The revelation this week that the Army chief had written to the prime minister, telling him essentially that the Army was unfit for war should have surprised nobody. Last month, General V K Singh had written in to the defence minister in far greater detail. In January 2010, then Army chief, General Deepak Kapoor, had announced that 80 per cent of his tanks were night blind, which in other words admits that they were unfit for war. And when the use of force was considered after the 26/11 Mumbai terror strikes, all three service chiefs sent to the defence minister a laundry list of equipment deficiencies.

Besides this, a slew of media reports over the preceding decade have highlighted deficiencies in the mechanised forces; artillery; the air defence network; the infantry and Special Forces being key among them. Systematic military intelligence analysis, of the kind that is routine in Rawalpindi and Beijing, would leave Pakistan and China with no doubts about India’s military weakness. But the Indian public might miss the broader picture.

Tank fleet
Designed to deter Pakistan from sponsoring terror strikes inside India by posing a threat to retaliate with a deep offensive into that country, the tank fleet remains near night blind. While the 800-odd T-90S tanks in service, as well as the 124 Arjun tanks can fight at night, India’s 2400-odd T-72 tanks, a 1960s Soviet design, are mostly night blind, and are comprehensively outclassed by Pakistan’s T-80UD tanks. The planned purchase of add-on night sights for the T-72 had dragged on fruitlessly. Even if it is implemented, it would hardly make up for the badly outdated T-72 design.

The Army chief’s letter to the PM also drew attention to the deficiency in armour piercing tank ammunition, with depots holding vast quantities of training ammunition that is incapable of penetrating an actual tank. In any high-intensity war, ammunition shortages would bring the strike corps to a grinding halt well before the attainment of its objectives.

Artillery
For a century, the most crucial arm on the battle, in terms of casualties caused on the enemy has been the artillery. India’s 220-odd artillery regiments (there are 18 guns in a regiment) field equipment that is at least a quarter of a century old since there has been no artillery procurement since 1987.

As a result, the army uses a mix of many kinds of different guns, a logistical nightmare in terms of maintenance support and ammunition handling. The process of inducting new artillery will take at least five years, and is complicated by the MoD’s blacklisting of almost every major international arms vendor. The Artillery Rationalisation Plan proposes to acquire 3,000-3,600 155mm, 45 calibre ultralight and 155 mm 52 calibre towed, mounted and self-propelled guns in the next decade for about 180 of its 220 artillery regiments. But there is no movement for now.

Air defence
Pakistan’s inability to detect the incursion by the US Special Forces team that killed Osama bin Laden made that country seem militarily inept. Similarly, India’s porous air defence network could lead to national embarrassment. The radar network, which must provide seamless and layered coverage across the length of the border, has huge holes, and the development and production of new radars by Bharat Electronics Ltd has lagged badly.

India’s air defence guns are today 40-50 years old. The L-70 and ZU-23 guns are from the 1960s and 1970s, while programmes to upgrade them by mating them to modern radars have still to be implemented. Missile systems like the SAM-2 Pichora are repeatedly given life extensions, even as they remain obviously incapable of bringing down a modern, high-performance fighter. The situation is even worse for the mechanised forces’ mobile air defence, equipped with Russian platforms like the ZSU-23 Schillka and the OSA-AK (SAM-8) that date back to the 1970s.

In the last financial year, the MoD has signed Rs 17,000 crore worth of procurement contracts for air defence artillery. But Rs 13,000 crore of that is for just two squadrons of indigenous Akash missiles, which will be deployed in the northeast. Many of the big holes remain unplugged for now.

Special forces
Even as the army takes pride in the capabilities of its Special Forces, many of these units still engage in counter-insurgency operations with the venerable AK-47 assault rifle, perhaps the only Special Forces in the world that carry such outdated equipment. Equally worrisome is their night vision capability, a key concern since Special Forces operate mainly at night. Another key capability that lags is man-portable communications.

Infantry
The Indian Army’s 350-odd infantry battalions, respected worldwide for their discipline and commitment, are amongst the most neglected arms. This is ironical, given that most Army chiefs have been infantrymen. Most infantrymen say that the infantry’s primary weapons, the 5.62 mm INSAS rifle and light machine gun, which the Ordnance Factory Board fabricates, have not met the standards of a modern army.

Even more worrisome is the infantry’s night-fighting capabilities. Most of the 30,000 night vision devices (NVDs) which Bharat Electronics Ltd had been asked to build remain undelivered. Short range radio communications remain another dire weakness. Senior officers admit that Pakistani terrorists who infiltrate into J&K often carry better NVDs and radio sets than the army jawans who combat them.

