Indian Special Forces

abingdonboy

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They're building up quite a lot of experience in COIN as well.. As the army is pulling troops out of COIN duties gradually.
This is how it always should have been- police units with nodal authority and the military only acting in a support role, for the last 60+ years in JK and NE it’s been the exact opposite situation.

I think the anti-Naxal fight has been eye opening not just for the CRPF to see that they can act independently of the military but also decision makers and the babus inside MHA. I think in 5 years there won’t be any army units positioned in any urban centres, they are already pulling regulars out and putting them on the LOC and they are even talking about sending bloody RR units to the LOC

at a certain point the utility of RR may actually be exhausted and they’ll have to be disbanded/absorbed into the big army (shouldn’t be too hard as they are a deputationist force)
 

abingdonboy

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+ I also hope that as the army/RR pull out of urban areas and the CT/COIN role the NSG can set up a permanent base (maybe a full blown hub isn’t needed) there and get involved in the more high profile hostage rescue missions, not every op that CRPF QAT can handle but the ones like EDI that come up now and then

yes they should be reserved for the most serious operations only but they also need to get their teeth sharpened, just being deployed and being put on real alert would be a big plus

This remains the NSG’s biggest weakness, they are made up of operators who already have substantial real world experience in their parent units but the NSG itself has very little real world experience

++ another another thing to ponder is that as the CRPF/CAPFs take over CT/COIN roles from the army the army’s own personnel are going to lose their combat experience and battle conditioning and will largely become a peace time army, this has going to be even more apparent in the SF units.

If the PARA (SF)/Garuds/MARCOs aren’t getting as many/any deployments to JK or the NE and aren’t experiencing real world combat this isn’t likely to be a good situation BUT on the other hand it will allow them to re-orient to more strategic missions and focus on true blue SF capabilities. What really stood out to me post-Uri was all the snippets that were coming out saying that it was only after the 2015 strike into Myanmar that the SF units in northern command actually started to train at a battalion level, until then they had been focusing on platoon and likely squad level tactics and operations. This is a red flag and I don’t know if things have changed for good or they’ve reverted back to this post 2016.
 

abingdonboy

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rkhanna

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Sir, end of the day Bollywood is a product of Indian society. Look at comments on many military picture streams on facebook, instagram etc. what do we see? 75% are jingoistic comments, 25% are PUBG commandos wondering why Para SFs aren't putting 4x scopes on their 'M416s' and saying SCAR is better than M416 because its stats are higher in the game.

And these 25% are also from a very young demographic, and those of older demographics (old enough to be filmmakers or producers) can only connect to the jingoism. And there is nil gun community in civilian circles so they don't even have an avenue for acquisition of knowledge from other sources.

Not to mention that military portrayals in Indian cinema are still at Rambo levels, at that time Hollywood too was nothing but a jingo-fest. And we are typically 20-30 years behind the West in most things, and unfortunately it'll be true in filmmaking as well.

If our space movies like Mangalyaan cannot hold a candle to something like Martian from a technical perspective, we really can't expect our military/SF-themed movies to hold a candle to likes of ZDT either can we?

--

That said, I am in early stages of working on what I hope to be a web-series themed around a PMC floated by R&AW. If it manages to go on to the floors, on my part I'd do my best to maintain a high level of technical accuracy with regard to equipment & tactics from a production standpoint.
Netflix has a Malaysian movie called Paskal. Full of jingo and masala but a great SOF movie. There is a Turkish tv show on Netflix called Wolf. Same as above. Lol


PS - if RAW is running a PMC then it's not really ' private' is it ?
 

abingdonboy

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These guys with the BNVD-P Panoramic 4-tubes would look incredible


+ I'm glad that the NSG "black out" (all these bright tabs removed) for real world ops, they really do need to invest in some low-vis badges though although it seems the only time they wear any badges like this is for public demos so it's maybe not a priority for them.



 

rkhanna

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Off the book. Using private funding, to get around the PMO authorizations needed to use SG.
Off the book cannot mean private funding. Off the book means parliamentary discretion funds. Imagine an Ambani or Adani funding military ops? How fast will that degenerate from national interst to personal?. There has to be civilian accountability in the end even with RAW (CIA) outsources to defence contractors.
 

Gessler

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Off the book cannot mean private funding. Off the book means parliamentary discretion funds.
Not talking about what it should mean in an established CIA-Contractor setting.

Imagine an Ambani or Adani funding military ops? How fast will that degenerate from national interst to personal?. There has to be civilian accountability in the end even with RAW (CIA) outsources to defence contractors.
And therein lies the story.

Not that the CIA's use of finance from Agency-friendly businessmen to fund covert activities is unheard of.
 

tusharfoxtrot

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These guys with the BNVD-P Panoramic 4-tubes would look incredible


+ I'm glad that the NSG "black out" (all these bright tabs removed) for real world ops, they really do need to invest in some low-vis badges though although it seems the only time they wear any badges like this is for public demos so it's maybe not a priority for them.



Which sniper rifle is the operative 2nd from right holding in 1st pic?
 

rkhanna

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Not talking about what it should mean in an established CIA-Contractor setting.



And therein lies the story.

Not that the CIA's use of finance from Agency-friendly businessmen to fund covert activities is unheard of.
Ah very cool. Looking forward to reading it.
 

AZTEC

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Sir, end of the day Bollywood is a product of Indian society. Look at comments on many military picture streams on facebook, instagram etc. what do we see? 75% are jingoistic comments, 25% are PUBG commandos wondering why Para SFs aren't putting 4x scopes on their 'M416s' and saying SCAR is better than M416 because its stats are higher in the game.

And these 25% are also from a very young demographic, and those of older demographics (old enough to be filmmakers or producers) can only connect to the jingoism. And there is nil gun community in civilian circles so they don't even have an avenue for acquisition of knowledge from other sources.

Not to mention that military portrayals in Indian cinema are still at Rambo levels, at that time Hollywood too was nothing but a jingo-fest. And we are typically 20-30 years behind the West in most things, and unfortunately it'll be true in filmmaking as well.

If our space movies like Mangalyaan cannot hold a candle to something like Martian from a technical perspective, we really can't expect our military/SF-themed movies to hold a candle to likes of ZDT either can we?

--

That said, I am in early stages of working on what I hope to be a web-series themed around a PMC floated by R&AW. If it manages to go on to the floors, on my part I'd do my best to maintain a high level of technical accuracy with regard to equipment & tactics from a production standpoint.
I suggest you in good faith to read Vikram Sood's book The Ultimate Goal: A Former R&AW Chief Deconstructs How Nations Construct Narratives.

It will open up your mind. You seem to be a bit captivated by western narratives.
 

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