By Shahzad Masood Roomi
Indian Army is going to deploy remote controlled guns on LoC. Though the weapons are still far from field deployment but these are being developed and tested.
This was revealed by General officer Commanding (GoC) of the 16 Corps of the Indian Army Lt Gen RR Nimbhorkar during a function held in Akhnoor.
“At the moment, they (new and modern weapons) are in the nascent stage... there are various up gradation and whether you call them remotely controlled (guns) or you can say up gradation of various technologies, they are in the nascent stage. But there are reports suggesting that these guns will make their debut in Indian Army on LoC by the year end.
“We are trying them and if they are
successful we will deploy them.”
He also hinted that these remote
controlled guns will be deployed under a well worked-out plan by Indian Army.
The locally-developed integrated machineguns employ infrared sensors radiating in a grid arrangement to produce IR beams to detect any movement. The system will able to detect any movement up to a distance of 80 metres ahead of the border fence – the distance between the fence and the LoC can vary from 50 metres to over 2km depending on the terrain.
“On the LoC, we have to be always evolving. There is no one methodology and equipment we put on the LoC. (Whenever) We find it needs to be changed, (we change it). We do innovation and that is the ongoing process,” Lt Gen Nimbhorkar said.
“So, in this process, there are things
which we have thought off which we are practicing and when they are fully
functional then we will deploy them” he added.
The IR sensors are linked to automatic guns mounted on rotors complemented with night-vision cameras providing live video stream to workstations, located in bunkers, running mapping software and manned by field commanders.
A buzzer is sounded if the
grid is broken, rotating the weapon in the direction of the intrusion site.
Video aid enables the commander to identify the intrusion and take action.
“If the target is visually identified as hostile, the
observer simply presses a button to take it out,” said Brigadier PC Vyas who is
implementing the remote-controlled weapons project.
But these plans of Indian Army to install remote-controlled weapons on LoC would require considerable time. Not only these technologies are in their nascent stages, Indian Army also lack proper firing range to test them and this was also hinted by Lt Gen Nimbhorkar as a problem Indian army is facing right now.
ANALYSIS:
Development, testing and deployment of any new weapon system is slow process
and takes many years and firm dedication and financial support to induct hence
require an early response as well. This is where such plans by India Army, though
long way from execution, do demand some serious thinking by Pakistan as far as
impact of such systems on the operational plans of Pakistan Army is concerned.
There can be number of considerations which pushed Indian Army to devise such an ambitious plan. Technological evolution in conventional weaponry viz-a-viz Pakistan has always remain at the center stage of Indian military’s strategic thinking.
But employment of such system must
not be taken as a mere attempt by India to display her technological prowess.
This plan, once implemented, would allow Indian Army to deploy additional
firepower on LoC without any fear of retaliatory fire by Pakistan Army on these
positions. Through such systems, Indian Army would able to field additional
firepower as well.