However, a sense of realisation appears to be dawning on the MoD and there is a concerted attempt to modify procurement procedures and structures in order to fill these glaring gaps in defence capability. But, given that the average procurement contract takes six to seven years from conception to delivery, many of these gaps will continue for now.

NEW DELHI — India’s tanks do not have enough shells to fire, its air defenses are obsolete and its ill-equipped infantry can’t fight at night, the country’s army chief told the prime minister in a letter this month, an Indian newpaper reported Wednesday.

Excerpts from the letter from army chief V.K. Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were published in the Mumbai-based newspaper Daily News & Analysis. The revelations prompted condemnation of both the government and the army among lawmakers, who demanded the army chief’s immediate dismissal over the letter’s publication and other incidents and accused the government of neglecting national security.

 

(Raveendran/AFP/Getty Images) – A letter, written earlier this month by Indian army chief V. K. Singh to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has caused an embarrassing face-off between the army and the government.

Gallery

In January India celebrated its 62nd Republic Day with parades across the country.

An embarrassed A.K. Antony, India’s defense minister, confirmed to Parliament on Wednesday that V.K. Singh had sent the letter and pledged to “protect every inch of our motherland” by speeding up steps to modernize the country’s million-man army.

Amid tensions with neighboring China and Pakistan, India has shopped aggressively for weapons in recent years in an effort to transform what has long been a corrupt and bureaucratic force into a lean, lethal army fit for 21st-century warfare. A Swedish research group said this month that between 2007 and 2011, the country had emerged as the world’s largest weapons importer.

In his letter, however, Singh said the army’s major combat weapons are in an “alarming” state, alleging that its tank fleet is “devoid of critical ammunition to defeat enemy tanks” and that India’s air defenses are “97 percent obsolete.”

There was no immediate response from the prime minister’s office.

In October, the weekly magazine India Today ran a story titled “Not Ready for War,” which argued that years of neglect had rendered the army unfit to fight a war.

Antony’s criticism was not directed at Singh for sending the letter but focused instead on its publication. “By the very nature of these issues, they cannot be a matter of public debate,” he said, adding, “I have made serious note of the observations.”

Retired Gen. Ved Prakash Malik, who headed the Indian army in a limited border war with Pakistan in 1999, concurred with that view Wednesday. “Every army in the world faces shortages,” he said, “but how did a classified letter of this kind come into the public domain?”

Malik also declined to take issue with the letter’s allegations. “There is no doubt that our weapons procurement procedures in the civil and military bureaucracy are very, very slow, and it does affect decision-making,” he said. “Corrective steps must be taken immediately, especially because of the kind of environment India lives in today.”

Earlier this year, V.K. Singh claimed that he had one more year of tenure and urged the Supreme Court to change his recorded date of birth. The court warned that it could rule against him, and Singh withdrew his case. On Monday, Singh told the Hindu newspaper in an interview that he had been offered a bribe of almost $3 million a year ago by a retired army officer to approve the purchase of trucks from a particular company. Singh said he refused the bribe and reported the incident to the defense minister.

Laloo Prasad Yadav, a lawmaker, told reporters that Singh was “depressed” and “frustrated” and that his actions had hurt the army and the country.

The army chief is scheduled to retire in May.

Published: March 28

 

Reference

Pakistan Think Tank Recommends tirmizi vlog,. Tirmizi has done a superb job. Hats-off to Tirmizi. a proud son of Pakistan.

While researching for some other video for my tirmizi vlog I stumbled upon a pattern that was very interesting which compelled to create this video to highlight the Global conspiracy against Pakistan by Global Media (Jews Mostly) and India (Hindu’s)

Now in the video like I explained the different issues that took place in Pakistan and India , people from Pakistan and india. Now how those were reported by the Media of there respective countries and how the International Media responded.

The issue for a gal that was beaten by lashes by Taliban in Swat. Now that was reported by Media Giants from USA , UK and India … unfortunatly it was over hyped by our own media too , all day we had no other news but that …. and digging out further untill we find out our own xxxxxxxx …

Now when similar or bigger incidents happen in india like a molestation case of a gal while checking up by the army , or rape of a gal by indian army personal they never made it to the spotlight. India and other countries they keep there personal interest first. They have given some guidlines to there media .. there media is fully independant in reporting , blaming Pakistan or others … but when it comes to uncovering or reporting there own issues , corruptions, rapes , torture , animal behavor they are not allowed to do that …

Thus from this videos reference I’d like to request all Pakitani’s and all Pakistan’s well wishers to stop discusing such things openly with public , or putting dirt in our own heads … this is very efficiently being done by our enemies , west and india. They are spending huge $$$$$ to create this negativie extreamist perception of Pakistan .

