NSG deployment rising, but special force lacks sniper range for training

Vijay Mohan

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 23

About 35 years after it was raised as a specialist anti-terrorist force, the National Security Guard (NSG) remains without a dedicated range for training snipers, a critical component of any special force.

The revelation of inadequate training infrastructure comes in the backdrop of increasing deployment of NSG teams for operations, with the average requisition last year being four times a month.

According to the data provided by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the annual deployment of NSG teams for immediate backup support was 34 in 2016, 33 in 2017 and 47 in 2018. Detachments of the force are also deployed in Kashmir for undertaking anti-terrorist operations alongside the Army and state police.

“Adequate training infrastructure is available with NSG for special training except a dedicated sniper range. Ad hoc arrangements are in place to undertake sniper firing,” the MHA has stated in a report tabled by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Home Affairs this month.

“A sniper range is proposed in and around Manesar to meet its training requirements,” the report adds.

Given NSG’s mandate of counter-terrorist operations in urban areas, hostage rescue and neutralisation of high-value targets, snipers are a very important element of its strike component.

Snipers are considered force-multiplies and are given a great deal of importance and prominence by special forces the world over. Besides precision shooting, a large part of the sniper’s work involves recce and surveillance and providing feedback to commanders from concealed vantage positions. This requires a very high degree of training and requisite training infrastructure.

Immediate backup support 

• According to the data provided by the MHA, the annual deployment of NSG teams for immediate backup support was 34 in 2016, 33 in 2017 and 47 in 2018
• Snipers are considered force-multiplies and are given a great deal of importance by special forces the world over
• A sniper range is proposed in and around Manesar to meet its training requirements, the MHA report adds

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