NSG’s ‘future soldier’ programme to be revived with Make-in-India twist



The National Security Guard, India’s special forces unit, plans to revive its ‘future soldier’ programme, which was shelved in 2013 due to logistics issues. The renewed project comes with a Make-in-India twist, as the elite force has roped in DRDO and IIT-Mumbai to give a final shape to the soldier prototype. 

 About 40 countries are working on similar programmes, including US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and Israel, that entails future ground warfare and survivability in diverse terrains. While the West has a clear head start on such projects, India is aiming to achieve the mission by 2025. “Yes, we are working on reviving the future soldier project,” NSG director general Sudhir Pratap Singh told Mail Today. However, Singh refused to divulge more details of the project. 

 PROJECT MORE PROMISING, RESULT ORIENTED: OFFICIALS :

 Originally mooted in 2011, after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in 2008, the project was assigned to Bharat Electronic Ltd (BEL) but lost steam midway as costs of making of one unit of armour escalated. Sources said the BEL did come up with a prototype, with a whopping cost of Rs 12-13 crore for 30 soldiers.

  However, a renewed commitment of the current dispensation with Make-in-India factor has given the ‘future soldier’ project a fresh thrust. A senior officer in the NSG described the project as “more promising and result oriented”. Lauding the indigenous push, former NSG DG Arvind Ranjan, who was part of the programme during his tenure in 2012, said it is important to develop indigenous programme as no country will share top secret project of this kind. “I travelled to many countries (to study such projects), but they were willing to share only rudimentary technology,” Ranjan said. “We have the best soldiers in the world, and if they are provided with the best technology, it will act as a force multiplier.” 

 Comparing the project with US Navy Seals raiding party in 2011, R K Medhekar, also a former DG of the force, said once the commandos get advanced devices fitted to their body, NSG operations could be viewed real time by commanding officers as was in the case during the raid on Osama. The world watched in bated breath as US Navy Seals swooped down on Abbottabad in a stealth helicopter killing the 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden, with live pictures being simultaneously broadcast to a control room in White House. 

 Medhekar said a lot of progress has been made in equipments since NSG’s first project was shelved. “Now we have non-reflective goggles, night-vision glasses and communication on encrypted codes.” He said the idea of camera on top is to ensure that the soldier is not distracted by reporting back. “It had other advantages to know location of self and team mates. In the last project too, DRDO was working on a lighter uniform with GPS devices.

  But cost overruns took a toll. Experts said the project aims to equip our soldier with high-tech weapons to undertake specialised operations through land, air and water. “We need mobility, lethality, survivability in our forces on par with world’s best forces,” major general (retired) P K Sehgal told Mail Today. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Network Centric Warfare Capabilities & INDIAN ARMED FORCES

Image
By: Next Generation Weapons Technology Network Centric Warfare and Indian Navy & IAF and land based units. More satellites will be launched as grid as launched previously. In addition to making platforms and infrastructure for network centricity, the Navy has also made organizational changes to create and efficiently manage the transition to seamless Network Centric capabilities. The creation of a new post of Assistant Chief of Naval S taff (Communications Space and Network Centric Operations) is step in the process to migrate from a ‘Platform Centric Navy’ to a ‘Network Enabled Navy’. During various exercises, Network Centric Warfare (NCW) has been one of the crucial aspects being validated. During the various coordinated exercises conducted by the Army with the Air Force, the endeavor has been to validate and integrate the use of all available assets, including satellites, UAVs and HUMINT (Human intelligence) to assist commanders at all levels in taking dynamic and pr...
Read more

Where Is Article 370 Now!!!!, That Rohingyas And Bangladeshis Are Being Settled In Jammu And Ladakh ???

Image
Jammu is up in arms against the authorities. This time, it is not against discriminatory policies being pursued by the successive Kashmir-dominated and Valley-centric governments in Jammu & Kashmir since 1947, but against the settlement of Rohingyas from Myanmar in Jammu and Ladakh, both strategically vital for national security. According to the late Jammu and Kashmir chief minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, the number of Rohingya Muslims living in different parts of Jammu city and around it, was 5,107 in 2010 (AINS, 10 October 2015). And, as per Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s June 2016 Assembly statement, there were 13,400 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis living in camps in Jammu. She said “Bathindi Ka Plot is home to the highest number of Rohingya Muslims” (The Hindustan Times, 5 December 2016). The break-up of Rohingyas settled in the state is as follows: Jammu – 5,086, Jammu’s Samba district – 634 and Ladakh – 7,664. The total number is 13, 334. The Jammu Chamber of C...
Read more

The Heat is on!! for INDIA as China Unveils its 5th Gen Stealth J20 Fighter Jet ; Pakistan expresses interest to buy

Image
China on Tuesday unveiled its J-20 stealth fighter jet at its biggest air show which will have major implications for India as it is the first indigenously-made fifth-generation Chinese aircraft which Pakistan has shown interest in acquiring. Two J-20 aircraft which made waves in the Chinese media in the last few years flew at the Zhuhai city air show where the Pakistan Air Force is also taking part flying with its J-17 Thunder jets which are jointly manufactured with China. This is the first, public show of the J-20 warplane. Pakistan, the largest importer of Chinese arms has said earlier that it is in talks with China to buy the FC-31 - an export variant of the same aircraft. The FC-31 was briefly flown in the 2014 Zhuhai airshow. The stealth aircraft is regarded as major breakthrough for China which is otherwise mostly reliant on Russian aircraft including advanced versions of Sukhois. India is yet to make stealth aircraft which can penetrate through enemy radars. The J...
Read more