vivek_ahuja wrote:DAY 6 + 1630 HRS (L)
SASER
SOUTH OF DAULAT-BEG-OLDI (DBO)
LADDAKH, INDIA
..................................................................................................“Rhino-One to all Rhino Elements. We are now in the FEBA. All units on Red-Con status! Over” he lowered his mouthpiece and turned to face the gunner and loader behind him: “Load APFSDS round!”
Hate to be a Pain, but i had to give a small input. During combat drills No body would say "Load APFSDS round!" In Armour units world over, (atleast in English speaking world) the its simply called "Sabot". Saying the whole "Load APFSDS" is too time consuming.
Similaqrly :
HMG on the trurret "Cal .50"
HEAT round is just called HEAT.
Coaxial is called Coax.
Armour warefare is about speed and effecenciey . If you are not fast enough you are giving enmy tank to shoot at you first. You have to be faster then your enmy , hit him first. Thats how most Armoured battles are won well that and number of other factors.
but when it really comes down to equal opponenets then the winner is one who is most efficiaent and fast.
Western countries have devloped effiecency and speed in their armoured drills.
Western tank crews dont waste time in speaking full lenght sentences. They stick to practiced Battle Drills SOP .
Eg - Tank Cmdr spots enemy tank 1500m hiding in bushes at 3 o clok using his periscope. While the gunner is scanning 12 of clock.
SOP for this would be :
1.Tcmdr will hit a switch and slave the main gun to his periscope. The Computer swings the main gun and gunners view to where the periscope is looking.
2.While doing the above Tcmdr will say "Gnnr Tank!
3. Now the main gun and Gunners sight is pointed in the direction where the enmy tank was spotted by the cmdr. Gunner will see if he can ID the enmy tank.
if he can then he will Say "Identified!" If not he will say "Cannot ID" in this case the cmdr will use his judgment either call indirect fire to flush the enmy tank out or ask another tank in his sec to see they can get a clear shot. Lot of times the cmdr can see target from his Peri which is located slightly higher then main gun and gunners sights these same targets are not visible from gunners sights.
Anyway if the target is "Identified" by gunner then -
4. Cmdr will give order to "fire!" Please note that whatever round is in breach is fired, Tank crews dont waste time is unloading the round and reloading a new one. In our situation lets assume HEAT round was allready loaded proior to spotting this target. In this case the Cmdr cmnd will be "Fire Fire Sabot !" which means fire the current round and load Sabot next !
5. Gunner yells "On the way !" and fires the current round (HEAT) which is not good for killing heavy armour but it can still do a lot of damage and sometiems even kill heavy armour. Loader loads the next round which will be a sabot. Loader yells "Sabot UP !" which is indication to all crews that next that has been loaded is sabot.
This is just a short example of efficiency in Western Armoured units. How evident is this in Indian Armoured units ?
PLA has also started to impliment similar efficient battle drills in its armoured units. While Indian Armour is still stuck in Good Old Jolly good days of "Queens RAJ".
Please dont get me wrong , i love these scenarios but the reality is Armoured battles between Indian Armour and PLA armour will not be about numbers , it will be about efficiency of battle drills.
and Sadly PLA with its western style armour battle drills will kick our Armoured units who are stuck in old times !
Correct me if i am wrong !