Hunt on for new generation assault rifles; Excalibur not a replacement

Hunt on for new generation assault rifles; Excalibur not a replacement

     When it comes to the Army, a modern, reliable assault rifle is the very basic - the primary weapon of an infantry soldier posted either on the border or deployed for counter militancy missions in the hinterland.

    However, despite a four year process to select a new generation rifle to replace the glitch prone Indian made INSAS, the Army is still not close to a viable option, with a new desi weapon being pushed by DRDO getting mixed reviews during ongoing user trials.

   With the INSAS rifle - developed by DRDO and introduced in service in 1996 - not adequately meeting its requirements, the Army started the search for a new basic weapon in 2011. The contract was cancelled earlier this year - contenders failed to meet the stringent requirements - and a new variant of the INSAS, called the Excalibur, was fielded by DRDO.

    The new rifle is being tested presently by the Army at two locations, with trials now at the final stage and results expected by February. However, several officials that ET spoke with say that the results till now have been mixed, with one team finding the rifle inadequate and the other seeing it as an improvement over the INSAS.

  While the final results will take a few more weeks to come in, Army officials say that while the Excalibur would be an improvement over the INSAS, it would at best be a replacement rifle. "The Excalibur is an upgraded version of the INSAS, it is not a new rifle but the older weapon has been given additional features," a senior Army officer said.

    But on the Army's parameters for a futuristic assault rifle, the Excalibur fails to make the cut. "It is at best a replacement for the INSAS rifles in service but for a future weapon, the rifle simply does not have the technical qualities," another officer told ET.

    The Army is in urgent need to get a replacement for the INSAS but is also keen to get a world class  product. Army officials have told ET that the ideal process would involve a fair competition in which the Excalibur also takes part to determine the best weapon systems suited for the Indian combat environment.

Article first published in Economic Times

Hawk-eye of the battlefield - Battle Field Management System

Battle Field Management System (BMS) providing commanders with real time battlefield information

Source - Net 

    The situation on a battlefield is fluid and keeps changing rapidly. More the awareness of the happening of the battlefield, better decisions can be made and better counter-measures be deployed and thus a promising victory. But in a fluid environment, the situation keeps varying and the only way any situational awareness can be attained is by maintaining eyes and ears in the battlefield. Can this mission be left to the human beings? Can the mission be carried out by increasing the reconnaissance missions? Or is there any technology, which not only works on the battlefield but also keeps tab of the activities? The answer is simply implementing a management system that can manage the battle field activities named the BMS.

    Battlefield management system (BMS) is a state-of-the-art system which promises the helps in rapid acquisition and processing of information relating to the battlefield. This process of rapid acquisition and processing of information helps to greatly enhance the command and control cycle of a military unit. Charged with the BMS, a military unit can have a complete situational awareness of the battlefield. The BMS displays all crucial data required by a Field Commander at any given point of time, hence enhancing the decision making capability of the unit. In the chaos of battle, the ability to manage and control events at combat levels, as they unravel on the battlefield is the key to the success of an operation. BMS thus helps in maintaining a situational analysis and decision-making pertaining to the battlefield.

Source - Tarmak 007

 

  BMS is a highly versatile, flexible, multilevel and fully inter-operable tactical command and control information system providing ground forces from the level of a Commander down to the individual soldier – with integrated situation awareness, a common communication infrastructure, collaborative planning tools and knowledge-based command and control capabilities.

       The need for a BMS in the Indian Army has been echoing for years and was felt clearly after the Kargil operation. Indian army has been actively studying the BMS implemented across the globe. Indian army has the ambition of implementing a reliable BMS with around INR 50000 Crore/ $ 8 billion. Indian Army has already floated an International tender for equipping the army with a BMS under the ToT or Make in India campaign. The competition for the tender has been intense and various companies have formed working groups with Indian giants to equip the army, with the latest BMS system.

