Indian Army’s Armoured Corps is celebrating its 85th Armour Day, today, May 1. Chief of army staff General Manoj Pande and all ranks of the Indian army wished the Armoured regiment on its raising day. Armoured Corps is said to be one of the best regiments of the Indian army and every year on May 1 the regiment celebrates its raising day.

On this day in 1938, the Scindi horse became the first regiment to shed their horses to be equipped with modern weaponry like tanks. It is one of the combat regiments of the Indian Army. This regiment has participated in many battles that India has fought and had a major role to play to ensure India’s victory against Pakistan in the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war.

About Indian Army’s Armoured Corps

The regiment first originated in 1776. The present corps was formed in the year 1947 i.e. after independence from two-thirds of the assets and personnel of the British Indian Army’s India’s Armoured Corps. It currently consists of 67 armoured regiments. Officers and soldiers who serve as the president’s bodyguard are also chosen from this prestigious regiment of the Indian Army.

Ahmednagar, Maharashtra is home to the Armoured Corps school. Six armoured companies arrived in the year 1921, and the Royal Tank Corps was founded at Ahmednagar in the following year to train the Royal Tank Corps' members. The institution served as the precursor to the fighting vehicle school, which started teaching driving and maintenance skills. The current school and facility were created in 1948 by combining the fighting vehicle school, the machine gun school, the training regiments, the recruit training centre, the Armoured Corps Depot, and the Armoured Corps Records.

Three Sabre squadrons and a headquarters squadron make up an armoured regiment. An officer of the Major Rank is in charge of each squadron. The officer is a Squadron Commander by appointment. A typical armoured unit has 40 to 50 tanks. There are 14–15 tanks and one armoured recovery vehicle in each Sabre squadron. The commandant's tank is one of the three that form part of the headquarters squadron's equipment. There are 4 troops in each squadron, each with 3 tanks. The regiment's motto, Shaurya Tejo Yuddhe, is "Heroism and Boldness in Battle," and it is taken from the Bhagavad Gita.

The regiment uses T90 Bhisma tanks and has been upgraded by DRDO, T-72 M1 variants with upgrades namely Ajeya MK1/MK2 and the combat-improved Ajeya. The MBT Arjun Mk1A is the latest addition to the regiment which has improved the firepower of the Indian Army. It is an indigenously developed tank by the DRDO and is a dependable war machine built with modern technologies, it has state-of-the-art weapon platforms with superior firepower, excellent mobility, increased protection and crew comfort with 14 major upgrades with Arjun MBT MK1 already in service with the Indian Army.