SP's Land Forces April-May 2011
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April-May 2011 Volume 8 No 2 R `100.00 (India-based Buyer Only) SP’s AN SP GUIDE PUBLICATION WWW.SPSLANDFORCES.NET ROUNDUP IN THIS ISSUE The ONLY journal in Asia dedicated to Land Forces PAGE 4 >> COVER STORY Future Trends To be successful in a full spectrum conflict, there is a need to modernise, have a balanced profile and upgrade our defence ‘Modernisation would depend on industry to achieve a reasonable degree of indigenisation thereby enhancing our capabilities in a two-front war. the pace of acquisition of guns and Major General P.K. Chakravorty PAGE 6 financial outlays provided for induction’ Safe, Secure & Reliable The project for TCS for the Indian Army has PHOTOGRAPHS : SP Guide Pubns been undertaken under the “Make Procedure” category. TCS is expected to become operational by 2014. Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor PAGE 7 Defence Allocation Up, GDP Share Down This year’s defence budget allocation represents an 11.59 per cent growth over the previous year’s budget. It is only 1.83 per cent of the GDP, while last year, the defence budget was 2.12 per cent of the GDP. Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor PAGE 8 China’s Rising Defence Budget Cause for Alarm At a time when China’s ambition for power projection has considerably increased, a double-digit growth in China’s defence budget promises to impact adversely the regional security dynamics. Sanjay Kumar PAGE 10 Making Every Mission Possible A common platform for a light armoured vehicle (wheeled) which could fulfill the role Artillery constitutes a major war-winning component of the Indian Army and of all the functions required to be carried out in conventional and asymmetric conflicts has performed brilliantly in every conflict fought by the Indian Army since would be desirable. independence. In an interview with SP’s Land Forces team comprising Editor-in- Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor Chief Jayant Baranwal and Editor Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor , the Director General, Artillery, Lt General Vinod Nayanar , spoke about Artillery’s future PAGE 12 concepts and roles, modernisation plans, equipment profile and training. For Strategic Tasking We need to integrate our Special Forces and optimise their potential to face the 21st SP’s Land Forces (SP’s): Conceptually shells and lower terminal velocity could l Integrated and synergised utilisation of century challenges in requisite manner. within Artillery you now speak of degrada - only neutralise and destroy the targets to firepower and surveillance and target tion and destruction rather than neutralisa - a limited extent. The shift, thus, is due to acquisition resources through auto - Lt General (Retd) P.C. Katoch tion. What are the reasons for this change the planned modernisation of Artillery. mated systems i.e. Artillery combat com - in concept? mand and control system (ACCCS) and PLUS Lt General Vinod Nayanar (DG) : The shift SP’s: What are the other modernisation battlefield surveillance system (BSS). in concept from neutralisation to degrada - plans of Artillery which are likely to fructify Vulnerabilities Manifold 9 tion and destruction has come about with in the near future or in the long run? What is SP’s: What is the new equipment being Interview with General Peter Chiarelli, 14 the enhanced capability of the Artillery in likely to be the ratio of guns, rockets and inducted in the field of surveillance and tar - Vice Chief of Staff, US Army terms of delivery of larger calibre and missiles in the Artillery? get acquisition (SATA)? more lethal munitions, enhanced precision DG : The modernisation plans of Artillery DG : In the field of SATA, in addition to the Interview with Major General Alan 15 systems as also greater battlefield trans - envisages the following: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), battlefield Howard, Deputy Commander, parency in depth. With the above enhance - l Mediumisation of all guns to 155mm surveillance radar (BFSR) and long-range Canadian Army ments, Artillery will be able to strike deep calibre. reconnaissance and observation system Employ Skillfully 16 with precision and thus will be able to l Enhanced battlefield transparency by (LORROS), new equipment being inducted First / Tecknow 18 degrade and destroy the targets effectively. introduction of cutting edge ground include the electronic theodolite, inertial Our earlier weapon systems with lighter based, aerial and space based sensors. navigation system, sound ranging system News in Brief 19 2/2011 SP’s LAND FORCES 1 >> COVER STORY The security threats and challenges facing India pulled back. Senior military officers often express mation of the Army into a network-centric force. L have increased enormously. While the old adver - their opinion that State to State all-out wars are a Will our current level of budgeting suffice? sarial threats due to unresolved borders remain, phenomenon of the past and are least likely to Our planners need to seriously