Bharat Rakshak

OK Guys,

The first lot of pics.Exclusive stuff!

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORC ... nChariots/

More pics in the coming week.Along with an analysis and explanation of what happened.

Also some clips are posted here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IZRalPy7to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ETjcs2SR9Y

Enjoy!

Kapil

Nice pix Mr. Kapil! Well done!

An observation: the lack of a self propelled arty system is evident in the Bofors shoot and scoot pictures. With a SPG, time to setup, shoot and scoot is greatly reduced. The whole process is so much simpler.

The camel and troops manning the checkpoint look like BSF types. Is this correct?

As for the black dots, either the camera sensor needs cleaning or the lens has some dirt specks. Pls check.

Hi KC,

Nice.

Any news on network centric stuff (in specific)? Not looking for photographs, but something on that topic?

Great pix Kaps.

Will watch the videos after I finish uploading a video to Youtube which is going on now.

great pics Kapil... did u meet any other BRFites there?? I know there were a few.

Could u provide some info about the briefing and a bit of description about what exactly happened durign the ex... So far, we've only heard adjectives and praise, with little by way of substance.

Thanks.

Thanks guys,

Maz-Bang on about the lens.corrected that.
yeah-We really need an SPG but the Bofors is a damn reliable system.

N Rao-Kanpai

Shiv-am having problems uploading a 2 min clip showing the Smerch at its best.

Prasad-Brfites in the middle of the Thar?Who ?

Yes,I intend to write an analysis kinda piece over the next 2 days.
Interestingly the army was referring to its combatants as Information Warriors.

What are those tin sheets that were being unloaded from the truck , what's this "Assault track"?
Track for soldiers? for tanks/BMPs?

Excuse the dumb question: since DRDO has already handed over several Arjun MBTs to the army, couldn't the army have used some of them in simulated battlefield conditions in this exercise? Is there any particular reason they wouldn't do that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOlq6UBXfe4

Finally,a Smerch in action and then you can see a Bofors setup ,shoot and scout.


Kartik-My thought exactly..it looked like the Soviet Army exercising in India.
Or maybe the sole Arjun regt is not part of the participating formations.

The track is led by engineer units who follow the armoured thrust.
they can lay 60 km of track in some 20 hours..one set of soldiers in a jeep marks the way,another unrolls the plate ,and 2 guys are constantly running over the track as it unrolls to fix it into place.
Very painful.

Whats the purpose of assault track? I can see it would make it easier to run/drive in the desert ... but which situation would be deployed?

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORC ... k.jpg.html

It is to make the road more motorable for light vehicles and trucks and support convoys.
Why increase wear and tear on vehicles when you are holding the territory anyways?

Very nice pictures.
Lol..why is the picture with the Russian guys named warranty support?Are they for Smerch or what?

Kapil wrote: Prasad-Brfites in the middle of the Thar?Who ?

Abhisham..

Aditya G wrote:Whats the purpose of assault track? I can see it would make it easier to run/drive in the desert ... but which situation would be deployed?

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORC ... k.jpg.html

In the 71 war, the roads would only go upto a point. from the end of the road to the border was X km. They used planks called Duckboards to create a road for the trucks and vehicles to drive on - this was the WW2 equipment. I can see that the assault track replace the old duckboard planking system.

in the duckboards planks - the engineers would have had to manually lay strips of planks for the vehicles to drive on. This one is automated and hopefully much much faster.

NRao wrote:Hi KC,

Nice.

Any news on network centric stuff (in specific)? Not looking for photographs, but something on that topic?

Well they had displayed the mobile ISR Center which assimilates information from all battlefield reconnaissance and surveillance platforms (LOROS, BFSR, UAV's etc.). This information can be made available to the HQ and passed on to the lower echelons via Army's TCS (Tactical Communication System). There are host of other things like BMS for armoured / mechanized formations as well as ACCCS for the artillery which ties in with the TCS.

Prasad-Brfites in the middle of the Thar?Who ?

Kapil which day were you there, you have some superb shots, I can fill in with a few pictures of my own, will take a day or two to organize myself. And yea the Arjun is not part of the exercising formation.

Somehow I expected it to be more impressive. The videos and the pictures so far are nothing to write home about.

The Smerch especially I was expecting to see at least 5-10 of them firing barrages. Also I didnt notice any AAA assets at the arty line.

Well it could all just be due to the fact that this was meant to be a "demonstration".

Looking at the uniforms of the various people involved, I just cant figure out why the Indian Army persists with Green camouflage in a sand coloured desert.

I felt the guy best dressed from camouflage perspective for the desert is the pepsi guzzler-one on the left in the image below:
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORC ... i.jpg.html

Isn't his disruptive pattern best suited to hide in a desert ?

AdityaM wrote: I felt the guy best dressed from camouflage perspective for the desert is the pepsi guzzler-one on the left in the image below:
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORC ... i.jpg.html

Isn't his disruptive pattern best suited to hide in a desert ?

The 1RGR battalion from the British Army (stationed in Brunei) who have been engaged in Hillmand province in Afghanistan have been wearing similar camouflage uniforms.

