The military drills send a clear message to China

In a clear message to China, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh accompanied by Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and Army Chief General MM Naravane, on Friday, witnessed a military drill which involved a large number of ground commandos, tanks, BMP infantry combat vehicles, Apache, Rudra and Mi-17 V5 helicopters, at Stakna. In response to the Chinese side building up the presence of heavy artillery, armoured vehicles and troops, Indian Army has deployed its own homemade BMP-2 armoured vehicle in an effort to counter the threat to the Darbuk–Shyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DSDBO) road, a road very important for the Indian forces.

Why Is BMP-2 Present In Ladakh?

Infantry Combat Vehicle BMP-2 is one of the most potent and formidable weapon platform and it equips the army’s Mechanised Infantry battalions. This armoured vehicle has the capability to launch missiles, mortars, rockets, and machine guns. And also keep the troops inside the vehicle safe, while moving forward.

The decision was taken to deploy the BMP-2 on the confluence of the Galvan Valley and the Shyok River, in an effort to deter the Chinese troops.

These vehicles have also been deployed along the most critical locations including DSDBO road, on the mouth of the Galwan Valley, and the road which is going towards the DBO.

The Chinese who have been building their presence faster as the area on their side of the Line of Actual Control is plain, while on the Indian side the construction and improvement of the infrastructure has been slow which delayed the positioning of the tanks and armoured vehicles in Ladakh.

What Is Mechanised Infantry BMP-2?

These have now been re-named as Sarath. It comes equipped with the latest weapon systems and ideal in battlefields where it can move with speed, deadly precision and can surprise the enemy.

It has been powered by 300 HP engine, and is highly mobile vehicle and is capable to meet all tactical requirements on the battlefield. It has a speed of 65 KMPH, easy steering ability in cross terrain.

The Sarath BMP-2 is also an amphibian vehicle, with a 7 kmph on water and can go over slopes up to 35 degrees and due to its low weight can be transported by air.

There are armoured plates all around which help in ensuring a high degree of protection to the combatants.

It offers a chameleon-like camouflage with the help of smoke grenades creating a smokescreen. It comes with a rapid-fire 7.62 MM medium coaxial machine gun, a 30 MM cannon, and a second-generation homing type anti-tank guided missile.

It can neutralise all kinds of land-based and low flying military objects and comes with sharp night vision devices and a low silhouette.

As reported by Financial Express Online, a proposal has been cleared for placing an order for 156 BMP Vehicles which will be manufactured at the Ordnance Factory Medak, at a cost of Rs 1100 crore.

BMP-2 Needs To Be Upgraded

These Soviet Origin vehicles are now being manufactured in India at the Ordnance Factory Board and some are going to be manufactured by private sector companies. These vehicles originally sourced from the erstwhile Soviet Union, changed the concept of Battle Taxi when the BMP was introduced and later went into indigenous production when manufacturing facilities for BMP-2 series of ICV at Medak were set up with Russian collaboration. The vehicle is fully indigenous as comes with everything Made in India.

“Since the BMP-2 will remain the mainstay of the Mechanised Infantry Units, there is an urgent need to further modernize the present model,” a former Mechanised officer told Financial Express Online.

The Russian Company KBP company at DefExpo 2014, offered Berezhok combat module. This module has been offered to help to increase the combat capabilities of the existing BMP-2.

What Has Russia Offered In The Berezhok Combat Module?

According to sources, the module is fitted with long-range Kornet anti-tank missiles, something Indian Army is keen on. The major strength of Berezhok (literally – bank of a river, shorefront) combat module lies in its firepower.

The Berezhok has four ATGM tubes when usually such modules have one or two ATGM tubes.

And it can fire two missiles with minimal time interval in one beam to effectively pierce the active defence systems.

Given that it has several missile tubes, the crew can combine, for example, HE fragmentation missiles with HE missiles.

Its grenade launcher can hit targets on the reverse side of the slope and can be also be used as a stationary weapon system.

According to reports, the KBP delegation members in 2014 had a number of exhibitions with officers in the Ministry of Defence held a number of meetings and detailed presentations of the company’s products were made. This included the full-scale sample of Berezhok combat compartment and its simulator and the upgrade package for the BMP-2.

More About Berezhok Combat Module

It weighs 2.8-3.3 t and is designed for equipping BMP ICVs, APSs manufactured in Russia and abroad. It comes with up-to-date Kornet family ATGW, 2A42 30-mm automatic gun and AG-30M 30-mm grenade launcher, 7.62-mm PKT machine-gun.

The combination of the flat trajectory of the gun projectiles and lofted trajectory of grenades provide for effective engagement of lightly-armoured and soft-skinned material, anti-tank infantry.

The automatic gun provides for the engagement at the range of up to 4000 m.

Heavily-armoured targets are engaged by the first launch of Kornet family ATGW at ranges of up to 8000 m, and by grenade launcher at the range of up to 2100 m. Engagement of modern and future tanks, equipped with active protection systems is provided by salvo launch of two missiles within one beam.

The aerial targets can be engaged by Kornet HE guided missile with proximity detonation at ranges up to 10 000 m.