SP's Land Forces April-May 2012
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April-May 2012 Volume 9 No 2 R `100.00 (India-based Buyer Only) :RUOGFODVVFDSDELOLW\ TAILORED DEFENCE AND SECURITY SOLUTIONS SOLE OFFICIAL MEDIA PARTNER THROUGH TECHNOLOGY AN SP GUIDE PUBLICATION SHARING AND LOCALLY FOCUSED PARTNERSHIPS. SP’s See uS at Hall 14 BootH 14.26 Visit us in Hall 9 at DefExpo 2012. DeFeXPo 2012 SPecial Preview our exhibition presence at www.baesystems.com/defexpo2012. WWW.SPSLANDFORCES.NET ROUNDUP IN THIS ISSUE T h e ONLY journal in Asia dedicated to Land Forces Face-to-Face Lt General S.P. Kochhar, 4 >> COVER STORY Signal Officer-in-Chief, Corps of Signals Lt General Vinod Nayanar, 6 Director General of the Regiment of Artillery Lt General Kuldip Singh, 8 Director General, Army Air Defence Indian Army’s Decision Lt General Vinod Bhatia, 22 Director General, Infantry, Indian Army PAGE 10 Support Architecture PHOTOGRAPH: SP Guide Pubns A Reality Check The Union Budget 2012-13 has increased the defence budget to `1,93,407.29 crore. However, the actual increase is only 13.5 per cent if the figures of the revised estimates are taken into consideration for the year 2011-12. Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor PAGE 12 Watersheds in Land Battle As far as “jointness” and synergy are con- cerned between the services, it is disappoint- ing to note that in the 21st century, the Indian Army and indeed the Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force are still planning for con- flicts essentially service wise, the way it was done in the early years of Second World War. Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor PAGE 24 Helicopter Gunships for Engaging Targets on Ground With the ALH WSI and the LCH being indigenously developed by HAL and likely to enter service in the coming years, the Indian armed forces will have formidable and state-of-the-art armament using in their kitty, a useful force multiplier which can turn the tide in battle. T-90 tank Lt General (Retd) B.S. Pawar PAGE 26 The Army needs a seamless digitised communication network capable of picking For Better Deterrence & Lesser Collateral up information from sensors deployed in the battlespace and passing it on a Damage need-to-know basis to all concerned commanders in the field With a larger quantity of PGMs, the employ- ment of Artillery itself will undergo a drastic change. n LT GENERAL (RETD) V.K. KAPOOR domain of LICO, including counter-insur- deliberate set piece offensive and defensive Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor gency and counter-terrorist operations. military operations against fixed defences t present, the IndIan army however, considering the unstable condi- and, hence, the operational philosophy PAGE 28 is organised, equipped and tions in most of our neighbouring states favours ‘force-on-force’ attrition oriented India’s Internal Security Woes trained for third generation, and China’s continuing belligerence, India operations which are tactically biased and Integrated challenges to homeland security industrial age conflicts engaging cannot afford to lower its military prepared- in short wars, especially in the mountains, have to be handled at the national level with a low- and medium-level technol- ness because it may well be forced to fight where the gains are going to be limited centralised framework for adequate response. Aogy. the threat from traditional adversaries wars whose origin or root cause may be unless the army changes its operational has been paramount in motivating the pre- beyond its control. hence, the army has to doctrine and the method of waging wars Lt General (Retd) P.C. Katoch vailing concepts and doctrines of war and be prepared to fight limited conventional and acquires new capabilities. organisational structures. this has mani- wars of high intensity and acquire a rela- strategic and tactical air mobility, PLUS fested in the preparation and readiness for tively small but powerful out-of-area (OOa) together with the development of network- The Winner’s Choice 26 limited conventional conflicts apart from capability—in other words, a tri-service enabled warfare capability and the ability to the low-intensity conflict operations (LICO) expeditionary capability, in addition to a launch effects based operations against BAE Systems at Defexpo 29 which is being fought within India’s borders nuanced capability for LICO. state and non-state actors will considerably Exercise Yudh Abhyas 2012 31 and in which the army has been embroiled excessive obsession with conventional enhance the Indian army’s capabilities. since the 1950s. the latter involvement has defensive operations has skewed the army’s Managing Strategic Military 32 become far more acute and critical since the organisations, operational doctrines, con- A New Battlefield Environment Transformation onset of the ‘proxy war’ in Jammu and cepts, equipment pattern and deployment. a new battlefield environment has emerged Interview: AM General 36 Kashmir, assisted, encouraged and funded even the training of its forces needs a due to the advent of stand-off, multi-spec- Feet Firmly on the Ground at CAE 36 by pakistan since 1989. change in orientation. the traditional tral sensors with real time communications the future challenges mainly lie in the methods of war fighting have favoured that give situational awareness so that tar- News in Brief 37 2/2012 SP’s LAND FORCES 1 >> COVER STORY India is passing through a unique era of internal various ministries and departments. The question upgrade of Arjun main battle tanks, lack of moderni- political upheaval. The political leadership at the is also whether the defence budget, which sation of artillery and air defence capabilities since Centre is trying its best to cope with the dynamics impinges upon national security, should be subject the last three decades and delay in procurement of of the pace of political change though it is evident to fiscal austerity in India which is facing a two-front basic infantry weapons and reconnaissance and that recent elections in five states and the poor per- threat apart from other diverse challengesn, both surveillance helicopters. formance of the Congress has added to the woes internal and external. Considering the above requirements of the of the UPA-II Government. The strength of regional However, the nation is thankful to the govern- Army and the big ticket items of the IAF and the parties and their influence on decision-making at ment that no cuts were imposed and the alloca- Navy in the pipeline including the Rafale fighter air- the Centre is having an adverse impact on security. tion has seen a 18 per cent increase in the craft, Apache attack helicopters, and heavy trans- This trend can be seen quite clearly by the oppo- defence budget from the concluding year. The port aircraft (C-17 Globemaster III), conventional sition to the setting up of the National Counter-ter- allocated amount is `1,93,407.29 crore ($38.68 submarines, aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov (re- rorism Centre (NCTC), a powerful anti-terror billion). The increase hyped by the media is quite christened INS Vikramaditya), multi-role helicop- agency that will integrate and analyse inputs on misleading because if we consider the revised ters and UAVs, a lot is at stake. Thus it seems that terror threats in India and will have legal authority estimates for 2011-12 the increase amounts to the committed liability of the Ministry of Defence to make arrests and conduct search operations. It only 13.6 per cent and if the fall of the rupee is out of a capital budget of `79,579 crore ($15.9 bil- was to be set up on March 1, 2012, but opposition also taken into account then there is no tangible lion) from the overall allocation, is likely to be more from a diverse group of Chief Ministers, who said increase in the defence budget. than 60 per cent of the allocated capital budget. EDITORIALthat the NCTC’s charter was violative of the federal Recent media reports have indicated that the We hope that the MoD can put its act together and structure, prevented the Central Government from Indian Army is seriously short of weapons and ord- along with the three services expedite and stream- implementing the decision taken by the Cabinet nance. Delays in decisions on key military matters line the procurement process and get the “best Committee on Security. The Chief Ministers have have blunted the operational edge of the armed bang for the buck”. The country desires it and questioned the manner in which the agency was forces. This has been highlighted in a letter written deserves it. to be set up, without taking states on board, and by Army Chief General V.K. Singh to Defence Min- have demanded that the decision be reversed. The ister A.K. Antony. The situation is alarming against current situation is that the decision to set it up has the backdrop of the sluggish procurement process been postponed. of the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The Army Chief’s The Finance Minister in the Union Budget letter highlights delay in setting up the National 2012-13 presented to the Parliament on March 16, Counter Insurgency School, shortfall of ammunition 2012, had the unenviable task of deciding between and ordnance, lack of potent cyber warfare units, fiscal prudence and the competing demands from failure to modernise T-72 battle tanks, delay in Lt General (Retd) V.K. Kapoor Command & Control The Indian Army wants TAC C3I Architecture the Indian army wants to create a seam- to create a seamless link less link from the top to the bottom as an COMMAND INFORMATION AND DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM integrated command and control enter- from the top to the bot- prise.