re-examine and A new threats and challenges like terrorism and occur, yet our planning reflects that we are still review the entire issue in light of the delays which insurgencies have been added to the old inventory. stuck in the quagmire of conceiving and war-gam - keep occurring with tiresome regularity in our pro - I Thus, Indian military stresses the need to prepare ing scenarios of conventional wars as was done in curement system. Moreover, the delay in procure - itself for the full spectrum of warfare. The dilemma the past. The only difference is that we now call ments will keep increasing the backlog when future R is only regarding the extent of emphasis that such conventional conflicts as “limited wars”. But requirements come up for consideration thus cre - should be laid to acquiring each type of capability. the reality is that all the wars that India has fought ating a catch-22 situation. O Unfortunately, the Indian military also contin - till date since independence were limited wars and This issue of SP’s Land Forces is focused on ues to be besieged by a mindset regarding the via - therefore our thinking and our concepts have not Artillery, Special Forces, India and China’s defence T bility of conventional wars in the future despite the really changed. budgets, apart from certain miscellaneous issues. Kargil experience in mid-1999 wherein they did not Additional capabilities to cater for current and I even cross the line of control in Jammu and Kash - future challenges, including an out of area reach, mir for fear of escalating the conflict. Later on, con - require induction of new technologies and force D sequent to the December 13, 2001 attack on the multipliers which are highly cost intensive proposi - Indian Parliament, Operation Parakram was tions. For example, what would be the cost of a launched wherein the entire Indian military got network-centric force like an infantry division? A E deployed and postured for a possible conflict on Stryker brigade (fully networked) costs $1.5 billion the Western front against Pakistan. However, after in the US Army. Even if our ambitions are much Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor remaining at the borders for 10 months, the forces lower, it would be worthwhile costing the transfor - and indigenous weapon locating radar training to enable multi-tasking. We are also (WLR) system. working on training the trainers. This is the essence of training in the Artillery. Artillery SP’s: What is the philosophy for induction has to be dynamic and vibrant to meet of UAVs? enhanced future requirements. Therefore, DG : The importance of UAVs in the world over we are incorporating modern methods of is immense in terms of its potential for opera - training including enhanced use of simula - tional surveillance in conventional operations tors that will go a long way in meeting our as also in counter-insurgency/ counter-ter - training requirements. rorism operations. It is also of importance in disaster management roles. Our philosophy SP’s: Why has the Defence Research and towards this is to have a credible capability of Development Organisation (DRDO) not been various UAV systems to ensure battlefield able to design a new gun for the Artillery? Do transparency across the frontage. we have the capability in our country to design and manufacture modern guns? Has SP’s: Is the Army interested in inducting any the private sector shown any interest in unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAVs)? this field? DG : The standoff capability to carry out sur - DG : DRDO has been successful in developing gical strikes in depth has been demonstrated the Pinaka Rocket System in collaboration effectively in various conflicts across the with partners from the private sector. I do globe. The induction of UCAVs will be carried believe that the DRDO and the private sector out in the best interest of national security. have the ability to design and manufacture modern guns too and they are showing con - SP’s: What are the basic parameters for the siderable interest. modernisation of Artillery? DG : The basic parameters for modernisation SP’s: Has the concept of Artillery Divisions of Artillery are enhanced surveillance capa - been successful? What are the advantages bility, increased range, precision, mobility of grouping Artillery in a division level and lethality of firepower assets. Modernisa - organisation? tion, however, would depend on the pace of DG : The concept of Artillery Divisions acquisition of guns and financial outlays evolved essentially from the requirement of provided for induction. Indigenous produc - optimal utilisation of the plethora of tion capability is another important param - weapon systems and upgraded surveillance eter for sustained modernisation. systems that we have now and plan to have in our inventory. An organisation was SP’s: Artillery technology is undergoing needed for command and control, coordi - transformation rapidly. What changes do you nation, logistics and communication func - propose in the existing plans to conform to tions for these.