The Indian Armed Forces

What do you know about the Indian Armed Forces?

-Unlike other government organisations and institutions in India, there are no provisions for reservations based on caste or religion.

Soldiers are recruited based on their overall merit and fitness based on stringent tests and trials. And once a citizen of India joins the forces, he/she becomes a soldier. Nothing else. Nothing more.

-India has the biggest "voluntary" army in the world. All serving and reserve personnel have actually “opted” for service. There is a provision for conscription (forced recruitment) in the constitution, but it has never been used.

-India covertly tested its nuclear arsenal in the early 1970s and late 1990s without the CIA even knowing what was happening. India's successful testing of its nuclear weapons( Smiling Buddha and Pokhran 2) is regarded as one of CIA's biggest failures.

-Controls the highest battlefield in the world- the Siachen glacier, at 5000 m above MSL.

-Indian soldiers are considered among the very best in high altitude and mountain warfare.

The Indian army’s High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) is one of the most elite military training centers in the world and is frequented by Special Ops teams from the U.S, U.K & Russia.

American Green Berets( Army Special Forces) and Delta Force operators came to India to train at HAWS(high altitude warfare school) under Para SF before leaving for Afghanistan in 2002.

-The Ezhimala Naval Academy in Kerala is the largest of its kind in Asia.

-In the Battle of Longewala, on which the famous Bollywood movie “Border” is based, there were only two casualties on the Indian side.

The Battle of Longewala was fought in December 1971 between India and Pakistan, in which just 120 Indian Soldiers with 1 jeep mounted M40 recoilless rifle held the fort against 2000 Pakistani soldiers backed by 45 tanks and 1 mobile infantry brigade. Despite being heavily out-numbered, the Indian soldiers held their ground throughout the night and with the help of the Air Force, were able to completely rout the aggressors.

-The Indo Pakistan War of 1971 came to end with the surrender of about 93,000 combatants and officials of the Pakistani Army.

This is the largest number of POWs taken into custody since World War II. The war resulted in the creation of the independent state of Bangladesh.

-India paid Israel $1.1 billion to build a Phalcon AWACS( Airborne Warning and Control System) which allows a country to record radar signatures 500 km into the enemy territories without crossing an international boundary.

-The Brahmos Cruise Missile jointly developed by India and Russia has a speed of Mach 2.8 with a range of 300km.(official estimates). It is the fastest cruise missile in the world. Brahmos 2 is a hypersonic missile (Mach 7) under development.

-India will become one of the few country to have a nuclear triad-air bombers, ICBMs(Intercontinental ballistic missiles) and nuclear submarines. Sagrika (a nuclear capable submarine missile) was successfully test fired in Jan. 2013 for the 14th time with a range between 700 to 1900 km depending on the payload.

-India has two aircraft carriers-INS Virat and INS-Vikramaditya.

INS Vikrant will  be commissioned in near future(2017).

INS Vishal will be inducted by early 2022.

-Indian Air Force pilots, in a show of power to the Chinese, landed a C-130J Super Hercules on the highest airfield (with a rugged runway) in the world (daulat beg oldi, ladakh).

-The Special group was an uber elite spec ops detachment made of the best army special forces operators and SFF commandos to conduct CT ops and hostage rescue as its primary objectives, with special reconnaissance, unconventional/guerilla  warfare, direct action assaults and assassinations as its other objectives. The nucleus of this group was trained by the Israeli Mossad operatives and their special forces. This is the parent unit of the famed 51st SAG NSG group, which conducts the CT ops now.

-India is the largest importer of weapon system in the world ( not necessarily a good thing).

-Operation Rahat (2013) was one of the biggest civilian rescue operations ever carried out in the world.

It was carried out by the Indian Air Force to evacuate civilians affected by the floods in Uttarakhand in 2013. It was the biggest civilian rescue operations in the world carried out by any Air Force using helicopters. During the first phase of the operation from 17 June 2013, the IAF airlifted a total of about 20,000 people; flying a total of 2,140 sorties and dropping a total of 3,82,400 kg of relief material and equipment.

-The Indian Air Force has an out-station base in Tajikistan and is seeking another in Afghanistan.

-The Military Engineering Services (MES) is one of the biggest construction agencies in India.

The MES and Border Roads Organisation (BRO) are together responsible for the construction and maintenance of some of the most awesome roads and bridges ever to have been built. To name a few, the Khardungla Pass (the highest motorable road in the world), the Magnetic Hill in Leh, etc.

-The Indian Army built the highest bridge in the world.The Bailey Bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982.