Resolving The Myth of Pathankot

Resolving The Myth of Pathankot

    Pathankot Air base one of the key forward airbase located just 40 kilometers from the Border, The Base hosts military fighter jets like MiG 21 Bisons and Mi 24 attack helicopters. Pathankot remains the top priority of Pakistan. Pakistan tried many operations to sabotage the Air force base. However they never achieved a good score when they tries to hit the base.

    It's the early morning in 6th September 1965, The days of Indo Pakistani war. Pakistan plans to sabotage key Indian military bases close to the Border, So they send it's elite special forces to perform the mission. In the morning 6th September, A Pakistani air force C 130 flown over the Indian Air space close to Pathankot.

    The Pakistani Special forces known as SSG were para dropped from the C 130 and landed close to Pathankot air force base, Some other were dropped over Adampur and Halwara too. The SSG thinks the Army were so busy in eastern border, so they can easily control the Indian forward bases close to Pakistan. However the citizens and the state police found the intruders and detained them. Later they were transferred to Indian Army. the Known best SSG operation thwarted by locals.     

     Pathankot once again targeted in 2015, However they were stopped before coming close to the Air force base, After the Police identified the terrorists, they were pinned down close to Gurdaspur, The actual distance between Pathankot to Gurdaspur is just some 40 kilometers. While The Indian Intelligence smelled that Pakistani's may target the Air force base again.

    The Pakistani backed terrorists attacked the Pathankot base third time, However this time they get little success, where they entered the base's open field, While the Indian Armed forces and NSG never allowed them to enter key strategic base locations.    

    The Pakistani backed terrorists plans to do major damages to the Air force base by igniting the fuel Tanks and detonating the weapon storage sites. Which followed by destroying fighter aircraft's and other key ground equipment's.

    Ministry confirms that terrorists used 60mm mortars and 12.7mm heavy machine guns for continuous firing over the Indian force. which keeps the Indian soldiers far away from the attack zone. This will give enough room to terrorists to achieve their primary mission.

     However the Air force security personnel and the NSG keeps the terrorists heads down by targeting any moving objects. So the terrorists hardly get time to position those heavy machines for fire support. Some sources say they used the mortar and 12.7mm guns. However they didn't able to point on the exact target.

    The base is damn huge in size, due to large buildings to house soldiers and open fields for deployment, This makes the operation took long time, The NSG also planned to capture alive anyone. However due to the over running time they were blown up the building where the terrorists used to hide.

    The Pakistani Terrorists operation is failed, However India lost seven of it's soldiers, Out of five were Security guards, they won't carry any fire arms. since they were ex army soldiers who were in duty of safe guarding the Base. One Air force garud commando and another NSG EOD technician lost their lives in the attack. Indian soldiers killed all terrorists and NSG undertaken the Air force base after the shoot out ended.

    Pakistan too attacked by some of anti government terrorists, Key air force base in Kamra attacked by the Terrorists in early 2012. The terrorists made some good damages to the Pakistani air force by completely destroying one Saab Erieye AEWCS and damaging two others. The base attacked by nine terrorists who also killed two Pakistani soldiers.

    Year before in 2011, The Terrorists attacked the Pakistani naval base in Karachi, making devastating losses to Pakistani Navy, The Attack was a huge lose to Pakistan, since Pakistan lost many of it's personnel and key aircraft's too, Pakistan lost two P 3C Orion Anti submarine aircraft, also lost eighteen soldiers which include SSG and Pakistani Ranger special forces.  Even in the attack two terrorists successfully escaped from the zone and remains in large.

Transformed NSG with New Gear

Transformed NSG with New Gear

    Black Cats or the NSG is one of the elite special forces operating under the Home Ministry, Where most of the recruits are comes from Indian Army. NSG is called for any tough scenario inside the Nation. Where home ministry is responsible for protecting civil assets like economic corridor's and key political leaders. Special forces of the respected units under the Armed forces carried out Special missions for their needs.

    As everyone criticized Doval's mistake of sending NSG to safe guard the AFB Pathankot, such kind of operation can be easily handled by the Armed forces, Like Army's Para commando's and the Air force's guard commando's. The DSC Personnel who are in the duty to safe guarding the base don't have weapons and they were ex army soldiers. It's clearly there is a nexus between the communication to operating procedure of Air force commando's and NSG's. Since both follows different technique to handle such situations.

    The NSG is best known for protecting civil assets, Anti Hijacking and Hostage crisis, But not in Counter terrorism. It's the Army who is trained better in such terrains and have better options to react such strikes.

