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India Defence Online, New Delhi — India’s rising concern related to the Naxalite uprising in various states has reached a point where in the Indian Army and Indian Air Force (IAF) will become a crucial part of the counter measures to tackle the insurgency.
The Indian Defence Ministry has requested that India should not renew the “letter of assist” (LoA) that it has given for the UN missions in Congo and Sudan. In other words, the various helicopters of the IAF in these UN missions must be de-inducted and brought back to India for internal security.
As for the Indian Army, it has also been informed by the defence ministry that officers of the rank of Colonel can be deputed to various Naxalite/Maoist stricken regions in Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh for operational advice in battlefield tactics.
These colonels will be the experienced commanding officers of battalions in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast region. Explaining the motive behind this, the Indian Army indicated that few Indian Police Service officers have an exposure to battlefield tactics. Besides, police officers are also not as used to leading troops from the front in grinding routine.
Currently, India has deployed seventeen Mi-17 multi-utility helicopters and eight Mi-35 and Mi-25 attack helicopter gun-ships for the UN mission in the Republic of Congo and Sudan. Once the LoA between UN and India is not renewed, India can bring back its choppers home and the whole process of reverting the choppers back to India from Africa will take between one and three months. The External Affairs Ministry has been notified by the Defence Ministry to pursue this issue.
Indian defence news and strategic intelligence
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