India plans to slim down it's Military

India plans to slim down it's Military

India plans to decrease its 1.2 million strong army men count into lower than seven lakhs, to keep the army have more fire power and less operating cost. Defense minister Parrikar said this in last Friday, Minister also said that it also increase the firepower of the armed forces, who currently lack modern weaponry and communication systems.

Earlier, National security adviser Ajit Doval also mentioned the same during a seminar. He also said the armed force operating costs exceed than the modernization budget, hinting the armed forces pay and allowances cost more than half of the budget while new acquisition and maintenance costs below 40%. which poses slow speed of modernization and new acquisitions.

After the defense budget allocation in this financial year, many military analysts said that It's important to downsize the soldiers numbers to increase the armed forces fire power. and It's a good outcome from the defense minister who also acknowledged that "army will identify in the regiments and division in which it has the unproductive manpower and it's extent.

What he also mentioned about the Army is, It's currently moving into digital technology, it's better to cut down the size of telephone operators. Army also plans to identify it's manpower situation in all divisions and produce a report, in which area they need more numbers of troops and where do they keep less number of troops.

Earlier, China announced that they were going to cut down nearly 3,00,000 troops from it's active service while PLA looks to induct more mechanized infantry than the light infantry who having less firepower but more mobile. Indian Army also has such light infantry, Sikh light infantry is one of them, who mainly used for ambush and mountain warfare.

India is not going to cut any of its regiments, however, plans to shrink the size of the battalions, each infantry battalion has more than two thousand soldiers, which having soldiers, support troops, special operation troops and mortar support group.

The defense minister also said about the lack of officer's in the army, more than a million size army having only 36,000 officers. in Air force, the officers number is in very bad shape, Air force also requires more technical staff's too.

As per military point of view, This would be a welcome decision, that modernization programs will be accelerated and Soldiers can be modernized in very quick time, as for an information each INSAS rifle costs around nearly 40,000 rupees, and they don't have any side arm's, personnel GPS locator's, and lack of ballistic vests too.

If defense ministry managed to cut down the troop numbers by half from the 1.2 million numbers, It would be better than expected. It's clear that having some smart soldiers are far better than thousand's of normal conventional soldiers.

While India also in plans to raise another 80,000 strong soldiers with dedicated fire and air support elements, each division supported by dedicated artillery's and light tanks, along with better transportation supports from IAF's C 130J. This new soldier looks almost ideal to the US army's regular infantry. and they will face the Chinese threats in the arunachal region.

Revamping WW2 Airfield in Panagarh

Revamping WW2 Airfield in Panagarh

  The Indian Airforce plans to use the abandoned airfields near to the borders, where it was used earlier in the world war two to counter the Japanese advancement in south Asia, after the end of the war those Air fields are abandoned  and out of actions, but with the growing threats of Chinese in eastern borders, the Government plans to use those abandoned structures, as per the initial plan the world war two airfield Panagrah is in the table,  the Air field transferred to the Air force special operations teams to revamp the entire structure.

   The Government plans to field special operations unit for quick deployment, for that they plans to use much advanced STOL Aircraft's and high mobility Army units, the Air force plans to field the American special operation plane C 130 J Super Hercules, which is a short take off and land special operation plane used world wide,  currently the Air force operates six brand new C 130 J, which is already proved it's capability by landing world's highest airfield Doulat Beg oldie and assisted many humanitarian missions, unfortunately a C 130 J lost in a crash when Air force pushed in very tough maneuvering in very low flight and very close flying, India Replaces the Crashed one with newer one  from USA.

    At first the Air force plans to  look on the runway, the runway is some 2700 meters long , but almost out of conditions, the Air force set a timeline to clear the runway before July this year, and the Air force engineering unit successfully modified the runway to operate newest fighters and small cargo planes from the runway. as recently the Air force successfully lands a C 130 J super Hercules, those Hercules are from AFS Hindon, Utter Pradesh, but used to evaluate many operational readiness procedure across the country. the Successful landing and Take off proves that the Air field can support medium lift cargo planes  like C 130 J.