Our army men who are assigned to the desert should be given the desert camouflage uniforms.

Cheers,
Paul

Kapil can you let me know which address to send the pictures to?

Drop a line at [email protected]

cheers

Kapil

[quote="Paul_in_Brunei
The 1RGR battalion from the British Army (stationed in Brunei) who have been engaged in Hillmand province in Afghanistan have been wearing similar camouflage uniforms.

Cheers,
Paul[/quote]

Paul,
so who is looking after the Sultan then?

His own Gurkhas?

Kapil you have mail.

I haven't.

Please resend to [email protected]

Paul,
so who is looking after the Sultan then?

His own Gurkhas?

The Sultan has his own Gurkha battalion who are primarily ex-British soldiers and they protect his palace and the capital city.

1RGR & 2RGR from the British army do a 3 year rotation back to back here in Brunei. The UK govt gets paid about 40 million pounds per year for their troops!!!. They are stationed in the Seria township where the oil fields are.

Great pics, Kapil Boss, the occasional speck notwithstanding!

In the pic, "people-brass", is it my imagination, or is the guy in the red beret, right at the tail of the group (partially cut off, by the edge of the frame) wearing a combat diver badge? Man, he must have some stories to tell!!

Sree:
The observation is correct. The guy is from Para(SF) as is evident from the badge on his right breast pocket and the arm badge. The SF guys do undergo (volunteer I think) for combat divers course. But their version is a level lower than Marine Commando forces(MCF) one. (correction, if any, are welcome)

Ustad Sree,

Correct! And people wearing such badges were glaring if you tried taking pics of them so I havent taken any pics of these guys!

For a Sea and Air chap like me,the colourful Indian Army in the desert was a revelation.

I was thrilled to see that a Gorkha officer carries a Khukri in the desert but not any other weapon.
Or a senior Para SF Officer doesnt carry any weapon at all as according to him-The day I have to carry a weapon means that my guys aren't doing their job.

I met guys with MBA degrees who chucked it up to drive tanks and jump out of airplanes.All in their 20s.
So there is hope.

Kapil wrote:I haven't.

Please resend to [email protected]

Kapil bhai Re-sent.

Brazen Lies Part II

Another article from Mr Shiv Aroor on Brazen chariots.

gogna wrote:
Another article from Mr Shiv Aroor on Brazen chariots.

Can admins delete this piece of shit from $hitoor?

Thank You.

Kalantak wrote:

gogna wrote:
Another article from Mr Shiv Aroor on Brazen chariots.

Can admins delete this piece of shit from $hitoor?

Thank You.

Why? Just because you don't agree with the article or like its title? Deleting an article does not make it go away. Maybe there is an element of truth in it. Why not analyze what Arror has to say, review the comments after the article, reach an independent opinion and maybe derive something from it. If the article is, as you so eloquently put it, a piece of ****, let it be judged on its own merit.

^^ Anup, past history of arror suggests that the article is an plant.

Remember the "torison bar" incident that this same person reported.

Kalantak wrote:^^ Anup, past history of arror suggests that the article is an plant.

Remember the "torison bar" incident that this same person reported.

Plant of who? I am not sure I understand your point above.

OK, I will, for the moment, buy your argument that this article is a "plant". So what? Instead of deleting the previous post, why dont you find holes in Shiv's article and discredit him? Prove him wrong. Why just delete his article from this thread?

My point being that if you look at the other articles in Shiv's blog, they are supportive of India's rise in the self-defense field and he seems proud of what India has achieved. How can he be a "plant" if one or two articles tend to point out what could be an instance of mismanagement. BTW, If he were correct in his assertions, he should be applauded.

Enough said.

I think you have not followed the past articles of this DDM Shiv Arror.

This jerk once wrote an whole article on Arjun MBT based on an "source" who told him that the "torsion bar" of Arjun had failed during an trial in Thar desert. The reality is Arjun does not have an torsion bar.

This is the reason he is called as "torsion bar" shiv arror.

And quoting from his blog on the Brazen chariots exercise.

From Shiv Aroors' Blog wrote:According to highly reliable sources, Army chief General Deepak Kapoor wrote....

The whole business of quoting from "sources" without naming any of them or providing any proof that they are indeed reliable immediately places his new article in doubt.

This quoting of imagined "sources" is better known as yellow jouranlism or gutter press and any person who indulges in such unethical things is first and foremost not a reporter but an dog hungry for money.

anupmisra wrote:OK, I will, for the moment, buy your argument that this article is a "plant". So what? Instead of deleting the previous post, why dont you find holes in Shiv's article and discredit him? Prove him wrong. Why just delete his article from this thread?

When writer of the article is known to use unethical methods to gain fame and visitors to his blog then why waste time & bandwidth linking to that jerk's blog and helping him in his unholy business.

Kalantak, do you have proof that what Aroor has posted is a lie? If not, you are indulging in the same unethical things you accuse him of. If you have an argument that rips Aroor's piece apart, why not post it here (or better yet, on the blog itself)? It would surely be better than calling him names for the heck of it and passing judgements on what should or should not be posted on BR.

