Army of India: between Russia and China
New Delhi is Moscow’s exclusive partner, but the cooperation of both countries overshadows Russia's bet on Beijing
India, along with the DPRK and Israel, is in the second three countries of the world in terms of military potential (the top three, of course, are the United States, China and Russia). The personnel of the armed forces of India has a high level of combat, moral and psychological training, although it is recruited. In India, as in Pakistan, due to the huge population and the difficult ethno-confessional situation, recruiting the conscript is not possible.
The country is the most important importer of armaments from Russia, and maintains close military-technical cooperation with France and the UK, and more recently with the United States. At the same time, India has a huge own military-industrial complex, which, theoretically, is capable of producing weapons and equipment of all classes, including nuclear weapon and means of delivery. However, weapons developed in India itself (Arjun tank, Tejas fighter, Dhruv helicopter, etc.), as a rule, have very low technical and tactical characteristics (TTH), and their development has been going on for decades. The quality of assembly of equipment under foreign licenses is often very low, because of this the Indian Air Force has the highest accident rate in the world. Nevertheless, India has every reason to claim the title of one of the world-class superpowers already in the twenty-first century.
The ground forces of India have in their composition the Training Command (headquarters in the city of Shimla) and six territorial commands - Central, Northern, Western, South-Western, Southern, Eastern. At the same time, the 50 Brigade of the Airborne Forces, the 2 regiment of the AIFI airborne regiment, the 1 regiment of the Prithvi-1 OTR, the 4 regiment of the Bramos cruise missiles are under the direct submission of the ground forces headquarters.
The central command includes one army corps (AK) - 1. It consists of infantry, mountain, armored, artillery divisions, artillery, air defense, engineering brigade. Currently, 1-th AK is temporarily transferred to the South-West Command, therefore, the Central Command, in fact, does not have in its composition of combat forces.
Northern command includes three army corps - 14, 15, 16. In their composition - 5 infantry and 2 mountain divisions, artillery brigade.
Western command also includes three AK - 2 th, 9 th, 11 th. They include 1 armored, 1 SBR, 6 infantry divisions, 4 armored, 1 mechanized, 1 engineering, 1 air defense brigade.
The South-Western Command includes an artillery division, the 1-th AK, temporarily transferred from the Central Command (described above), and the 10-th AK, which has an infantry and 2 SBR division, an armored, air defense, engineering brigade.
The Southern Command includes an artillery division and two AKs - the 12 and 21. They include 1 armored, 1 SBR, 3 infantry divisions, armored, mechanized, artillery, air defense, engineering brigade.
Eastern command includes an infantry division and three AK (3-th, 4-th, 33-th) with three mountain divisions in each.
The ground forces own most of the nuclear potential of India. The two shelves have an 8 launcher for the Agni MRSD. In total, there are 80-100 Agni-1 missiles (1500 km range), and 20-25 Agni-2 (2-4 thousands of km) missiles. In the only regiment OTR "Prithvi-1" (range 150 km) there are 12 launchers (PU) of this missile. All of these ballistic missiles developed in India itself can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads. Each of the 4 regiments of the Brahmos cruise missiles (a joint development of Russia and India) has 4-6 batteries, each with 3-4 PU. The total number of PU KRNB "Bramos" is 72. "Brahmos" is perhaps the most universal rocket in the world, it is also in service with the Air Force (its carrier is the Su-30 fighter-bomber) and the Indian Navy (many submarines and surface ships).
MiG-27 Indian Air Force. Photo: Adnan Abidi / Reuters
India has a very powerful and modern tank the park. It includes 124 Arjun tanks of its own design (124 more will be manufactured), 907 of the newest Russian T-90s (another 750 will be manufactured under a Russian license in India) and 2414 Soviet T-72Ms that have undergone modernization in India. In addition, 715 old Soviet T-55s and up to 1100 no less old Vijayant tanks of our own production (the English Vickers Mk1) are in storage.
Unlike tanks, other armored vehicles of the ground forces of India are, in the main, very outdated. There are 255 Soviet BRDM-2, 100 English Ferret armored vehicles, aprons. ", 700 English BTR FV1. Of all the listed vehicles, only the BMP-1100 can be considered new, and quite arbitrarily. In addition, the 2 of the very old Soviet BTR-500 and 700 BTR-62 are in storage.
Also, most of the Indian artillery is outdated. There are 100 ACS "Catapult" of its own design (130-mm M-46 howitzer on the chassis of the Vijayant tank; another 80 of such SAU is in storage), 80 English Abbot (105 mm), 110 Soviet 2-1 (XNNXX) Towed guns - more than 122 thousands in the troops, more than 4,3 thousands in storage. Mortars - about 3 thousands. But there are no modern samples among them. MLRS - 7 Soviet BM-150 (mm 21), own Pinak 122 (mm 80), Russian Smerch 214 (mm 62). Of all the Indian artillery systems, only the MLRS Pinaka and Smerch can be considered modern.