Source - Net

Source - Net

    Rolta in collaboration with Bharat Electronics (BEL) has been actively pitching for their latest BMS system for the project. Tata Power SED and L&T Defence have also formed reliable working partnership to field their system. Both these working partners will now develop a BMS individually and will then field the same for field tests. The selected BMS will be rapidly inducted and the selected company will be reimbursed with 80% of the development cost. The first Prototype of the BMS would available with the army by 2017 for field testing which would last for around a year.

    BEL has been selected as a ‘developmental agency’ and is charged with the development of every aspect relating to the project. BEL has also established a testing hotbed for BMS, which enables continuous evaluation and implementation of user requirements. BEL has been a key partner of DRDO in the development of several Tactical Command, Control and Communications & Intelligence (Tac C3I) systems being used by the Indian Army. Having worked as the developer and integrator of several Tac C3I systems, BEL have a unmatched knowledge regarding the Indian army needs.

       With newer and newer technology reaching the battle-filed, it remains evolving every second and with the advent of more lethal weaponry the battlefield has been turned out to be extremely chaotic. But technology like BMS has now made it possible for battlefield commanders to see their areas of responsibility in depth and in real time, and has also helped to develop an accurate common picture of the battle space. This can further be shared right to the bottom of the command with a click of the button. This has been made possible only by enabling rapid acquisition, processing and transfer of information, enhancing situational awareness and acquiring capability to react to information. 

    The Management of the information available on the battlefield is crucial and decides the course of the war. The information management is war course decider and the implementation of these decision needs to e precise. The BMS is a third generation warfare system. This third generation system effectively digitizes the battlefield. The sensors and weapons which are used in current warfare are now using extensive digital technology. The sensors, weapons and units which help in enabling the digital technology collectively help in integrating and bolstering the usages of Battle Management Systems (BMS).

   The BMS can effectively provide an integrated ‘Common Operating Picture’ which can be used by the all armed forces to plan evasive plans collaboratively. This helps in exercising highly effective control over operations in a dynamic and ever changing battlefield. The main principal of the BMS is based on Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA). This process involves quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby "get inside" the opponent's decision cycle and gain the advantage.

      Most advanced countries have a very well implemented situation awareness packages but what is crucial is integrating these packages and digitizing them. In an implemented BMS it is crucial for the system to cover the whole military command from the highest order to a even foot soldier. The BMS sought by the Indian Army is expected to perform a variety of operational situational awareness tasks and should also be of decision making support end to a battalion. The Commanding Officer will have a very high amount of situational awareness and through this can command his unit to a very effective position against the enemy with the help of a secure communication link.

Source - Net

   The BMS system being sought by the army is a mobile tactical command and control platform which are integrated with sensors, various weapon platforms and decision making command units. This effectively reduces the time taken for making these decisions with the help of real time analysis of the battle field. BMS will comprise of wearable or hand-held information relay systems which are mounted or controlled on a individual soldier, this information is further relayed to a central command through a secure communication link.

  BMS also compromises of vehicle mounted information systems which are relay the information back to the Central command. This information relayed back is quickly analysed and with the advance systems is placed in real time situations and crucial decisions. The decision made now is verified with various other commands charged with the crucial surveillance task. These commands are responsible for noting the location position of the enemy and the friendly forces. Once the positions of these forces are made available and the battle field scenario is drawn up the information is soon analysed and is forwarded to the strike units which have the crucial weapons systems. These weapon platforms are integrated part of the BMS. With a higher level of combat information available these forces can retaliate/Strike forward enemy positions inflicting huge drawbacks on the hostile forces and paving the way for forward movement of ‘friendly forces’.

   The BMS is one of the crucial projects for the army and can turn out to be a major factor deciding the outcome of a operation. BMS is also one of the projects selected by the government for ‘Make in India’ platform. BMS was cleared from the DAC (Defence Acquisitions Council) tables in July, 2013. The EoI (Expression of Interest) for the project was issued by November, 2013. Around 15 companies received the EoI for the project which involved the Larsen & Turbo, BEL , Rolta , Tata Powers and various other companies. The companies were given four months to form consortium, forward the proposals and a detailed plan to be submitted to the MoD by July 2014.

