Indian Army Equipment

Here is the information about the Indian Army equipment, I would also like to keep the the history and whole information of Indian Army, but it will be very long article, so I will divide them in to different article and post in the forth coming articles. External links are provided to see more details of each equipment.

This is a list of some of the modern & historical equipment used by Indian Army. Most of the army equipment is imported, but efforts are being made to manufacture indigenous equipment. All Indian Military Firearms guns are manufactured under the umbrella administration of the Ordnance Factory Board, with principal Firearm manufacturing facilities in Ishapore, Cossipore, Kanpur, Jabalpur and Tiruchirapalli. While ammunition is manufactured at Kirkee (Now Khadki) and possibly at Bolangir.

Modern Equipment

Small arms

Handguns

• FN Browning GP35 9mmx19 mm
• SAF (Small Arms Factory) Pistol 1A 9mmx19 mm, This is more or less a copy of the Canadian Inglis 9 mm
• Glock 17 9mmx19 mm, The Glock 19 along with the 17 is in use with the Special Protection Group (Prime Minister's Security)

Sub-machine guns and carbines

• Heckler & Koch MP5A3 9mmx19 mm SMG
• Heckler & Koch MP5K 9mmx19 mm SMG
• SAF Carbine 1A 9mmx19 mm, Indian made Sterling L2A1 SMG
• SAF Carbine 2A1 9mmx19 mm, Silenced Carbine
• UZI 9mmx19 mm SMG

Assault rifles

• RFI (Rifle Factory,Ishapore) SLR1A 7.62mmx51 mm NATO Assault Rifle, A modified license-produced FN FAL, This old work horse has now more or less been retired from IA service, most going to the police and paramilitary forces after reconditioning. Some however, remain in use.
• RFI SLR1C 7.62mmx51 mm, full Automatic variant of the SLR for use in APCs
• AK-7, clone of the AK-47
• INSAS 5.56mmx45 mm Assault Rifle
• TAVOR TAR-21 5.56mmx45 mm, for special forces currently 3070 have been purchased from Israel 10
• KBK AKMS 7.62mmx39 mm, Polish AKS47-3
• AK47M1 7.62mmx39 mm, all black Bulgarian AK. Most of these have been imported for police and paramilitary forces
• Soviet AKM AKMS 7.62mmx39 mm
• East German MPi-KM MPi-KMS72 7.62mmx39 mm (Second hand)
• Romanian MPiKM series 7.62mmx39 mm, these are Romanian clones of the earstwhile East German rifles. Only external difference is the marking, finish and wooden instead of synthetic fruniture.
• Czech Vz.58 and Vz.58P 7.62mmx39 mm

Sniping rifles

• Dragunov SVD59 7.62mmx54mmR Sniper Rifle
• Mauser SP66 7.62mmx51 mm Sniper Rifle
• Heckler & Koch MSG-90 7.62mmx51 mm Sniping Rifle. The H&K PSG-1 sniping rifle serves with the NSG anti-terrorist units while small numbers of the Steyr Mannlicher SSG69 serve with the para-military Border Security Force(BSF)

Machine guns

• MG 1B 7.62mmx51 mm, Indian made Bren- This is currently being retired. But may remain a while longer because of teething problems with its successor, the INSAS LMG
• MG 2A1 7.62mmx51 mm, Indian made MAG 58
• MG 5A 7.62mmx51 mm This is the Indian manufactured Co-axial MAG 58
• MG 6A 7.62mmx51 mm Another Indian version of the MAG58 specifically designed as a tank commanders gun.
• INSAS 5.56mmx45 mm LMG
• FN-Browning M1919 .30Cal, in very limited quantities
• Browning M2 machine gun .50cal, heavy machine gun in very limited numbers

Projectile launchers

• AGS-17 Plamya 30 mm automatic grenade launcher
• M40 RCL 106 mm
• Carl Gustav 84 mm recoilless rifles
• NTW-20 20 mm Rifle
• Vidhwansak Anti-Material Rifle

