Indian Army Showcases Operations Of Its Armoured Regiments

The Indian Army’s Armoured Corps is one of the combat units of the world’s fourth most powerful military. It originated in 1776 and the present regiments were formed in 1947 when India gained its independence from British rule. It currently consists of 67 armoured regiments including the President’s bodyguard. In 1921 six armoured car companies arrived in 1924 and the Royal Armoured School was established to train the personnel.

Officers and soldiers of an armoured regiment demonstrated their operational preparedness during a training recently.The armoured school and centre is located in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. The Indian Army shared a 43-second long video of the training on its social media handles on Friday, February 24, morning.

Composition Of The Regiment

It is commanded by a Colonel rank officer who is the commanding officer of the armoured unit. It has around 45-50 tanks in all. Each squadron consists of 14-16 tanks and an armoured recovery vehicle, three tanks are assigned to headquarter squadron and each squadron is commanded by a Major rank officer.

Equipment Of Armoured Corps

Some of the major equipment of the Armoured Corps are Arjun Main Battle Tank. Its Mk1 variant is in use and orders have been placed for the Mk1A variant of the tanks.  The Indian Army also has the BMP-2 under its armoured regiment and the BMPs were restructured and fitted with the latest technology and equipment like night fighting capabilities, anti drone measures and high powered  engines.

The upgrade also includes a specialized ammunition that can be fired in the air to explode mid-air to take down drones, loitering munitions that can be fired in the air to explode mid-air to take down drones and loitering munitions of a particular size. The T-90 tank is the main battle tank of the Indian Army. It has a steel composite reactive blend APFSDS, 550+250-280mm with Kontakt-5= 800-830mm. Its main armament 2A46M 125mm smoothbore gun with 43 rounds.

The other tank of the Indian Army’s  Armoured Regiment is the T-72 main battle tank. It is the Soviet era tank still in service with the Indian Army and is known as Ajeya Mk1 in the Indian Army and was taken off the shelf by the Indian military from the erstwhile Soviet Union. India produces these tanks  at the heavy vehicles factory at home and the majority of its fleet was imported during 1982-86.

The BMP-2 is the backbone of India’s mechanised infantry and has a crucial role to play for the army. It is manufactured by the state owned Ordinance Factory Board under license from Russia.

As it did not have modern technological upgrades, so the army was keen on its upgrade and India therefore indigenously upgraded its BMPs with state of the art modern equipments which are now in service with the army with latest technological changes to fight modern battles.

The Indian Army also showed how its Armoured Regiments can perform operations even under toughest of circumstances and conditions. These equipment of the Indian Army had a major role to play during its faceoff with China in Ladakh in 2020 and the Indian Army showed its strength to the Chinese and forced them back behind the Line of Actual Control. The armoured corps with the aviation and infantry battalions showed the capabilities to conduct joint operations under toughest of conditions and circumstances.