   The foreign consortium involved of Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael and Elbit from Israel, Thales of France, BAE systems from UK and General Dynamics of US. The MoD would be funding around 80 % of the project cost and the remaining 20 % to be funded by the foreign companies. Two consortiums would be selected and their BMS would be put to test on battle fields and the best one would be finally cleared by the MoD to be implemented on the Battlefield. The implementation of BMS has a long way to progress with at least 3 years required to test the systems at various and finally to be implemented at a battle field level. BMS is a force multiplier that gives a combat edge to a military force, enabling faster and accurate decisions to be made which may totally change the course of an operation. With the location of every single tank, artillery, soldier known the command can easily make course changing decisions. If the system is put in place the command will have a hawk eye over the battlefield enhancing the capabilities of the command to manage ground forces of the third largest army in the world.

• BMS is centric around a wireless network plan. This wireless network is in-charge of linking all machinery used on the battle-field. 
• Various machinery, communication systems, information relay systems and recon devices used  by soldiers on the battlefield is linked to the unit commanders, kilometers away.  
• With each of the device integrated and relying information, a common battle-field picture can be formed thus helping in decision making. 
• The same decision made in the level of a general or the unit's commander can be relied right down to the last position on the battlefield. 
• Currently there are two working partners which have been instructed to pitch up “special purpose companies” for the project. 
• The first consortium is between BEL and Rolta. The second is between Tata Power SED and Larsen & Toubro. 
• Ministry has also cleared these consortium's of the four, to develop BMS for the army.  
• The companies are expected to individually develop two separate BMS system and field them for rapid field tests with the army.
• After selecting the best,  MoD will reimburse the selected company 80 per cent of the development cost spend on the project. 
• Even though a single product is reimbursed, both consortium are expected to mass-produce their completed and cleared prototype.  

Article - Karthik Kakoor

Modernization of Indian Army

Modernization of Indian Army

   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. 

The Battlefield Hawk Eye

                                The Battlefield Hawk Eye System

Indian Soldier in a F INSAS Config with HMC,PDA and COMM

      Battlefield management system (BMS) is a system meant to integrate information acquisition and processing to enhance command and control of a military unit. It enables complete situational awareness by effectively displaying all crucial data required by a Field Commander at any given point of time. In the chaos of battle, the ability to manage and control events at combat levels and also effectively influence the situations as they keep changing is the key to a success of a operation. 


    BMS is a state-of-the-art, flexible, multilevel and fully interoperable tactical command and control information system providing ground forces from the level of a Commander down to the individual soldier – with integrated situation awareness, a common communication infrastructure, collaborative planning tools and knowledge-based command and control capabilities.

       The Indian army is trying to implement a BMS (Battlefield Management System) with a cost outlay of over INR 50000 Crore/ $ 8 billion. Rolta is in collaboration with Bharat Electronics (BEL) for the project. And Tata Power SED and L&T Defence are also in collaboration for the project. The present government is moving really fast on finalizing the specifications. The first Prototype of the BMS would available with the army by 2017.

   Bharat Electronics has been working on battlefield management systems. The company has established hot bed testing for BMS for continuous evaluation and implementation of user requirements. Having worked on several Tactical Command, Control, and Communications & Intelligence (Tac C3I) systems of the Indian Army, in association with DRDO, BEL has the unique capability of developing and integrating Tac C3I systems and is leading the consortium.

       The ever evolving battlefield of the modern era is extremely chaotic and fast paced. The fast evolving war course misleads the parties involved alike. But technology like BMS has now made it possible for battlefield commanders to see their areas of responsibility in depth and in real time, and also helps to develop an accurate common picture of the battle space. This can further be shared right to the button with a click of the button. This has been made possible by technology enabling rapid acquisition, processing and transfer of information, enhancing situational awareness and acquiring capability to react to information.

