Mikesingh
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Conventional warfare is different from COIN ops. In the former it is better to injure your enemy as this creates a lot of pressure on the enemy's logistics which include evacuation to medical aid posts, and then to field hospitals, plus administration of medicines and so on. One injured on the battlefield requires at least two combatants to evacuate him and more to tend to him in the medical aid posts and further evacuation to field hospitals plus the transport required. This creates tremendous strain on resources and effects the morale of the enemy too. So, injuring the enemy is better than killing him outright and thus a 5.56 was preferred.Sirji....
Insas uses 5.56*45,
If we go through the documentaries of M-16, then purpose of this round is clearly explained.
Regarding the injury, it states that the aim of this round is to injure. When enemy soldier is injured, then two more withdraw from battle to take care of the wounded(i.e moving wounded back to safety). Frankly speaking when I first heard this logic, it sounded like WTF!!! I still don't understand the preference of wounding than killing. @Mikesingh sirji can u please shed more light and explain in layman terms
In 90s when our forces came in contract with terrorists, these rounds wounded them, unlike regular military forces, they didn't withdraw and kept fighting.
Thus Insas had lost its respect and AKs replaced them. 5.56*45 rounds did exactly what they're supposed to do, but army didn't like the outcome. Army's doctrine had failed (only in case of going for 5.56*45 round) so Insas had become scapegoat.
Yes Insas had its fair share of problems, but enough noise and inspection happened only after Kargil War. I believe most if not all of the issues are fixed now.
In the COIN environment, this doesn't hold. So a 7.62mm is ideal for putting the terrorist out of business permanently and quickly. Remember, we take no prisoners in COIN ops. It's shoot to kill unless of course he surrenders.