Indian Army: News and Discussion

RAM

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To plug officer shortage, Indian Army to open Bihar academy





NEW DELHI: Grappling with a shortage of over 12,500 army officers, India is all set to open a swanky new military training academy at Gaya in Bihar in a month to augment the number of troop commanders.The first batch of 200 cadets will begin training soon at the Gaya Officers Training Academy (OTA), where they will be moulded into fine young officers.




With training infrastructure development complete and staff requirements met, the government has sanctioned the inauguration of the Gaya OTA on the lines of the existing Chennai-based OTA for short-service officers, senior defence ministry officials told IANS.


"The government has given its nod to open the new OTA at Gaya and it will happen within a month's time. The first batch of 200 cadets too will join the Gaya OTA soon," officials said.


The 1.13-million-strong Indian Army has a sanctioned officer strength of 47,864. But the shortage of 12,510 officers in its current strength is crippling, particularly in the ranks of captain, major and lieutenant colonels who lead troops.
As a result, the army's fighting battalions such as infantry and artillery have to make do with just a third of their sanctioned strength of 28 officers.
It is to bridge this gap that the army had in 2008 made the proposal to start a second OTA to supplement the army intake of Short Service Commissioned (SSC) officers from the existing Chennai-based OTA and Permanent Commissioned (PC) officers from the Dehradun-based Indian Military Academy (IMA).


Another proposal from the army, then, was to increase the number of seats in Chennai OTA and Dehradun IMA with improvement and upgrade of these institutions' infrastructure and staff requirements.The Cabinet Committee on Security, in December 2009, formally approved the Gaya OTA project.As per the government orders, the Gaya OTA will be housed in the existing premises of the Army Service Corps Centre (North), which is being moved to Bangalore.


With a capacity to train 750 cadets a year, the OTA's fund requirement would be to the tune of Rs.364 crore for non-recurring expenditure and Rs.44.75 crore recurring expenses annually.The Gaya OTA will begin with 200 SSC cadets first and then eventually increase its annual, two-batch intake to 750 cadets. This 750 cadets will be the additional recruitment of officers by the army to bridge the shortage in its cadre every year from 2011.
This apart, the army gets a maximum of 600 SSC officers from the Chennai OTA and another 1,100 PC officers from IMA annually.
The army's second proposal to increase the intake in Chennai OTA to 650 and IMA 1,450 per year, to add another 400 officers to the army's cadre, is under the consideration of the defence ministry, the officials said.


IMA gets its cadets from the tri-service Khadakwasla-based National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune, open to youngsters after Class 12, and through the 'direct entry scheme' for college graduates. The OTA is open to college graduates only.Armed forces want to gradually, but substantially, increase the number of SSC officers in their ranks, as part of force-restructuring to maintain a youthful profile of its troop commanders. The eventual plan is to have two SSC officers to every PC officer (2:1 ratio) in its cadre.



To plug officer shortage, Indian Army to open Bihar academy - Economic Times
 

lambu

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Upgradation of T-72 tanks begins in Jaisalmer

The Army with the help of a team ofRussian scientists are performing summer trials for the modified version of Russian tank T-72 in Jaisalmer's Lathi Field Firing Range. The summer trials will continue for one week. By the end of 12th Five Year plan, some armoured regiments will replace the T-72 with T-90 tanks. The rest of armoured regiments having T-72 tanks will undergo major modification such as introduction of an upgraded 1000 BHP engine and thermal imaging fire control system, said a defence laboratory official based at Jodhpur.

The Army recently commenced a project to upgrade its T-72M1 Main Battle Tanks. Over the past two decades, the T-72M1 has provided yeoman service to the Army. It is well liked by the Army for its ruggedness, low silhouette and weight (41.5 tons) as well as firepower. The T-72M1 is the backbone of the Indian armoured fleet with over 1700 tanks believed to be in service. Licence production of the tank was undertaken at the Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi, Tamil Nadu. To keep the tank fleet viable, an upgrade plan was drawn up by the Army. But during the early 1990s, the economy went through a tumultuous phase and the resulting fiscal problems forced these plans into abeyance.

continue reading from link below...