        The Management of the information available on the battlefield is crucial and decides the course of the war. The information management is war course decider and the implementation of these decision needs to e precise. The BMS is a third generation warfare system. This third generation system effectively digitizes the battlefield. The sensors and weapons which are used in current warfare are now using extensive digital technology. The sensors, weapons and units which help in enabling the digital technology collectively help in integrating and bolstering the usages of Battle Management Systems (BMS).


   The BMS can effectively provide an integrated ‘Common Operating Picture’ which can be used by the all armed forces to plan evasive plans collaboratively. This helps in exercising highly effective control over operations in a dynamic and ever changing battlefield. The main principal of the BMS is based on Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA). This process involves quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby "get inside" the opponent's decision cycle and gain the advantage.

      Most advanced countries have a very well implemented situation awareness packages but what is crucial is integrating these packages and digitizing them. In an implemented BMS it is crucial for the system to cover the whole military command from the highest order to a even foot soldier. The BMS sought by the Indian Army is expected to perform a variety of operational situational awareness tasks and should also be of decision making support end to a battalion. The Commanding Officer will have a very high amount of situational awareness and through this can command his unit to a very effective position against the enemy with the help of a secure communication link.






      The BMS system being sought by the army is a mobile tactical command and control platform which are integrated with sensors, various weapon platforms and decision making command units. This effectively reduces the time taken for making these decisions with the help of real time analysis of the battle field. BMS will comprise of wearable or hand-held information relay systems which are mounted or controlled on a individual soldier, this information is further relayed to a central command through a secure communication link.

     BMS also compromises of vehicle mounted information systems which are relay the information back to the Central command. This information relayed back is quickly analysed and with the advance systems is placed in real time situations and crucial decisions. The decision made now is verified with various other commands charged with the crucial surveillance task. These commands are responsible for noting the location position of the enemy and the friendly forces. Once the positions of these forces are made available and the battle field scenario is drawn up the information is soon analysed and is forwarded to the strike units which have the crucial weapons systems. These weapon platforms are integrated part of the BMS. With a higher level of combat information available these forces can retaliate/Strike forward enemy positions inflicting huge drawbacks on the hostile forces and paving the way for forward movement of ‘friendly forces’.

      The BMS is one of the crucial projects for the army and can turn out to be a major factor deciding the outcome of a operation. BMS is also one of the projects selected by the government for ‘Make in India’ platform. BMS was cleared from the DAC (Defence Acquisitions Council) tables in July, 2013. The EoI (Expression of Interest) for the project was issued by November, 2013. Around 15 companies received the EoI for the project which involved the Larsen & Turbo, BEL , Rolta , Tata Powers and various other companies. The companies were given four months to form consortiums, forward the proposals and a detailed plan to be submitted to the MoD by July 2014. 

        The foreign consortium involved of Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael and Elbit from Israel, Thales of France, BAE systems from UK and General Dynamics of US. The MoD would be funding around 80 % of the project cost and the remaining 20 % to be funded by the foreign companies. Two consortiums would be selected and their BMS would be put to test on battle fields and the best one would be finally cleared by the MoD to be implemented on the Battlefield. The implementation of BMS has a long way to progress with at least 3 years required to test the systems at various and finally to be implemented at a battle field level. BMS is a force multiplier that gives a combat edge to a military force, enabling faster and accurate decisions to be made which may totally change the course of an operation. With the location of every single tank, artillery, soldier known the command can easily make course changing decisions. If the system is put in place the command will have a hawk eye over the battlefield enhancing the capabilities of the command to manage ground forces of the third largest army in the world.

Written By Karthik Kakoor 

Method of ROLTA, BEL BMS for Indian Army

American Model of Mobile Command Center

Russian President inside the Russian Army Combat Center