In service is the 250 Russian Kornet ATGM, the 13 self-propelled Namika ATGM (Nag) own-developed ATGM on the BMP-2 chassis. In addition, there are several thousands of French ATGM Milan, Soviet and Russian Malyutka, Konkurs, Fagot, Sturm.
Military air defense systems include 45 batteries (180 PU) of the Soviet Kvadrat air defense missile system, the Soviet Osna 80 air defense missile system, the Strela-400 1, the Strehna-250 10, the British Spider 18, the English Tigerket 25. Well armed there 620 Soviet MANPADS "Strela-2» and 2000 "Needle-1», 92 Russian ZRPK "Tunguska», 100 Soviet ZSU-23-4 «Shilka», 2720 anti-aircraft guns (800 Soviet ZU-23, 1920 Swedish L40 / 70). Of the entire air defense technology, only the Spider air defense system and the Tunguska air defense system are modern, the Osa and Strela-10 air defense systems and the Igla-1 air defense missile system can be considered relatively new.
Armed with the army aviation there are about 300 helicopters, almost all of them locally produced.
The Indian Air Force includes 7 Command - Western, Central, Southwestern, Eastern, Southern Training, MTO.
As part of the Air Force has 3 squadron OTR "Prithvi-2" (18 PU in each) with a range of 250 km, can carry conventional and nuclear charges.
Attack aircraft include the 107 of the Soviet MiG-27 and 157 bombers of the English Jaguar attack aircraft (114 IS, 11 IM, 32 training and combat IT). All of these aircraft, built under license in India itself, are obsolete.
The basis of the fighter aircraft are the newest Russian Su-30MKI, built under license in India itself. There are at least 194 machines of this type in service, all 272 should be built. As mentioned above, they can carry a Brahmos cruise missile. 74 Russian MiG-29 (including 9 training and combat UB; still 1 in storage), 9 own Tejas and 48 French Mirage-2000 (38 H, 10 training and combat TN) are also quite modern. . It remains in service with the 230 MiG-21 fighter (146 bis, 47 MF, 37 training and combat U and UM), also built in India under a Soviet license. Instead of MiG-21, it is planned to acquire 126 French fighters “Rafale”, in addition, 144 fighter 5 generation FGFA based on Russian T-50 will be built in India.
Tank T-90 Indian Sun. Photo: Adnan Abidi / Reuters
The Air Force has 5 DRLO planes (3 Russian A-50, 2 Swedish ERJ-145), 3 American electronic reconnaissance aircraft Gulf Stream-4, 6 Russian tankers Il-78, around 300 transport aircraft (including 17 Russian IL-76, 5 newest American C-17 (will be from 5 to 13) and 5 C-130J), around 250 training aircraft.
The Air Force has 30 combat helicopters (24 Russian Mi-35, 4 own Rudra and 2 LCH), 360 multi-purpose and transport helicopters.
Ground defense includes 25 squadrons (at least 100 PU) of the Soviet C-125 air defense missile system, at least 24 Osa air defense missile system, 8 squadron of its own Akash air defense missile system (64 PU).
The Indian Navy includes three Command - Western (Bombay), Southern (Cochin), Eastern (Visakhapatnam).
There is an Arikhant 1 SSBN of own construction with 12 K-15 SLBMs (range - 700 km), it is planned to build another 3. However, due to the short range of the missiles, they cannot be considered full-fledged SSBNs. In leasing is the PLA "Chakra" (Russian PLA "Nerpa" pr. 971).
9 Russian submarines of the 877 Ave. (another such boat was burned down and sank in its own base at the end of last year) and 4 German Ave. 209 / 1500 are in service. 3 of the newest French submarines of the Scorpins type are being built, 6 will be built in total.
As part of the Indian Navy are 2 aircraft carrier - "Viraat" (former English "Hermes") and "Vikramaditya" (former Soviet "Admiral Gorshkov"). Two own aircraft carriers of type "Vikrant" are under construction.
There are 9 destroyers: 5 type "Rajput" (Soviet pr. 61), 3 own type "Delhi" and 1 type "Calcutta" (2-3 type destroyer "Calcutta" will also be built).
The 6 of the newest Talvar frigates of the Russian type (11356 pr.) And 3 of even more modern Shivalik-type own structures are in the ranks. Remain in service on the 3 frigate types "Brahmaputra" and "Godavari", built in India on the British projects.