Upgradation of T-72 tanks begins in Jaisalmer | idrw.org
 

lambu

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Indian Army Looks Overseas for Acquiring Variety of Ammunition

The Indian Army is planning to procure a variety of ammunition and assault rifles to the tune of $ 1 billion from the overseas market in order to arm the additional troops along the Sino-Indian border. The procurement includes 122 mm howitzer ammunition, 160mm mortar High Explosive (HE) ammunition, carbines and a variety of ammunition for the carbines.

The tender for the procurement has been issued to Germany's Heckler and Koch, Israel Weapon Industries Ltd (IWI), Colt Defense of United States, Bushmaster Firearms International and Singapore Technologies Kinetics Limited. The requirement of carbines is 44,000 units along with variety of ammunition.

follow link for further reading ....

Indian Army Looks Overseas for Acquiring Variety of Ammunition
 

Kunal Biswas

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India has also invited bids for acquiring 122mm Howitzer as well as 33,700 numbers of 122mm Reduce charge are required. The shelf life of the Howitzer ammunition should be 15 years under sheltered conditions during peace time. The ammunition should be compatible with the 122MM howitzer gun.
What abt US M777 ?

Some one wants to make money, India already have D30s..

The Indian Army has also specified that it is looking for a 5.56 mm calibre system with a rate of fire of 660 rounds a minute as well as a 10,730 light-weight assault rifles for its special forces.
More TAR-21s OR SAR-21 P-RAIL
 
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Kunal Biswas

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Army given first AN-32 platform


NAGPUR: Ordnance factory Ambajhari (OFAJ) too also started producing AN-32 platforms that are used to drop jeeps and other vehicles from aircraft from a height of 500 to 700 metres with the help of parachutes. The first platform was handed over to Indian Army on Saturday.

Director General of Ordnance Factories Board (OFB), DM Gupta, told the media that the platforms loaded with vehicles are carried on hydraulic trolley to the airbase and are then put inside AN-32 aircraft the trolley and manual effort. "The platforms along the vehicles are dropped at a desired location."

Gupta further said that the platforms were designed by OF Ambazari indigenously with the help of Aerial Delivery Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE), Agra. "It is a substitute for Russian AN-32 system."

Senior general manager of OFAJ, Sartaj Singh, said that a series of trials was carried out and final shape was given based on the feedback of these trials. The Army finally gave the green signal on March 15, 2011. "The Army has placed an order of 159 platforms and we are confident of meeting the target."

AK Saxena, scientist at ADRDE, explained the role of his organization in development of the system. Lt Col Ashok Kumar of 50 th Independent Para Brigade explained the importance of the AN-32 platforms in a war.

Factory officials DVK Rao, J P Tiwary, RG Karemore and GB Khade explained the role of various sections of the factory in manufacturing the platforms.

Army given first AN-32 platform - The Times of India







 
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Kunal Biswas

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Defending the line of control at kashmir - Indian army!




Uploaded by utubekhiladi on Jun 16, 2011
 
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bhramos

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Kupwara encounter: A huge victory for security forces

 
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lambu

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India's first military chopper pilot passes away

Air Commodore (retd) S.K. Majumdar, the first Indian military pilot to fly a helicopter in 1954, died at the army's research and referral hospital here Wednesday. He was 84.Majumdar, who was born in 1927 and commissioned into the Royal Indian Air Force in 1948, had pioneered military chopper flying in India.

He had retired from the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 1977 after 29 years of service, according to the Rotary Wing Society of India (RWSI), which had honoured him with the 'Sikorsky Pioneering Award' in 2004 for his work in the field of helicopter aviation in India.

During his IAF service, he achieved many firsts – flying a helicopter, an S-55 Sikorsky, in 1954, first helicopter qualified flying instructor, first to do an amphibious operation, founder of helicopter training unit of the IAF, and first roof-top landing in 1959, the RWSI said in a release.

He was also a pioneer in mountain terrain operations and evolved concepts of mountain flying in erstwhile North East Frontier Area (NEFA) or the present day Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir. He had also achieved the enviable record of accident-free flying, the RWSI said.

India’s first military chopper pilot passes away | idrw.org
 

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