Army Special forces lack of Parachutes CAG slams Defense Ministry

Army Special forces lack of Parachutes CAG slams Defense Ministry

    The Comptroller and Auditor General once again slammed the government about the shortage of Parachutes used for the Special forces in the Army. The CAG informs the issue in parliament and asks the government sort out the issue as soon as possible. The Indian Army's Para commando's are the elite units who performs special operations mission inside and outside Indian Boundary's. The forces are inserted into enemy lands by jumping from Air force transporters.

     CAG slams the OFB who didn't speed up or provide quality parachutes to the Army which was designed by DRDO earlier in 2006 with the contract amount of some 11 crore's.  CAG says only 32% of the Army special forces have enough parachutes. other don't have it. Which means nearly 2500 of Army special forces has enough required parachutes. Indian Army has 8000 of Para commando's special forces

    Army's Para commando's are the elite units who can act in first wave of offensive mission outside Indian borders to pave the way of regular soldiers.

    Armed forces other elite forces like MARCO's and Garud Commando's too facing the same issue, However the issue is not serious as like Indian Army.

Mission Debrief : Para Commandos Cross Border Raid

Mission Debrief : Para Commandos Cross Border Raid 

Army did a Tough operation outside Indian Borders, The Militants groups mainly from NSCN(K), ULFA and KLF did a Plot of Ambushing Indian Army's Ghatak forces from Dogra Regiment, they completed their routine Patrol and returning to their base camps. on the way the Militant groups ambushed the Army convoy's and firing Rocket Propelled Grenades along with Heavy machine Gun fire, resulting 18 of the Army soldiers lives, 

The Government looks this incident seriously, sends it's NSA ( National Security Advisor/Agency) to take care of those Militants who attacked the Army convoy. Doval head of NSA along with NIA team set a base camp near Chnadel district Manipur, and they started the investigation, early informations clearly mentions that the attackers already fled into Myanmar where they living Myanmar Jungles.

So it's a tough scenario to the NSA to search and perform scout missions outside Indian territory, thus needs High level Clearance, Also center gives a the order to NSA carry out reconnaissance missions inside Myanmar. NSA used UAV's to carryout reconnaissance missions, since satellites are useful for searching such a forests, UAV with thermal camera's is important.

 The Team almost collected all Ground informations and confirmed about their positions, they get additional informations by tracking their wireless phone signals, further confirming their identity, after those informations collected, NSA need to carry out attack missions outside Borders, so plenty of options discussed, so Surgical strike is must, so using Air power neglected. they need a elite commando's to carryout the attacks, so far Army is concerned this matter Army's Elite Para Commandos the 21st para Special forces called in, 

Before that Army, CRPF and Civil police almost explored each and every inch of Chandel Forests, fond no sign of militants,

NSA again send a nod to the Government for cross border Action, Such a missions are hardly accepted by governments, usually India uses the Diplomatic options to resolve such matters. in most cases Government gives proper evidences to foreign nation about the insurgency group and ask to their Army to carryout attack missions, results mostly failures.

But this time Government don't want to waste the time on such discussion, they give go order to NSA, soon after NSA assigned  a 40 members of elite para commandos, and boarded them into Indian made Dhruv Helicopters, there is no report of how many Dhruv's used, but seems like three to four of them used, two with commando's one for Emergency, also a Mi 35 attack Helicopters for over watch. 

  The team crossed the Indo Myanmar border and dropped the soldier 4 kilometers far from the Borders, meanwhile the Mi 35 used it's primary 12.7mm cannon for close support, the Shock and awe mission usually known in Military words. the militants tumbled with in a seconds para's annihilated each and every of them, and boarded into their respective helicopters. and come back safely. 

The death counts noted from twenty to Fifty on enemy side, and Commandos even don't get a Injury. a marvelous operation done by Indian Army. 

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.

