Bharat Rakshak

Are the jokers preparing for another war?

^^
Flamethrowers were fairly effective in 1971 war. That was something that really soiled many salwars. Psyched out the pakis since they wouldn't be in pristine condition when they met their 72

How do you get close enough to a bunker housing one or more machine gun nests, to fire the flamethrower?

See video:

^^
Flamethrowers were fairly effective in 1971 war. That was something that really soiled many salwars. Psyched out the pakis since they wouldn't be in pristine condition when they met their 72

Flamethrowers were fairly effective in 1971 war.

Don't have the links right now (will need to dig), but even in Kargil, the Pakis suspected the Indian side to have used chemicals in the last few days of mop up operations based on the discoloration of the bodies.

In June 1999 there were published allegations that India had used or was planning to use chemical weapons against the Mujahideen and Pakistani army elements fighting at the Kashmir border. Former Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence chief Gen.(retd) Hamid Gul [who had opposed Pakistani ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention] said that Mujahideen had captured a very sensitive posts at Kargil and that there were clear chances that India would use chemical weapons against the Mujahideen. Despite published reports of evidence that India had shifted chemical weapons and to the Kashmir theater, claims of the use of lethal or non-lethal chemical agents remain unconfirmed.

Don't have the links right now (will need to dig), but even in Kargil, the Pakis suspected the Indian side to have used chemicals in the last few days of mop up operations based on the discoloration of the bodies. We ofcourse denied it

Frankly speaking, we should always have the right of using any and every weapon that gives us an advantage (other than perhaps the NBC variety)

4.5 Flame throwers

To meet urgent requirement of the weapon for operations, Army HQ proposed in June 1999 procurement of 600 disposable flame throwers. The proposal also indicated that 600 more flame throwers were required under the ninth Army plan.

In response to Ministry’s enquiries KBP Tula Russia offered (June 1999) to supply the weapon at unit rate of US $ 3600 for an order of 600 throwers and at the rate of US $ 3500 for an order of 1200 numbers.

Ministry urgently concluded a contract in June 1999 for 1200 flame throwers at US $ 3500 each with delivery schedule in two lots of 600 pieces each aggregating US $ 4.2 million equivalent to Rs 18.22 crore by two months from the date of signing of the contract.

Audit scrutiny revealed that a delegation of the Army witnessed a live demonstration of the weapon conducted by the firm as early as in September 1995. In its evaluation report, the delegation had observed, among other things, that target engagement could not be analysed beyond 350 metres vis a vis the 1000 metres range claimed by the firm in its technical offer, the firing could be conducted only during day light as no night-sight device was developed and “the terminal effect could not also be assessed as there was no incendiary effect”. The Scientific Adviser to RM had also brought to the notice of the Defence Secretary ( November 1995) that the DRDO representative in the delegation had reported that during the demonstration of September 1995, 14 weapons were fired at a range of 200 metres and none of the shots hit the targets at that range. However, the delegation recommended procurement of the weapon only as a one time buy, suggesting future requirement be met from indigenous source by its development and production. Accordingly 300 flame throwers were procured in September 1996 as a one time buy.

Against these recommendations of the delegation, the Ministry at the instance of Army Headquarters decided to go ahead with further procurement of flame throwers at a total cost of Rs 18.22 crore even though it did not meet operational requirement. The delivery commenced only after August 1999 thereby being non - available during the operation.

A senior Indian Army official announced in Jammu that the Indian artillery shelling had destroyed 11 Pakistani posts. An Army spokesman said that the Indian forces used rockets, mortars, flame-throwers, grenade-launchers and machine guns during the operations.

The Flamethrower is a crude and barbaric weapon.

The Flamethrower is a crude and barbaric weapon. It has questionable effectiveness and is dangerous to field in any suitable numbers. For every video demonstrating a flamethrower's "effectiveness", there are 5 videos that demonstrate what happened to a soldier strapped with a giant zippo on his back when struck by enemy fire - he lights up like a Roman candle!

No modern Army is going to field that monstrosity any time soon as its far easier and cleaner to use RPG's and artillery. Further today war is as much about "public opinion" as it is about fighting and using flamethrowers is going to be extremely damaging politically.

Some links on the Paki accusation about India using chemical weapons in Kargil

http://www.indianexpress.com/Storyold/103747/

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/india/cw.htm


Now before someone jumps the gun and accuses me of spreading Paki propoganda, I have clearly stated earlier that India had rejected these allegations. IIRC, the Paki allegation was based on the skin discoloration of the bodies of the NLI soldiers returned by India to them

That is why it should be used against crude and barbaric pakis.

There is a religious injunction in Islam against burning a corpse - those guys are mortally scared of being burnt to death, or even after death. We should make sure all of them are burnt, before or after death is optional.

Erm, this is what a "flame thrower" looks like in today's army:

Meet the Shmel:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/69/70x94i.jpg/

The RPO-A "Shmel" (Rus. "РПО-А Шмель") ("Bumblebee") is a man-portable rocket launcher although it is classified as a flamethrower (Rus. Реактивный Пехотный Огнемет) by the manufacturer, KBM, Kolomna.

The "Shmel" is designed, produced and exported by Russia and the former Soviet Union. It entered service with the Soviet Armed Forces at the end of the 1980s as the successor for the RPO "Rys".

Description

The RPO-A is a single-shot, self-contained tube shaped launcher which operates much like some RPG and LAW rocket launchers. The launcher is a sealed tube, carried in a man-pack in pairs. The same person can remove the tube, place it in firing position, and launch the weapon without assistance. After launch, the tube is discarded. All models are externally similar.
Ammunition

Each weapon contains a single rocket, of which there are three varieties. The basic rocket is the RPO-A, which has a thermobaric warhead and is designed for attacking soft targets under moderate cover. The RPO-Z is the incendiary warhead (Rus. зажигательный) designed to spread fire and ignite targets. Finally, there is a smoke-producing warhead (Rus. дымовой) offered, the RPO-D.

The Taliban killed 14 security personnel and beheaded all but one of them before displaying the heads of two soldiers on wooden poles in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan, security officials said today.

Nine soldiers were beheaded yesterday when militants overran a security picket in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency. The Taliban had been firing at the picket for the past few days, the military said.

Authorities later found the beheaded bodies of the soldiers, security officials were quoted as saying by the local media.

Five soldiers were captured by militants when the military raided a house in Miranshah last night. They were later killed and four of them were beheaded. The heads of two soldiers were hung on poles in Miranshah and the bodies were dumped in the local market.

During the raid, the troops killed a Taliban commander and several other militants. The military said troops had inflicted heavy casualties among the rebels.

Security forces imposed a curfew and targeted militant positions with helicopter gunships, killing about 30 rebels.

Three houses and a mosque were also hit during the air strikes, killing three civilians and injuring 20 others.

what is this bs
seems like one could publish anything in the name of freedom ..

^^^ Why am I not suprised that joo would have that sort of data collated together hain

jokes aside would be interesting to see if you could find it....IIRC they got some 50 odd mirages in the 90s from the RAAF ex stock and possibly some more before that.

I actually admire their approach with the mirages...i think we can learn a thing or two from these buggers about maximising bang for ze buck with frugal resources....bliss to not bash me merely stating my view.

Also having said the above I know that the IAF does a great job with maximising its own resources too case in point being the sutlej fleet and the jag fleets