replaced with modern carbines, the same is on the Machine gun and sub machine gun, but the Sniper role is even worsen than the above all, The Army uses Dragnov for Sniping purpose actually a less effective Designated marksman rifle, But those will be replaced by world standard .339 laupua magum Sniper Rifles for long range and precession Kills.
Another is the Anti tank supportive system, India has huge numbers of French made Milan ATGM's for anti tank role, those heavy man portable systems need two man's for firing and setting up the Missile and it's launching pod. those 2nd generation systems uses wire guidance technology, means a talented Soldier only can operate it, the Soldier need to keep the Enemy target with his visual and guide the missile to bang on the Target, if he missed the Tank's Visual then he loose the Target, But they were Replaced by Israeli made third Generation Fire and forget missiles, it requires single man can set up the missile for launch, can hide anywhere from the tank's sights, because the missile uses the Laser guidance and parabolic trajectory to strike the Tanks in it's week point, also bit smarter when engaged by enemy tank's active protection systems. the contract already made up with the Israeli firm, and they will complete the delivery before 2020.
The MANPAD- Man portable air defense missile, the tender almost floated early 2008, due to the failed results of foreign products, they asked for more time to evaluate the missile and works good in High altitudes, those manpad missiles can work well in normal area's and Rajastani hot seasons, but can't works well in the High altitude area's Siachin and leh area's. It's expected that India will announce the winner of the tender and will start making the contract soon.
same goes for Army's Air defense, from small AAA which is changed as C-RAM now, to long range Missiles, the Army has evaluating the Russian SOSNA QR SAM to replace vintage soviet made mobile SR SAM batteries, also Army negotiating the government to supply the land based Barak 8 missile for long range support, but these takes time to implement, may be those will be discussed later 2020, once Navy and air force get enough number of systems,
India recently signed a contract with state owned BEL for connecting all army outposts into a single system to watch and command the post from the heart of India. allows quick support to the designated area by air force or nearby army squads. the system also connect the patrolling soldiers with the command center at 24x7 gives exact locations about the current position of the Soldiers, include the soldiers hear beat and thermal readings. BEL plans to start the work by coming 2017. and they didn't confirmed the exact finishing time, it takes years to connect some 1 million soldiers and more than lakhs of command out posts,
The Basic Bullet Proof is a main part of the modernization, apart from one side heart saving vests to full body armor ballistic vests saves the Soldiers from deadly 7.62x39 mm bullets, the AK 47 and other AK Series uses the same bullets, currently those bullet proof jackets can't save the soldier from such heavy bullets, but with the ballistic armor plates in the new Bullet proof jackets can save the soldiers from larger caliber bullets, Army yet to float a tender to acquire them , But it's clear the Latest ballistic vest can be delivered only after 2018, same goes for Army soldier's shoe, recently Ministry floats a tender to acquire high mobility shoes to replace soldiers heavy boots.
The FICV is the another major project, army almost in talks with several Indian private players to supply some 2500 new FICV's with modern Cannons and Anti tank missiles, but it also takes atleast ten plus years to completes the larger orders, and the main battle tanks, Currently army has sufficient numbers of Main Battle Tanks, but Army should derived a plan to build future Tanks by now, then only they get those tanks by the correct time. the FRCV already floated and it's need only after 2025, the Army should receive those FRCV by coming 2025.
Another major issue is the air cover for the battlefield Soldiers. the Army needs hundreds of micro lite battlefield UAV's to bigger long endurance Drones and some Attack drones for strike purposes. the army has sufficient numbers of long endurance drones, but their numbers should be increased by coming years, to fill the cap of blind area's, Army also evaluating various micro lite UAV's now, and they get those good numbers of UAV's early 2020.
Army Air power, the Army has allowed to use rotary wings for Transport, Reconnaissance and attack missions, The Army started receiving the Indian Made HAL Dhurv's, which shows good performance in recent Nepal Humanitarian mission, no other helicopters performed well in High altitude, even American and British Helicopters. the Light Utility Helicopter tender is a saga or game its floated again and again but canceled, but army can sticks with the Mi 17 and Dhruv's for Transport and reconnaissance missions, But for attack missions the LCH is almost ready and will enter full scale production by 2020, also the army has an order of some 20+40 Rudra Attack helicopters in First batch.
The Army's biggest fire power contentious bombardment, yes the Artillery and Rocket Artillery, the Artillery programs slowly stepping up as small Towed Tracked and Self propelled variants, Army has a requirement of more than 3000 artillery's in various types, if all goes on correct schedule army will have all those Artillery's by 2025.
Life of Soldiers: Modernization of Indian Army
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