Amid border volatility, firepower of ITBP units cut by one-third

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 23

Amid continued volatility along the China-Indian border, the authorisation of heavy weapons in Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Force battalions has been cut by over 30 per cent.

Every ITBP service battalion includes a support company that operates 81 mm mortars and medium machineguns (MMGs) to provide heavy fire support to forward elements in face of heavy odd during outbreak of hostilities.

The authorisation of mortars has been reduced from 12 to eight while the number of authorised MMGs has come down from 18 to 12, according to orders issued by the ITBP Directorate General last week.

The decrease in the number of heavy weapons is part of the overall force restructure and rationalisation of equipment and personnel deployment that also involves reducing the manpower in service battalions. At present, an ITBP battalion comprises nearly 1,000 personnel.

The orders, while listing out the new manpower structure of a support company and the number of authorised officers, subordinate officers and jawans in mortar and MMGs platoons and detachments, state that the force headquarters is sending the proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs with cadre review for readjustment of the surplus strength in support company resulting from reduction of weapon holdings.

The ITBP, with force strength of 56 battalions, is responsible for the peace time management of the Himalayan border with China covering 3,488 km in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. The border remains volatile with frequent Chinese transgressions and force build up on either side.

There has been a significant increase in the number of Chinese transgressions into the Indian territory as well as face-offs between troops of both sides. Doklam in the Sikkim sector and Demchok in the Ladakh sector are notable recent examples.

According to some reports, there were 415 transgressions by the Chinese soldiers in 2017 as compared to 271 in 2016, while the number of confrontations went up to 216 in 2017 from 146 in 2016. Demchok, Chumar, Pangong Tso, Spanggur, Kaurik and Barahoti in the western theatre and Namkha Chu, Sumdorong Chu, Asaphila and Dibang Valley in the north-east are among prominent hotspots.

MoD invites tenders for 5.5 lakh new rifles

• The Ministry of Defence has invited Indian defence equipment makers to send in their bids to make 5.5 lakh assault rifles for the Army
• These rifles are expected to replace existing INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) rifle, Army’s standard 5.56-calibre assault weapon designed about three decades ago
• The new rifle being sought has to be of 7.62 calibre, meaning it will fire bigger ammunition and, thus, increase the ‘possibility of killing’. The request for information, the first step in the tendering process, was issued on Friday — TNS in New Delhi