Anti-Tank Guided Missiles

• Nag- Third Generation fire and forget IIR Guided ATGM developed Indigenously. Its presently under user trials.
• Milan 2- License Produced
• 9M113 Konkurs (AT-5 Spandrel)
• 9M111 Fagot (AT-4 Spigot)
• 9M14 Malyutka (AT-3 Sagger)- Being Phased out

Armoured vehicles

Main Battle Tanks

• Arjun MBT Mk1 - main battle tanks (43). The Army has ordered production of this tank and the first batch of 43 of the ordered 124 tanks has already rolled out of the Avadi factory and are currently being put through trials to check the quality control of the production process. The remaining tanks will follow thereafter. Indian Army had bought 12 of these tanks for testing.
• T-90S Bhishma - main battle tanks (410). Over 1000 more T-90S will be manufactured in India by 2010. India may sign a new contract for 350 additional T-90 tanks from Russia.
• T-72 M1 Ajeya - main battle tanks (1,925). 268 T72M1 are upgraded by the Heavy vehicles factory (HVF). While requests for proposal for upgrading approximately 1000 other T-72's have been sent to various firms in Israel, Russia, Poland and France.
• Vijayanta (1,800)
• T-55 (900) main battle tanks. Vijayanta have been phased out while the T-55 are in the process of being phased out. Some of these tanks will be attached to infantry brigades and battalions, as Tarmour AFV since despite their vintage, the 105 mm L7 gun has substantial firepower.

Armoured fighting vehicles

• Ferret armoured cars
• BRDM-2 amphibious reconnaissance vehicles
• BMP-1 (700) and BMP-2 (900+)Sarath - mechanised infantry combat vehicles relegated the OT-62/64 to mortar carriers. The BMP-2 are now being modernized with TISAS (thermal imaging stand alone sights), better fire control, and more modern ATGM armament (Konkurs M). BMP-1 has been phased out and the upgraded BMP-2 is BMP-2 M with two thermobaric missiles and two tandem warhead Konkurs missiles. Its also has an integrated TI sight and an LRF. Has an AGL mounted on the turret which is also stablised in the horizontal plane.
• An indigenous AFV called Abhay ("Fearless") is under development.

Non-combat vehicles

Engineering Vehicles

• Bridge Layer Tank using a T-72 chassis
• Kartik Armoured Bridgelayer on a Vijayanta chassis
• Multi-Hop Assault Bridge on T-72 chassis
• Extended Span Assault Bridge on T-72 chassis
• Sarvatra - 8x8 truck-mounted bridging system
• VT-72B Armored Recovery Vehicle
• WZT-3 Armoured Receovery Vehicle- Replacing Vijayanta ARV
• Vijayanta (Vickers MBT) Armoured Receovery Vehicle
• Armoured Amphibious Dozer on BMP-2 chassis
• Engineer reconnaissance vehicle on BMP-2 chassis

Mine protected vehicles

• Casspir - mine protected vehicles

Logistic vehicles

• Stallion 4x4 Truck for GS Role
• Ashok Leyland Truck Fire Fighting
• Ashok Leyland 5kl Water Bowser
• Ashok Leyland Light Recovery Vehicle 4x4
• Mahindra - light multi-role 4x4
• Rampar - amphibious 4x4

Artillery

• Under Field Artillery Rationalization Plan, Indian Army plans to procure 3000 to 4000 155 mm Towed, Wheeled and Tracked Artillery Systems. The 130 mm M-46 is upgraded by Soltam to 155 mm calibre. Aged Guns like 105 mm Indian Field Gun, 105 mm Light Field Gun, 122 mm D-30 will be phased out.

Towed artillery

• 155 mm Bofors FH-77B
• 155 mm M-46 Field Howitzer- Upgraded to 155 mm by soltam
• 130 mm M-46
• 122 mm D-30- To be phased out
• 105 mm Light Field Gun- To be phased out
• 105 mm Indian Field Gun- To be phased out

Self propelled artillery

• Abbot 105 mm and M-46 130 mm Catapult are phased out and Army is planning to proucure new Self Propelled Systems as part of Field Artillery Rationalization Plan.
• Bhim-Initial reports that the Arjun hull might be used with a 155 mm self-propelled howitzer by fitting the South African T6 turret which has the G5 howitzer fitted, proved to be misfounded. The SPH would be integrated at Bharat Earth Movers Ltd, which would manufacture additional Arjun chassis & hulls for the purpose. At present, the Bhim SPH program is in limbo, since Denel has been temporarily blacklisted by the Indian Ministry of Defence, while corruption charges are being investigated.

