The Indian Army is raising additional mechanized infantry battalions and has initiated procurement of 100 Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) to equip them. Photo Credit: PIBNovember 12, 2009, (Sawf News) - The Indian Army is raising additional mechanized infantry battalions and has initiated procurement of 100 Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) to equip them.
A Request for Information floated by the MOD projects an outright purchase of 100 APCs, followed by full TOT and license manufacture in India. The APC are required to be easily transportable in IL-76 and C-130Js.
Defense Ministry officials have indicated that the total order size will be 500.
India has an existing fleet of around 1,500 Russian BMP-1 and BMP-2's equipping its 26 mechanized infantry battalions.
The APC RFI closely follows a RFP for 300 light tanks circulated in October 2009, following heightened tensions with China.
The light tanks are expected to weigh around 22 tons and be capable of operating at heights of over 3,000 m in hilly terrain. They should be capable of engaging enemy Main Battle Tanks from a distance of more than 2 km using HE shells and guided missiles.
The Indian Army is adding two more mountain divisions to its existing 10 divisions equipped and trained for mountain warfare, in response to the increased Chinese threat. A total of 18 battalions are being raised, some of which will be mechanized. (Three brigades comprising three battalions each make a division.)
56 Mountain Division under Dimapur based 3 Corps. is being raised at Zakama, Nagaland with 46 Brigade based in Dibang and 22 Brigade based in Lekhapani at the Assam-Arunachal border. The division started functioning in October 2009.
71 Mountain Division under Tezpur based 4 Corps will start functioning shortly.
The Indian Army appears to have taken a conscious decision to increase its light armor along the LAC after Chinese mechanized infantry conducted exercises in Tibet. Chinese light armor was used extensively as show of force to quell the uprisings in Lhasa before the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
The Tibetan plateau lends itself to the use of light armor, and even heavy armor if you can get it up there using the narrow and largely unpaved highways on the Indian side.
Interestingly, the Chinese side of the Tibetan border is more conducing to the use of armor, which could serve as an incentive to Indian generals to take the battle to Tibet.
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