The apathy of the Defence Ministry in equipment procurement could have disastrous results in the future. We need far greater focus and a firm political will to modernise our military and build the desired military capability for the future.

Future wars will BE highly uncertain; major state to state wars among well armed nations will be rare; low intensity conflict and asymmetric wars will proliferate and technology will play a predominant role in designing the conduct of future wars. The role and employment of infantry in future will also depend on the nature of future wars. Most nations are investing heavily in new and emerging technologies which they feel will confer distinct advantages over the adversary.

Apart from conventional conflicts where the role of the infantry remains the same i.e. to close in, capture or destroy the enemy and hold ground, it is ideally suited as a vital arm of the Indian Army, for countering insurgencies and terrorism operations, border guarding including maintaining the sanctity of disputed borders, internal security duties, aid to civil authorities including maintenance of law and order in peacetime and peacekeeping operations under the UN Charter.

The modernisation focus of the Indian Army in the Eleventh Defence Plan according to Lt General (Retd) Noble Thamburaj, former Vice Chief of Army Staff (VCOAS), is on “precision firepower, air defence, aviation, future infantry soldier as a system (F-INSAS), infrastructure development, network centricity and achieving battlefield transparency through improved surveillance, night vision and target acquisition…Considering the receding span of technological cycle, right balance has to be maintained between the state-of-the-art, current and obsolescent technologies.”

Modernisation of the Infantry

Modernisation of Infantry as indeed the entire modernisation programme of the Indian Army is a continuous and ongoing process. The Indian Army has initiated major modernisation plans, with regard to the infantry, with particular emphasis on improvement of its firepower, mobility, surveillance and night fighting capability. These capabilities are planned to be acquired as per the long-term integrated defence plan and flowing from this the Service wise, five-year perspective plans.

Lt General Jasbir Singh, the former Director General Infantry, has candidly shared his thoughts on a host of important issues affecting the Infantry. He has said, “With rapid advancements in the field of science and technology, the nature of warfare is also changing. Future wars are likely to be short, intense and characterised by greater transparency, increased accuracy and lethality with much higher tempo of activities. In these times, while the Army needs to maintain conventional deterrence, it should also be prepared to face the more probable threat of asymmetric war. The technological advancements that would impact future operations of infantry can be categorised as follows:

• Improvement in firepower, both in quantum and accuracy.
• Sensors to provide day/night all-weather capability.
• Information sharing through networking and information management by automation.

He said that his endeavour was to further enhance the capability of the Infantry soldier and equip him with adequate lethality, protection and situational awareness to meet the challenges of both conventional and the next generation of warfare. He clarified that they were in the process of adopting the technologies towards meeting the operational objectives set out for the infantry.

Sensors

Battlefield surveillance radars (BFSRs) with practical ranges up to seven to eight km where clear line of sight is available have been inducted along with hand-held thermal imaging devices (HHTIs) with ranges up to 2,000 metres for observation at night and stand-alone infrared, seismic and acoustic sensors with varying capabilities. These have enabled the infantrymen to dominate the line of control (LoC) to bring down the rate of infiltration by terrorists from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Complementary Weapons

The newly acquired weapons, which complement these surveillance and observation devices, include 84mm rocket launchers, including some disposable ones, anti-material rifles (AMRs), under-barrel grenade launchers (UBGLs), new generation carbines, bullet proof vehicles, and accurate sniper rifles. However, the numbers acquired and the ammunition stocks are still inadequate and need to be made up more rapidly. The INSAS 5.56mm assault rifles have now been in service for over 10 years, also need replacement. New 5.56mm assault rifles of bull-pup design with an integrated laser range finder and grenade launcher are under development. Efforts are also being made to provide infantry platoons and sections with integrated GPS-based navigation system, secure light-weight walkietalkie radio sets and better protective gear with a helmet that incorporates a built-in head-up display.

Mechanised Infantry

The mechanised infantry is now equipped with about 2,000 BMP-1 and BMP-2 ICV Sarath of which over 1,000 have been built in India since 1987. A new variant is the 81mm carrier mortar tracked vehicle (CMTV) that is based on the chassis of the Sarath ICV and has been indigenously developed to enhance the integral firepower available to mechanised infantry battalions. The other variants include a command post, an ambulance, armoured dozer and engineer reconnaissance vehicles. Reconnaissance and Support Battalions need better surveillance radars, fire-and-forget ATGMs and effective night fighting capability. The BMP- 1 and the BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles, which have been the mainstay of the mechanised infantry battalions for long, are now ageing and the replacements need to be found soon.

The Director General Mechanised Infantry during an interview with SP’s Land Forces in March 2011 had said, “Indian Army has planned for a futuristic infantry combat vehicle (FICV) to replace the BMP-2 with key operational and performance parameters envisaged in the Indian context. The project is a pioneer in ‘Make-Hi Tech’ category where for the first time the defence industry has invited participation by private established agencies. The project is in an advance stage of development of a prototype. We are of the view that our operational requirements can be met with a weapon mix of a cannon, machine gun, missile firing capability and an automatic grenade launcher.”