As part of the Navy has the latest Corvette "Kamort" (will be from 4 to 12), 4 corvette of the type "Bark", 4 of the type "Hukri", 4 of the type "Abhay" (Soviet Ave. 1241П).
In service are 12 rocket boats of the type "Fan" (Soviet Ave 1241P).
All destroyers, frigates and corvettes (except for “Abhay”) are armed with modern Russian and Russian-Indian SLCMs and anti-ship missiles “Brahmos”, “Caliber”, X-35.
In the ranks of the Navy and the Coast Guard are up to 150 patrol ships and patrol boats. Among them are 6 ships of the Sakanya type, which can carry the Prithvi-3 BR (range 350 km). These are the only surface combat ships in the world with ballistic missiles.
The Indian Navy has extremely minor mine-sweeping forces. They include the entire 7 Soviet minesweeper Ave 266M.
Amphibious forces include the DVKD "Dzhalashva" (American type "Austin"), 5 of the old Polish TDK Ave 773 (another 3 in the sludge), 5 own TDK type "MAGAR". At the same time, India does not have a marines, there is only a group of marine special forces.
The naval aviation has 63 decked fighter - 45 MiG-29K (including 8 combat-training MiG-29KUB), 18 "Harrier" (14 FRS, 4 T). MiG-29K designed for aircraft carrier "Vikramaditya" and under construction type "Vikrant", "Harriers" - for the "Viraat."
Anti-submarine aircraft - 5 old Soviet IL-38 and 7 Tu-142 (still 1 in storage), 3 latest American P-8I (will be 12).
There are 52 German patrol aircraft Do-228, 37 transport aircraft, 12 training aircraft HJT-16.
Also in naval aviation there are 12 Russian helicopters DRLO Ka-31, 41 anti-submarine helicopter (18 Soviet Ka-28 and 5 Ka-25, 18 English "Sea King" McNNXXB), near 42 multi-purpose and transport helicopters.
Aircraft carrier "Vikramaditya." Photo: AFP / East News
On the whole, the Indian Armed Forces possess a huge combat potential and significantly exceed the potential of their traditional adversary Pakistan. However, now China is becoming the main opponent of India, whose allies are the same Pakistan, and also Myanmar and Bangladesh bordering India from the east. This makes the geopolitical position of India very difficult, and its military potential, paradoxically, insufficient.
Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation is exclusive. It’s not even the case that India has been the largest buyer of Russian weapons for several years. Moscow and Delhi are already engaged in the joint development of weapons, and unique ones, such as the Bramos missile or the FGFA fighter. There is no analogue in the world practice of leasing a PLA (a similar experience was only in the USSR with the same India at the end of 80's). The T-90 tanks, Su-30 fighters, and the X-35 RCCs in the Indian Armed Forces are now being operated more than in all other countries of the world combined, including Russia itself.
At the same time, alas, not everything is rosy in our relations. Surprisingly, many officials in Moscow have so far failed to notice that India is almost a superpower, and not the former Third World country, which will buy everything we offer it. With the growth of opportunities and ambitions, Indian inquiries are growing rapidly. Hence the numerous scandals in the field of military-technical cooperation, in most of which Russia is to blame for itself. The epic with the sale of the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, which deserves a large separate description, stands out in particular against this background.
However, it must be admitted that such scandals in Delhi arise not only with Moscow. In particular, during the fulfillment of both the largest Indo-French contracts (for the Submarines Scorpen and for the Rafale fighters), the same thing happens with Vikramaditya - a multiple increase in the price of products and a significant delay in the manufacture of the French. In the case of Rafali, this may even lead to a contract break.
Not cloudless in the field of geopolitics, which is much worse. India is our perfect ally. There are no contradictions, there are great traditions of cooperation, and, most importantly, our main opponents are common - the group of Islamic Sunni countries and China. Alas, Russia began to impose on India the crazy idea of the “triangle Moscow - Delhi - Beijing”, generated by one of our “eminent political figure”. Then this idea very “successfully” supported the West, having thrown in the idea of BRIC (now BRICS), for which Moscow enthusiastically jumped at it and began to earnestly implement it. Meanwhile, Delhi absolutely does not need an alliance with Beijing, its main geopolitical opponent and economic rival. She needs an alliance AGAINST Beijing. It is in this format that she would be happy to be friends with Moscow. Now India is persistently dragging the United States, which is well aware, against whom Delhi is going to be friends.
The only thing that keeps India from complete disagreement with "China-loving" Russia is the above-mentioned exclusive military-technical cooperation. Perhaps, to some extent, it will save us from ourselves.
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