Multiple rocket launchers

• Smerch 9K58 MBRL (38) - 300 mm multiple rocket launch system. Further order for 24 units will be completed by 2010.
• Pinaka MBRL - 214 mm multiple rocket launch system replacing the 122 mm BM-21. 80 launchers to be inducted by 2009.
• BM-21 (150+) - Modernized rockets with range of 40 km was purchased from Russia. To be replaced by Pinaka.

Air defence

Surface to air missile Systems

• Akash- Under Trials. Due to delays in the Akash missile program the ZRK-SD Kvadrat / SA-6a Gainful air defence systems is being upgraded (100)
• SA-6 Gainful- In Service
• SA-10
• Trishul- Under Trials. Due to delays in the Trishul missile program the OSA-AKM / SA-8b Gecko air defence systems is being upgraded (50)
• SA-8 Gecko- In Service
• SA-13 Gopher- In Service

MANPADS

• SA-16 Gimlet- In Service
• SA-7 Grail- In Service, to be phased out

Air Defense Artillery

• Tunguska M1 (108) - low level air defense system
• ZSU-23-4M 'Shilka' self-propelled air defence guns- 48 Systems upgraded
• Upgraded Bofors L40/70 40 mm AA guns replacing the L40/60
• ZSU-23-2 twin 23 mm AA guns

Surface to surface missiles

• Brahmos Land Attack Cruise Missile-
• Prithvi-I Short Range Ballistic Missile (150 km) - In Service
• Agni-I Medium Range Ballistic Missile (700 km)- In Service
• Agni-II Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (2500 km)- In Service
• Agni-III Intermedia Range Ballistic Missile (3500 km)- Under Testing

Aircraft

This is a list of aircraft of the Indian Army. For the list of aircraft of the Indian Air Force, see List of aircraft of the Indian Air Force.

The Indian Army operates more than 1200 helicopters, plus additional ~750unmanned aerial vehicles.

Aircraft	Origin	Type	Versions	In service	Notes
Aérospatiale Alouette III	India	utility helicopter	SA 316B Chetak	635	built by HAL
Aérospatiale Lama	India	utility helicopter	SA 315B Cheetah	150	built by HAL
HAL Dhruv	India	utility helicopter		78	To acquire 220 more Dhruv in next 5 years.
Eurocopter Fennec	European Union	utility helicopter		197	Recent purchase order for 197 Fennec.
IAI Searcher II	Israel	reconnaissance UAV		100+
DRDO Nishant	India	reconnaissance UAV		70	Delivery of 12 UAV's in 2007.

The Indian army has projected a requirement for a helicopter that can carry loads of up to 75 kg heights of 23,000 feet on the Siachen Glacier in Jammu and Kashmir. Flying at these heights poses unique challenges due to the rarefied atmosphere. The Indian Army chose the Eurocopter AS 550 for a $550 million contract for 197 light helicopters to replace its ageing fleet of Chetaks and Cheetahs, some of which were inducted more than three decades ago.

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FYI: There are many external links (text with blue color) in the post, please use them for more information and to check for terminologies.

Say Cheese!!!

A New solider on Sentry Duty

A new soldier was on sentry duty at the main gate. His orders were clear. No car was to enter unless it had a special sticker on the windshield. A big Army car came up with a general seated in the back. The sentry said, “Halt, who goes there?”

The chauffeur, a corporal, says, “General Wheeler.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t let you through. You’ve got to have a sticker on the windshield.” The general said, “Drive on!”

The sentry said, “Hold it! You really can’t come through. I have orders to shoot if you try driving in without a sticker.”

The general repeated, “I’m telling you, son, drive on!”

The sentry walked up to the rear window and said, “General, I’m new at this. Do I shoot you or the driver?”

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