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The Beleaguered Indian Soldier's Lost Combat Edge

Good to see the dogs dinner that India and its PSU's have made being taken up.This should have been done for the past 5 decades. Defending the a holes in DRDO, Defence PSU's, and the defence policy, which is seen by some as a religious duty, is an abomination which became clear to me when I visited HAL as part of a Thales contract. There is sickness that runs from the top to bottom which insists on ignoring the catastrophic failures and massaging its feeble achievments into earth shattering succeses
 
INSAS is a fairly good weapon. But it was designed for conventional warfare which is now not the case. Hence the need for it's replacement. On a firing range, I will take an INSAS any day. Its fire is accurate in both single and burst mode. So sorry my friend, you are off on this topic..

Finally..........one who has actually fired it and knows its virtues and limitations.

As for BP jackets of BPJs, our BPJs are around 12 kgs and NOT 20 kgs as you are projecting. It is slightly lighter than the US vests which have all round body protection unlike ours. So I am not sure you are right on the mark here too.
Again accurate.The 12 kg weight seems accurate,since each of the the level III steel plates weigh around 6 kg.And I would take this heavy sobs any day over those pesky ESAPI plates,which lose all their protective abilities after taking only a few hits .One hit from an M193,within 2' of an earlier hit,and it will be through the plate and me!!Where as,a steel plate can go and on for a much longer duration,can take far greater punishment yet continue to do its job - that is to save my @ss.The ESAPIs make sense only for the ones deployed in high altitudes for obvious reasons.Again,thanks for your point.

As for shoes, we have pretty strudy and heavy shoes as per ordnance factory issue. But I have yet to see any soldier wear the same for actual field deployment. They all use lightweight shoes which are adept for both mountain and desert warfare.
Thanks for this info,didn't know.

Good to see the dogs dinner that India and its PSU's have made being taken up.This should have been done for the past 5 decades. Defending the a holes in DRDO, Defence PSU's, and the defence policy, which is seen by some as a religious duty, is an abomination which became clear to me when I visited HAL as part of a Thales contract. There is sickness that runs from the top to bottom which insists on ignoring the catastrophic failures and massaging its feeble achievments into earth shattering succeses

And in order to bash the 'a holes in DRDO',you will just turn a blind eye on the 'A Holes in the Army',while according to this very article which you are basing your opinions on,clearly states that it's the Army who is the biggest culprit in delaying the FINSAS project??!!Great going man,you've done your country a great service really.
 
By Pradip R Sagar

Published: 19th Jul 2015 07:33:40 AM

NEW DELHI:The Pakistani Army hasn’t got any less aggressive, violatiece
ceasefire agreements and helping terrorists infiltrate the Indian border into Kashmir, but the top brass of the Indian Army seems more obsessed with foreign tours and backing the white horse Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) as the search for creating the perfect soldier continues. Sci-fi versions of an infantryman equipped with cutting-edge hi-tech weaponry and armour in the Terminator fashion has been on the army’s wish list for over a decade. However, its ambitious project of a ‘Smart Soldier’ has not materialised even after 10 years of its announcement.

Pakistani ministers are threatening to nuke India and its Rangers keep pounding border areas with mortar, but miles-long red tape carpeting the corridors of South Block has been constantly tripping up the key project, despite steadily escalating security threats from Pakistan and China. Meanwhile, taxpayers’ money is being spent on research ‘junkets’ and wasteful projects by DRDO. Nearly 4,000 Indian soldiers have been killed in the country after the Kargil operations in 1999, which alone claimed the lives of over 500 soldiers in savage, World War-I style of infantry attacks. The total number of army deaths since the first war with Pakistan is nearly 8,000, including 6,000 deaths counter-terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir.

To reduce casualties drastically, the army decided to ape the western world’s soldier modernisation programme. It conceived an ambitious project called 'Future Infantry Soldiers As A System' (F-INSAS) in 2005. It was announced with much fanfare by the then chief of army staff General J J Singh in 2007. Its prototype was aimed at providing the infantry soldier with lethality, mobility, survivability, sustainability, communications and situational awareness. The estimated budget of Rs 25,000 crore was earmarked for its first phase. But tenders were falling apart, and DRDO’s notorious performance and delivery record ensured that even rifles could not be given to jawans soon.

