Indian Army Basic Fire Arm issue

Indian Army Basic Fire Arm issue 

Indian Army Para Commandos with TAR 21

      It's been addressed many times, even the last UPA regime and current BJP government, But still the Army using decades old AK series for Counter insurgency and faulty INSAS for conventional warfare. since problems in such fire arms the government bought only some numbers of modern assault rifles specially for special forces, those models include M 4 and TAR 21 models,

      And the army went for buy modern rifles from abroad, since the Indian versions still lacks the quality and manufacturing, Army shortlisted four international vendors and tested their models, but unfortunately all four failed in the High altitude conditions Janes reported. and the effective trails of multi caliber infantry weapon system  also put on forward, the Army also looking to place additional order of TAR rifles which were produced under license,

       So far Indian Army has more than  one million active soldiers. which divided into some 350+ battalions each comprising some 800 Soldiers, battalions also divided into four companies comprising 200 Soldiers for each company, which is also divided into three platoons, each having sixty Soldiers commanded by a Junior Commissioned officer, Here each soldiers specialized in his department whether Gunner, Marksman, Radio man,and Medic

      Actually each platoons have special Marksman Sniper Rifles, Anti Tank missiles, MANPAD's, Machine gunner and Assault team, when we looks their equipments, It's small shock since they using obsolete equipments, from Assault rifles to Anti tank guided missiles too, Here the level of shortage.

Assault Rifles for Army

the MCIWS which replaces the INSAS

       Assault Rifles are the first and foremost infantry fire arms, there is no replacements in the sight to change  where OFB comes with  MCIWS which is being in development stages, and the MCIWS is the only current Assault rifle in option to Replace the old INSAS, the MCIWS firstly revealed in the Def Expo 2014, and as of now three prototypes developed which is in development trails, the MCIWS can fire both 5.56mm and 7.62mm standard Rifles by  changing the Rifle Barrel only.

Carbines- CQB

Coast Guard with AMOGH 5.56mm

       Carbines are used for close battle situations, such as special operations, and counter insurgency. Indian Army using specialized variants of Ak series rifles for this role called AKM , and recently some good numbers of  M4 and TAR 21 bought by the Army for special operations.the CQB deal scrapped due to all the Four contenders Rifle Failed in some Trails, The Barretta ARX 160, TAR 21 and M4,  The OFB also presented it's AMOGH 5.56mm carbine, Some of the Coast Guard using AMOGH rifles as of Now.

Sniper

Dedicated Sniper Rifle .338 Laupua Magnum

        So far Army relay's on the vintage soviet era Sniper Rifle Dragnov, for Sniper ops and using Indian made Vidhwansak for Anti material use, since the Dragnov not effective to penetrate modern ballistic vests, the SVD is not actually a pure Sniper, It's a Designated Marksman Rifle only for Sharp shooting, It's time to modernize with new generation Sniper Rifles. earlier the NSG went for Heckler Hock  MSG 90 and some bough US made baretta M 82 .50 cal Modern Sniper, currently most of them uses .339 laupua magnum bullets operated sniper Rifles.

Machine Gun

IMI Negev 7.62mm LMG

   For continuous fire support, heavy friendly fire support and Suppressing fire gives boost to the friendly forces to allow and move their positions, changing their magazines and simulating targets. mean time enemy pinned down for continuous fire from our side, India operates some tri pod version of Heavy machine guns and some unknown numbers of Older version of PKM Light Machine guns, who is 7.62 mm Caliber, for battle support,Army also plans to replace those vintage MG with modern light weight Machine guns. as per known details most of the MARCOS,IAF Garuds ,swat teams of Punjab,chattisgarh,Octopus unit of hyderabad. who using the IWI Negev 7.62 Machine Guns, It's believed that Negev is going to replace all existing LMG from Indian Forces.

Anti Tanks

  Army uses second generation Milan ATGM, which will be replaced soon by more powerful Israeli made Spike ATGM systems, the ministry already cleared the deal, but no time line available about the delivery,

MANPAD

Army is in evaluation trails of new generation MANPAD system, since Army have only less numbers of soviet era Igla MANPADS, as per details the Army soon announce the winner and start negotiating about procuring some thousand plus systems. so far Russian made Igla S leading the Trails,

BFJ,Helmet and NVD

No informations available yet, since it's too many times the Ministry scrapped the deal of Helmets and BFJ, and no informations about the Night Vision devices.

mini UAV

Almost all other Army's have battlefield UAV's, Indian army also evaluating some Indian private company's UAV's, the American Raven UAV also in consideration.   

Raven RQ 11 UAV

Raven RQ 11 UAV

India Plans to Build the American Raven RQ 11 UAV in India under make in India Program. While the US Industry plans to end the production line of RQ 11. India will setup plant to produce the UAV collaborating with a Indian private company after that India can supply the drone all over the Globe if they adopted US and Indian Policies. further developing the UAV with automatic target detection System also Planned. The UAV already in service with US as a Primary customer but Raven has Customers in EU and East Asia too. the Raven is the Military standard will not available for Public uses. 

Parts of RQ 11

The UAV can be easily launched by two Soldiers as they can carry the Flight unit, control unit and the Communication unit. all of them can be folded within two suitcases or a Backpack weighting as some 6 Kilo grams each. the UAV can be Fly in Autonomous mode for both launching and Landing. The UAV need to be turn on using the control pad then another Soldier can throw it over the sky. the UAV can collect search the Area for suspicious activities. the UAV can climb upto the Altitude of some 500 feets from AGL (above Ground Level)  and scan the Area at exact accuracy.  due to the low wingspan of 4.5 feet it's so hard to see through human eyes and Impossible to detect through Radar Signals. It also can used for Target Designation for Friendly Airforces can strike their hard target.

With fully charged Reusable batteries it can fly some one hour and transmit live video footage to the crew. it can fly at the speed of 45 to 95 Kilometers. and It's maximum range is 10 Kilometers that is it can collect info and Transmit the Footage to the crew upto 10 kilo meters. the main component of the Platform is the Color Infrared camera. which is used for both day and Night time and able to collect heat signatures of Animals and humans. the UAV can itself to the Crew area when the Landing command issued. it can first stall the speed and fell into the land by pieces. later can be reassembled with new or Recharged Batteries. 

 

A single UAV Costs about some $ 32,000 along with support devices like the Control unit and the Communication Tower unit. But make in India should costs less than some $10,000 will full units.

Single Solider carries total System

there is no doubt that these kind of small UAV's may bolster the Army's fighting capability in any kind of urban and Jungle warfare. giving these units to the Special Forces make them so strong where they always get a upper edge of Over seeing Eyes. 

Video Footage from the RQ 11

Total Unit set

Control unit set

The Future of the System can complies Automatic Target Identification system like this. still no information about this where they already added or planning to add. The below screenshot taken from Act of Valor Movie where they using the RQ 11 

Square indicates Automatic Target detection

  

Indian Forces Examining the RQ 11 in India in a previous Combat Exercise with US .Photo Courtesy Livefist