    Anyway it's a good operation from NSG and Air force special force, who stopped the terrorists, who trying to damage fuel storage and weapon storage facilities. Both of them tried to capture atleast one terrorists alive, however the time makes some issues to the forces since they blown up the terrorists into pieces.

    Photos shows NSG gets some serious weapon upgrades. The Newest arrival of Barret M 98 and SIG SG 552 is better in terms of fire and reliability. The NSG also comes with newest ballistic helmets, Night vision systems, Laser range finders and accessories like gloves, googles, knee pad etc.

    The Barret M 98 .338 Laupua magnum is one of the best known Sniper Rifle. The NSG is the first security force in India who gets the modern Laupua magnum for sniper support. Laupua is known as for best to shoot and kill enemy targets in far ranges without any deviation in it's flight path. The NSG earlier used the PSG 90 for Sniper support who is chambered in 7.62x39mm.

     The laupua can hit targets at the range of some 1500 mts too, even it can penetrate light armour platforms too. There is no bullet proof ballistic vest available in the world who can stop the .338 laupua rounds even at far ranges.

Barret M 98 Bravo

    Another best Rifle the NSG get is the Swiss made SIG SG 550 Assault rifle chambered in 5.56x45mm Bullets. The SIG is known as one of the best Assault rifle in the world. Whose effective fire support range is upto some 400 mts. The NSG nowadays mostly carry's the SIG SG 550 for long range fire support.

    The NSG also uses the MP 5 series chambered in 9mm bullet, The MP 5 models are used to spray the bullets, Mostly the NSG uses the Sub machine guns, since they involve in close combat situations like Hostage rescue and anti hijacking missions. The MP 5 is effective upto less than some 50 mts. It's highly recommend that NSG may use the MP 5 as side arm and the SIG SG 550 as Primary assault rifle.

    Now it's the Defense ministry needs to transform the Army soldiers with newest rifles which include dedicated sniper team with .338 Rifles and Spotters. The Defense ministry must learn from the Home ministry when transforming the soldiers into deadly killing machine.

Know your Special Forces

Know your Special Forces

       Special forces or Elite forces one of the backbone of the Infantry regiment can infiltrate assault, sabotage and Assassinate enemy potions, although the tri services has had their own special forces, and Paramilitary forces too have Special forces for operation deep behind insurgency lines,

MARCOS - Marine Commando's - Indian Navy

    One of the most elite special forces in India, trained almost all toughest conditions and carryout exercise with foreign counterparts, they involve mostly foreign operations and assassinations, from Sri Lanka to Somalia they shows their skills and paved the way for Indian cavalry, Marcos deployed almost all over India, from Kashmir to Kanya kumari they did missions, where they operate not only in waters they can operate all terrains, they also part of Kargil war, they never interested in rest, so nowadays they were deployed in Kashmir to kill infiltrators and Terrorists, as per recent Navy reports more than six thousand MARCO's deployed all over India and another two Thousand somewhere in Warships, Foreign Embassy's and unknown Locations.

Para Commando's - Indian Army

        The known maroon Berets, The Army's primary top priority Special forces Known as Para Commando's, since their identity almost classified it's hard to find a Para commando. their main functions including special operations, direct action, hostage rescue, counter-terrorism, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, foreign internal defense, counter-proliferation, counter-insurgency, seek and destroy and personnel recovery. the Parachute Regiment formed early Indian Independence and participated almost all internal conflicts and war's. the main example is the Operation Blue star, where PM directly order a quick assault on Khalistani Terrorists, the Para commando's will participate tough exercises with foreign Combat teams, and last year they won the Championship

Ghatak Forces - Indian Army

      Ghatak forces also another Special forces from Indian Army that they are the first wave of counter forces in case of battle inside India, mostly the Borders are closely guarded by para military forces, where whose Firing orders have some Protocols, if they spotted any enemy moments they ask for the Army's Help to counter, the same goes for Kashmir Police too, each infantry regiments has dedicated Ghatak forces, a Ghatak forces usually consists of 20 soldiers with array of weaponry's. where they can carry out  scout and  assault missions, the known mission is last year the Ghataks were deployed in the front lines to Kill any Pakistani Soldiers in sight near sambha and uri sector, earlier the Pakistani's kill several members of Indian border patrols.

SFF - Special Frontier Force - RAW

     The unit comes under RAW, India's most elite intelligence wing who operate all over the world, since it can access almost all other forces and co ordinate other to take out the simulated target, however the SFF can work under direct command from RAW, where RAW gets orders from the Ministry, earlier the SFF jointly worked with the CIA officials to watch out Chinese Nuclear missions, and still they operating with foreign forces to counter threats connected to Indian and Frontally countries security.