Though F-INSAS was primarily to be developed through a military-DRDO-indigenous industry partnership, senior officers like Gen JJ Singh along with other top officials of the Infantry Directorate visited countries like the US, Israel and France to assess foreign world’s respective soldier modernisation programmes during its planning stage. Subsequently, officials have been making foreign visits to study available weapons in the world for the required category and they enjoyed these trips at the expense of the national exchequer.

Fundamentally, the F-INSAS programme involves equipping over 305,000 infantry troops (359 battalions) and around 90,000 Rashtriya Rifles and Assam Rifles soldiers deployed on conventional, counter-insurgency operations or both with a modular, multi-caliber suite of weapons and body armour. It has over 50 items, which are required to be procured or developed indigenously.

Initially, the project, which was divided under four category, i.e. Weapons, Night sight, Equipment and Communication, was working under an independent unit in the Infantry Directorate. But, presently, the independent unit of F-INSAS was dismantled and clubbed under the infantry directorate since 2014.

Though the Infantry Directorate claims to have all items at various stages of procurement, it appears to be ‘unrealistic’ in near future, according to a senior officer of the army headquarters.

Sources indicated the army itself is primarily responsible for the delays as it is unable to formulate the basic qualitative requirements for many of the planned weapons.

“In many cases, the qualitative requirement has not even prepared. And in some cases, it has been made unrealistic. Like the primary assault rifle case, invited bidders failed to meet the requirements asked by the army, which resulted its cancellation after four years of deliberations,” said a defence ministry official.

“F-INSAS programme is long overdue and needs to be fast-forwarded as security threats posed by nuclear rivals Pakistan and China are steadily escalating,” the officer further said.

And to make matter worse, a fortnight back, Indian army cancelled its four-year-old hunt for the primary assault rifle after the rifles produced by the foreign vendors were found to be unsatisfactory and expensive. The army has been battling to replace its two-decade -old indigenous INSAS rifles, which has been a ‘disappointment’. It proposed to buy 66,000 5.56mm assault rifles to replace INSAS. The service has used the INSAS 5.56mm assault rifle since the 1990s despite complaints of technical faltering. Army and para-military forces have even complained that the 5.56mm rounds were of inferior quality, causing the weapons to misfire.

In 2011, the global tender for interchangeable double barrel rifle with a 5.56 primary barrel for anti-terrorist operations and 7.62mm secondary barrel for fighting a conventional war was floated. Colt (US), Beretta (Italy), Ceska (Czech Republic), Israeli Weapon Industry and Sig Sauer (Europe) responded.

“Now, the global tender has been cancelled as all competitors failed to clear trials, army is considering an option of procuring it through ‘make in India’ policy,” an officer said.

In the coming years, Indian infantry soldiers will progressively get equipment like light-weight integrated ballistic helmets with “heads-up display” and miniaturised communication systems; portable visual, chemical and biological sensors; hand-held computer displays, GPS and video links; “smart” vests with sensors to monitor vital body signs; and of course lethal firepower with laser-guided modular weapon systems.

A senior army officer blamed the defence ministry for preferring DRDO to design weapon systems and the wasteful Ordnance Factory Board and defence PSUs to produce them. “With the pace of DRDO and deliverable experience of state PSU and Ordnance Factory Boards, the project was bound to be delayed. And ongoing tussle in the MoD between the private and public players majorly responsible for the failure of the future soldier programme,”an officer said.



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The Beleaguered Indian Soldier's Lost Combat Edge -The New Indian Express
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Chalo bagoo yaan se
 
Indian army is comparable to WW1 Soviet Russia. Troops are complete and utter cannon fodder with the hope of victory by numbers.

The world has moved on since 1971. If there is war India is in for a rude awakening.
 
Indian army is comparable to WW1 Soviet Russia. Troops are complete and utter cannon fodder with the hope of victory by numbers.

The world has moved on since 1971. If there is war India is in for a rude awakening.

Whatever floats your boat.
 
The article is a POS. I could've done better just winging it.

Anyways, the infantry and artillery are going to finally get some attention under Modis govt. Theyll be ok 4-5 years.
 

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