SUJAN DUTTA
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New Delhi, Nov. 15: The Indian Army is in the market to buy hundreds of new troops carriers and tanks to reshape and re-inforce its mechanised forces, partly for deployment in high-altitude border zones and partly for counter-insurgency operations.
On the army’s shopping list are infantry combat vehicles, armoured personnel carriers and light tanks.
It has issued requests for information to buy 300 light tanks and 100 armoured personnel carriers (APCs). It expects to increase the total number of new APCs to 500 in five years.
The army is also looking to buy an unspecified number of Infantry Combat Vehicles (ICVs) to replace the Soviet-origin BMP-I and BMP-II machines. There are more than a 1,000 BMPs in service with the army’s mechanised forces.
Infantry Combat Vehicles and APCs are comparable — each is capable of carrying nine to 11 troops with equipment into an offensive. But ICVs have greater firepower.
The Indian Army wants an ICV that can be mounted with a cannon, a machine gun and anti-tank guided missiles.
The Strykers, deployed by the US in a joint exercise (Yudh Abhyas 09) with the Indian Army in Babina last month, are also in the sameleague. The US used Bradley fighting vehicles, now being replaced by the Strykers, in the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
An army source said the light tanks were to be deployed in high-altitude areas, particularly along the border with China.
The army maintains a small unit of heavy T-55 and T-90 tanks in North Sikkim, near the China border.
But the heavy T-90 — the army’s main battle tank — is incapable of negotiating the hairpin bends in the mountains. Light tanks are expected to be able to perform the task better.
The army wants the light tanks for all-terrain use. It is looking to buy 200 wheeled and 100 tracked light tanks. The source said the number of tanks to be procured was likely to be increased from 300.
For all the platforms — ICVs, APCs and light tanks — the defence ministry will want to buy a small number off the shelf and insist on a transfer of technology agreement with the vendor.
The Indian Army is in the process of raising two new mountain divisions. Each division will have about 17,000 troops. The first is likely to start deployment in the Northeast, including the Arunachal border, by the end of the year.
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