     In second logistics and maintenance support, before fielding the Air crafts, the base needed to be accommodate all the Planes, plus support elements like ground crew, spare parts, storage, Fuel dumps, and Hanger facilities, the IAF ordered additional six more C 130 J from Lockheed martin to field it in AFS Panagarh, such facilities are available only in AFS Hindon where first six  C130 J are deployed, Engineers from Indian Air force and Lockheed martin already started working in Panagarh, and it expected to be finished before the arrival of new batch of C 130J, who's induction timeline is not available.  the Air force also plans to include a Tanker variant of C 130 J named KC 130 J.

   It's also believed that the newly raised Mountain Strike Corps , will be stationed here in AFS Panagarh, the newly raised 14 corps comprises 80,000 Army Soldiers include Officers, with the         C 130 J those mountain strike corps can be deployed in quick moments in case of any activities, both in war and humanitarian assistance. where each C 130 J can carry 90 fully armed Soldiers and drop in any tough terrains,  even it can perform touch and go landings in roads and unpaved runways, which allows the Soldiers can jump from the C 130 J for Special operations or low level infiltrations.

  Earlier in the 1971 war the Air field used to perform Air force missions, Fighters like Mig 21 and Su 7 is operated from this Air force base.   

.

Why Mountain Strike Corps

Why Mountain Strike Corps

   

    The situation has escalated overtime across the Line of Actual Control (LAC), with Chinese repeatedly entering Indian Territory the tensions are high, and the hostile environments have hampered any measures Indian forces have taken overtime. LAC scales along one of the most hostile environments and is rigged with glaciers, rivers and mountains. These have served as natural barriers against any threat posed by China. The mountains at several places scale down to form valleys and at places can be scaled and an attack can be mounted. Even though the countries have held diplomatic meetings to solve the border issues, not much headway has been made. Both the countries have refused to recognize the McMahon line, which had substantially answered the disputed Arunachal border issues.

         Ranging from Kashmir's Aksai chin to the Eastern Arunachal, India shares a border which has been disputed for a long time. Claims of China over these areas led to the 1962 war, China not only fought for Aksai Chin but also waged war to claim its control over Arunachal Pradesh. After the war China controlled most of the Aksai Chin area and also claimed borders along Arunachal. Arguing over the agreements made when drawing the LAC, China waged another war but was repelled by the army.

         Arunachal attained its statehood in 1987, China repeatedly pressurized the Indian government to revert its decision failing which China warned of staging a war and annexing the disputed areas. Even though the situation slipped out of hands, it was controlled with the interference of various superpowers. To check the aggression of Chinese forces, Indian government setup the ITBP under the Home ministry which was responsible for controlling the borders along the LAC.

      ITBP has a tremendous track record and at several times has repelled any move by the Chinese. But in the recent times, Chinese have increased their presence and forces along the border. With increased Chinese presence and aggression, ITBP alone can’t handle the border situation, therefore it is crucial the government sets up another regiment that can act as an force multiplier thus checking the Chinese. A regiment raised among the existing regiments would not answer to this threat, rather the government has to raise a specialized regiment which can effectively handle the Chinese in these hostile environments.

       A specialized regiment with modern weaponry is the answer for this situation. This regiment would be specially trained for countering the aggressive moves by the Chinese. This regiment would be equipped to fight the Chinese in a hostile environment without much hindrance.

Why does India need an exclusive force to handle the Chinese?

      Chinese have bettered their conditions across the border over the years, the Chinese now enjoy one of the best infrastructural facilities and clubbed with the modern facilities at their disposal the Chinese reaction time will be extremely minimal. Hence it is crucial the government not only develops the infrastructure along the border but also sets up a corps that can retaliate within a moment’s notice.

        The government is now setting up Mountain Strike corps, which will have its headquarters at Panagarh in West Bengal, the corps will have a sanctioned strength of around 90000 soldiers. Panagarh and Pathankot under the Eastern command will host the new regiments. This regiment clubbed with the ITBP and the high altitude mountains which serve as a natural barrier, promise to keep the Chinese aggression along the LAC under control. 

Editor Karthik Kakoor