Garud Commando's - Indian Air force

 

      This is the Youngest Special forces in Tri services, Started after 2000, the main motto is to protect the Air field and support Air force operations.  the Garud's almost deployed all over Air forces bases and some Airports, meanwhile civil airports are under CISF forces, some Garud forces deployed there to prevent any hijacking or hostage crisis in Airports. also they were deployed in African countries to assist and protect Indian missions, the Garud's takes Training with foreign forces to do missions like para infiltrating and Airborne Assault Missions. 

COBRA  - Commando Battalion for Resolute Action - CRPF

The para military special forces specially created to hunt internal threats like Naxal and Maoist terrorism,  the cobra's are most elite forces in gurellia warfare, they can survive any kind of ambush and they too carryout ambush missions to kill naxalites, so far nearly ten cobra units under CRPF and almost all of them deployed in naxal affected area's, they Cobra's take training from Army Specials forces and enlisted into special forces. their main agenda is to control and kill Naxal terrorists.

Black Cats - NSG

      The black cats are the special forces from NSG where they can provide security to most important Indian Leaders, they selected from Military and Para military forces. the Black cats can operate with foreign VVIP guards to co ordinate the security measures to both Leaders.  the NSG also have some other special forces for quick deployment and assault. SAG and SRG is mentionable wings. more than seven thousand active NSG soldiers deployed all over India, while no information about the Black cat Numbers.

Indo American Para Drop Aero India 2015

Indo American Para Drop Aero India 2015

US Army Soldier Helps Indian Para to wear the Parachute

       It was during 2004, Bush administration and Indian Defense officials concluded a pact to counter the growing threat from China, US was also keen on checking the Chinese influence in South Asia. With a common interest both the countries signed several deals strengthening the ties between the countries. To share the enhanced warfare knowledge, USA and India agreed to be involved in joint military exercises on a yearly basis.  With formalities completed the joint exercises was named ‘Yudh Abhyas’ which in English meant ‘training for war’. The exercise involved both the elite forces from Indian and American forces which mandated them to carry out small counter insurgency threat exercise to large scale nuclear attack exercise. This is believed to have drastically helped improve the capabilities of the forces.

        These exercises would last for 15 to 30 days. ‘Yudh Abhyas’ was hosted by both the Indian and American counterparts. The strength of force involved varied from 60 to 300, this included the Infantry fighting vehicles, para jumping forces, Lone attack and CRBNE (chemical, radiological, biological, nuclear, and high-yield explosives). The last episode of Yudh Abhyas exercise was hosted by the Indian forces in Uttrakand.




        It was during the Aero India 2015 that pulic got a taste of what the forces would practise in a joint operation. The crowd was being thrilled by various jaw dropping manoeuvres being displayed by various fighter aircraft and helicopters. The crowd spotted a huge aircraft and the better part of crowd identified the plane as the Boeing C 17 Globematser. It was off course an US Air force Pacific commands C 17 Globematser, the aircraft flew over Yelenkha graciously and leaned out to make a sharp turn. What followed were the scenes of drop of unknown packages from the belly door of the C17. The sky was soon lit up with small dots which started to steer down towards the crowd.  When the packages neared the rendezvous, the crowd realized it was the elite Special Forces of the Indian Army and American forces. Dressed up in black jump suits and armed with their firearms the soldiers skilfully glided towards the rendezvous and quietly walked after putting a mind blowing show. Soon the elite forces attended a press conference and briefed the media about the joint operation. Indian Army’s 2nd Parachute regiment and U.S. Army Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group was involved in the para drop. 

       Any information regarding the operation is classified and not much information is known about the mission other than the data shared by the SF’s in the press conference. Not even the information regarding the base of the Indian Army team and NSG forces involved in the operation is known. The C 17 may have been from the pacific command which has its HQ in Japan and Guam Island.

Indian Soldiers boarding into an USAF C 17, Location seems Yelenkha

NSG and Para Soldiers Boarding an another C 17 location unknown

US Army, Indian Army and NSG onboard an USAF C 17

Team Leader mission Briefing to the USAF C 17 Pilots

Army and NSG Soldiers walking for the Para Jump

Soldiers performing Para Jumping from an C 17

but the US Army released photos to the Public which was shot by Airman 1st Class Stephen G.Eigel


Editor Karthik Kakoor