Operation Cactus 1988 Indian Forces in Maldives

Operation Cactus 1988 Indian Forces in Maldives

Para Commandos Jumping from an IL 76 Transporter

           Maldives is an island nation in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). The country was formerly a colony under the British Empire and gained its independence in the year 1968. Maldives is a collection of around 1,192 islands among which 192 islands are believed to be populated and sums to around 328,536. Male is recognised as the capital of Maldives. It is the smallest Asian country in both population and land area. Maldives is a presidential republic, with the President as head of government and head of state. The current President is Abdulla Yameen. The main revenue is from Tourism. Maldives is an active member in SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). India and Maldives have shared a friendly and close relationship in strategic, economic and military cooperation. India has contributed to maintaining security on the island nation.  Maldives is placed strategically in Indian Ocean that has been considered by India as part of its Extended Exclusive Economic Region (EEER). India has time and again provided Maldives supports be it the scope for infrastructure development, resources to boost the economy of the nation or be it the security of the nation. India has provided support to Maldives during the times of revolt from within the country and from foreign armed rebels, during natural calamities and during times of distress.  A notable time of support India provided to Maldives was during the coup in 1998 under the name ‘Operation Cactus ‘.

        The beginning of November 1988, armed militants belonging to the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam landed in Maldives and started joining the armed rebels within the Island nation. The rebels challenged the government headed by then president Gayoom. The plot was well laid in Sri Lanka by the Tamil nationalist group which was seeking a safe haven and base for its activities. Having a very small flotilla of armed ships the Maldivian government soon conceded defeat and the militants successfully landed in various Maldivian ports. The militants also successfully took control of the airport in Male, and took control of most of the parts in the national capital. But the militants failed to capture the President of Maldives Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had fled the troubled country and asked for military aid from India on 3 November. The then-Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi ordered 1,600 troops to aid the Maldivian government. Thus began the “Operation Cactus”.

       On the night of 3 November 1988 an Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft under the Indian Air Force airlifted the forces of the 50th Independent Parachute Brigade, commanded by Brig Farukh Bulsara, the 6th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, and, the 17th Parachute Field Regiment from Agra Air Force Station and flew them to Malé International Airport. But by then the mafia government headed by a smuggler-businessman Abdullah Luthui had taken control of the nation.,  Sensing further intervention from Sri Lankan forces Indian Navy immediately dispatched two frigates.

       The forces soon moved in land and secured various strategic installations throughout the nation. The rebels soon lost mainly due to the factor they were outnumbered in terms of soldiers as well as the sheer means of technology and strategies put in place by the Indian forces. The rebels soon started escaping from Maldives to Sri Lanka using various means. The Indian Navy tracked down a Freighter leaving from the Male port which was heading towards International waters. The navy soon received credible information that the freighter was being used by rebels to return to Sri Lanka. Indian Frigate Godavari was asked to tail the Freighter and assess the situation onboard the vessel. INS Godavari tailed the vessel for about nautical miles. The navy soon pushed its two frigates into action and made sure the vessel never reached the Sri Lankan territory. After assessing the situation to be calm, INS Godavari launched its Sea King ASW helicopter. Sensing trouble the rebels soon pulled up two ship crew and threatened to execute the hostages if the frigate did not stop tailing the vessel. Determined to stop and capture the rebels INS Godavari was ordered to continue tailing the vessel. The rebels executed two hostages and forced the Indian Navy to ditch the efforts. The Commanding officer of INS Godavari immediately ordered to train the main guns on the suspected vessel. Following the onslaught the Frigate launched an elite unit of the MARCOS who soon boarded the vessel and took the vessel and the rebels under their custody and soon secured the hostages.




    The forces captured and repatriated the rebels to the Maldives government Police, and pulled out of the country after an impressive operational successful feather to their hats. Conducting a successful  operation India proved its stand towards Maldives and made clear it would take any extreme decisions to safe guard its allies. The International community congratulated the Indian government's effort. Issuing a statement in this regard the then 

President of US Ronald Regan was quoted saying 

 

                      “It’s a valuable contribution to regional stability “

The Prime Minster of UK Margaret Thatcher said in a statement

                 “Thank God for India: President Gayoom's government has been saved “

But only the Indian Neighbors only sounded negatively

   And now almost same situation in Maldives that pro Indian President was arrested by Illegal Maldives government, and poses a Threat to regional stability, the Government said in a statement that New Delhi watching closely the situation, and many of the Military think tanks repeatedly asking the government to intervene the Maldives Current situation.  

INS Godavari who is in Action against the Freighter see the Sea King who dropped Depth Charges

IAF Commandos escorting the Rebel Leader

Editor Karthik Kakoor