Shiv Aroor is claiming a lot of things. He wants accountability from army brass. Thats a touch grand coming from him. The man has no sense of accountability. If Lt. gen Thamburaj was so against brazen chariots, why did he have his own full rehearsal on the 15th. Shiv Aroor is a sorry excuse for a journalist. You wanna pick on the DGQA? Why don't you do some investigative journalism instead of sniping at nameless people. As far as the army is concerned, he can rest assured that due process will be followed, as it is in every case. Hopefully, a day will come when good men and women will report more than just their rip of the day on whoever happens to be their host of the day. Break a leg, moron.

Mihir i hope you have first read Shiv Arrror blog. I dont want to provide that a$$hole more hits for his blog so quoting from his blog.

DDM Shiv Arror wrote:The other aspect to the issue is the Army exercise itself. Have you ever heard of a one day Army exercise, that too being conducted in front of DAs and the media without a rehearsal? Here are the bitter, undisputed facts: Exercise Dakshin Shakti was going on for a month and Exercise Brazen Chariots was just the show piece. So when Brazen Chariots needed to rehearse, they just took the assets of the ongoing Dakshin Shakti, thus harming a major army exercise. According to highly reliable sources {Meaning : Shiv Arror pulled this out of his a$$}, Army chief General Deepak Kapoor wrote to Southern Army Commander Lt Gen Nobel Thamburaj ordering the transfer of assets for the "showcase" Brazen Chariots.

This is a brazen lie from arror. The exercise Brazen Chariots was planned since Jan 2008 and the army chief did not order the exercise just for some show as the arror states on his blog.
Proof for this.

Army, IAF to conduct Exercise "Brazen Chariots" in March
23 Jan 2008

NEW DELHI: After "soft power", it's time to flex the military muscle now. In keeping with its aspirations to be viewed as an emerging superpower, India will showcase its hard military power to an international audience with a huge [n]Army-IAF combat exercise in March.[/b]

Defence ministry sources say plans are afoot to call around 150 foreign military observers, including defence attaches based in New Delhi, for the exercise named "Brazen Chariots". It will be held in the deserts of Rajasthan in the third week of March.

The Brazen Chariots exercise had a pre-set goal to test the military's Manoeuvre Warfare Doctrine. This was not just an army showpiece as implied by jacka$$ arror but an joint Army-Airforce exercise which had been planned from beginning of January with the higher-ups in both the Army and Airforce monitoring it's progress.

Indian Army Exercise BRAZEN CHARIOTS with IAF to showcase it's Manoeuvre Warfare Doctrine

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Exercise BRAZEN CHARIOTS, a Fire and Manoeuvre, Army - Air Force, combat exercise will be conducted by one of India’s Desert Formations in the Desert Sector on 19 March. The exercise will be witnessed by a host of foreign dignitaries and Defence Attaches of friendly foreign countries.

The exercise has been set to project the Manoeuvre Warfare Doctrine which has since been promulgated in the Indian Armed Forces and is seen as a breakaway from the traditional attritionist approach of the Army.

The Army is putting to test all of its latest weapon system acquisitions, to include the state of the art missile firing tanks T-90 (Bhishma), all weather Air Defence Gun Missile Systems, Searcher UAVs and other electronic sensors and surveillance equipment. The Indian Air Force during this Exercise would be closely supporting the surface forces with its frontline fighter aircraft like the SU-30 Mk I and Jaguar, unleashing variety of ordnance.

The exercise will also involve deployment of a comprehensive communication and data linking systems incorporating Battlefield Surveillance System and Force Multiplier Command Post.

While the acquisition of hi-tech weaponry and war fighting support systems is an essential pre-requisite to success in battle, honing human skills to be able to apply infinite technology advancements in military hardware is a never ending challenge faced by modern armies of the world, the Indian Army being no exception.

During the conduct of Exercise BRAZEN CHARIOTS, combat decisions taken at each level of command will be analysed for their ability to synergise the application of state-of-the-art weapon platforms to achieve optimum results aimed at causing pre-emption, disruption and dislocation of opposing forces.

DDM Shiv Arror wrote: And now, Army exercises have been reduced to mere showpieces rather than a professional preoccupation. A bloody shame.

And now, Shiv arror's blog has been reduced to mere plants from his "highly placed sources" rather than a professional preoccupation. A bloody shame.

Mihir wrote:If you have an argument that rips Aroor's piece apart, why not post it here (or better yet, on the blog itself)?

Mihir you have still not faced this creature called DDM. Instead of accepting their mistakes they will again go running to their "sources". Truth is unacceptable to them if it contradicts their "sources".

Shiv arror has a past history of deleting comments on his blog. I dont want to waste my time & bandwidth on his blog and then see my comments being deleted.

That a$$hole advertises weight loss methods on his blog to earn revenue. The more hits to his blog will provide him more revenue. This is another reason his blog should not be linked here.

Can we please stick to th thread instead of this BS