Army gets new battle gear in northeast, helipads for Chinooks

Infantry battalions guarding the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China in Arunachal Pradesh are racing to equip themselves with a string of new weapons and systems to sharpen their combat edge, with the capability upgrade encompassing light machine guns, assault rifles, rocket launchers, unmanned aerial vehicles, all-terrain vehicles, and high-tech surveillance gear, officials familiar with the army’s modernisation said on Friday.

Helipads capable of operating multi-mission Chinook helicopters are also coming up in remote pockets for faster deployment of soldiers and weaponry as part of an overarching infrastructure push even as new satellite terminals along the border will provide high-capacity communications capability to plan operations, said one of the officials.

“Infantry battalions form the cutting edge of combat and they are being stocked up with new military gear for operational efficiency. The capability upgrade is happening at a remarkable pace,” said Brigadier Thakur Mayank Sinha, the commander of a mountain brigade deployed in eastern Arunachal Pradesh.

The new inductions include Israeli-origin Negev light machine guns, Sig Sauer assault rifles from the US, Swedish Carl Gustav Mk-III rocket launchers, indigenous Swift unmanned aerial vehicles, all-terrain vehicles from the US, and digital spotting scopes for better recognition and identification of targets.

The focus is on capability development, building infrastructure, and training to execute the assigned operational role, said Sinha. Construction of helipads for operating Chinooks that can carry the army’s newest US-origin howitzers to forward bases is in full swing, he added.

The M777 ultra-light howitzer has emerged as the centrepiece of the army’s weapon deployment along LAC in Arunachal Pradesh to counter the Chinese military build-up, with the gun’s tactical mobility giving the army multiple options for a firepower boost in remote areas, the officials said.

The army’s sharpened focus on the eastern sector comes when India and China are locked in a border row in the Ladakh sector. The Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on Thursday announced that their frontline troops have kicked off disengagement from Patrol Point-15 (Gogra-Hot Springs area) in eastern Ladakh, with the breakthrough coming after the 16th round of military talks held in July. This is the fourth round of disengagement between the two armies.

Despite disengagement from the Galwan Valley, Pangong Tso, Gogra (PP-17A) and now PP-15, the two armies still have around 60,000 troops each and advanced weaponry deployed in the Ladakh theatre.

The army, which has focused on counter-insurgency operations in the north-east for decades, has carried out a reorientation of its forces in the sector to counter challenges along the border with China.