First priority should be to stand united to find solutions of our internal issues. Issues that can be solved by our personal efforts. Lets solve those once all those issues are solved then lets move towards other stuff.

Long Live Pakistan

– Tirmizi

Reference

Admiral Willard: US Troops in India

Commentary

What goes around, comes around. The Indian Army is using widespread torture on Kashmiris in Indian Occupied Kashmir.  They have taken the act of torture to an art. In doing so they have ended up using these “creative torture,”techniques on their own officers and men.  Here is a story, which appeared in the Indian Rediff on the Net.  Read and weep at the acts of these Indian Army beastly brutes.

The Samba Case: Indian Army Torture

“They boasted of 36 methods of torture. My body was lacerated all over. My ears were disfigured. My left hand was paralysed following the insertion of needles under my fingernails; they tore my whiskers, hair by hair, and drove an iron rod up my arse. They would tie weights to my testicles and drag me on the floor by one leg, with one man sitting astride my back.”

— Captain R S Rathaur one of the prime accused in the Samba spy case about his interrogation by the Indian army.

“He (Havaldar Ram Swarup) was brought to the interrogation centre on September 24, 1978. The usual third degree methods were allegedly applied and he succumbed to his injuries on October 1. His body was thrown on a road in New Delhi cantonment. The postmortem revealed 44 injury marks including electric burns on the body.”

— Ved Prakash, a member of the army general court martial that tried the Samba accused, in his book The Samba Spying Scandal.

They all remember exactly what they were doing when the telephone rang on the night of January 22, 1979. The signals officer had just finished celebrating his daughter’s birthday. The G-3 officer had just met his wife and son after a year-and-a-half and was making up for lost time. The commanding officer was just getting into bed after his usual nightcap.

And then the telephone interrupted them and they were asked to report to office immediately.

Surprised, but not unduly so, they put on their uniforms and left.

Next morning, wives of scores of officers were handed over their husbands’ caps and belts. And by way of information, a series of lies: “No ma’am, we don’t know why your husband has been arrested… we don’t know when he will be back, ma’am.”

For weeks no one knew what had happened. But when the news did break, finally, it took the whole country by storm. On the night intervening 22-23 January, 1979, the army had arrested at least 62 — some say close to a 100 — of its own men on charges of spying.

The scale was unprecedented and unimaginable. That the army had found so many spies in its own ranks shook the country. And in the furore that followed, the episode came to be called the Samba spy scandal — taking its name from the small town, 40 kilometres from Jammu, from where most of the men were arrested.

Many believed it was a wound that the Indian army would take a long time to heal.

Eighteen years later, that wound has been reopened.

After the initial plaudits for the army for breaking such a huge spy ring, doubts began to creep in.

Could so many men really have been working as spies? Most of them were posted at the 168 infantry brigade at Samba. If the charges were true, almost an entire brigade of the army had been working for Pakistan for five years. Was that plausible? Could an entire brigade have been corrupted?

Wives of arrested officers had held a dharna before the then defence minister Chaudhary Charan Singh’s house in Delhi, complaining their husbands had been victimised and were being tortured. But the army remained tight-lipped on grounds of national security, and more and more people began to find disturbing discrepancies in its actions.

Havaldar Ram Swarup’s tortured body, thrown on the Delhi streets, suddenly held new meaning. Was the army telling the truth?

This question may have never been answered. The army wasn’t saying anything, and for a long time, the judiciary had refused to intervene. Though several officers and their wives had appealed to the Delhi high court for a review, it had held such actions of the army lay outside its purview.

Some men were sentenced to long years in prison — seven to 14 — after an army general court martial found them guilty of spying. Others were dismissed from service under Section 18 of the Army Act which allows for dismissal “at the pleasure of the sovereign.”

Thus, despite numerous indicators that there had been a miscarriage of justice, the army would have got away without having to ever give an explanation. Had not Supreme Court Justice Sunanda Bhandare held in 1994 that Section 18 of the Act could be challenged if prime facie mala fide was established.

Here, fate intervened. According to one retired officer, in the Indian army’s reply to the plaint, an internal note had inadvertently slipped in. The note, from one officer to another, apparently said all attempts should be made to stop the trial because if the case did go to court, the army had no real defence to offer.

Though the note was later withdrawn, the damage had been done.

And so, on the 19th of this month, a series of hearings has begun to review the Indian army’s charges of spying against many of its men and officers.

Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine Ref:http://www.rediff.com/news/may/29samba.htm